Although ordinary people have only a patchy understanding of black holes, when the first photograph of a black hole was released, it began to go viral on social media platform WeChat. Many of these postings by institutions served the purpose of self-promotion.

The Visual China Group, a Beijing-based photo and media agency, issued a statement to the effect that it has the image copyright from the European Southern Observatory, the intergovernmental agency whose scientists obtained the groundbreaking black hole image recently. But the latter said on its official website that as long as users clearly credit the source, the image is available free.

Images, different from text, are often reproduced and people seldom think of their copyright. In most cases, no one pays any attention to the photographer or maker of images they find online.

Some visual agencies deliberately post innovative images online without any proprietary marks. However, they keep close track of the use of these images. Once they have evidence that these images have been used by others, they ask for damages.

In this sense, the copyright dispute over the black hole image is probably not a bad thing. It alerts more people to phishing scams and at the same time, also reminds them of the importance of respecting copyrights.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in Qianjiang Evening News on April 12)