clips on the internet

hmmm, as seen in my previous post there are clips available online from the recent competition held in melbourne. alot of competitors are getting upset about having their image (in whatever form) online and available for the wider swing community to access.
sure i feel sympathy for them - it's always wierd when you realise exactly how exposed you are. i'd like to say "yes, if they dont want them online - they should be allowed to request the removal." ..BUT there is another part of me that is just far too excited about moving into another phase in lindyhop multimedia use. it's like we are contributing in a whole other way than just observing what our international counterparts are dishing up. we're establishing an identity of our own. this can only mean great things for australia's visiting potential and perhaps even having our reputation preceeding us as we go globe hopping.
i think it will also put things into perspective alittle more for both sides of the coin. my mind keeps getting drawn back to a particular move that was recreated from the UHLS clips in the competition. it was a rather tricky move and got an amazing audience response in the original context but it's recreation actually had no value because the context was not appreciated at all. a move that is executed at slower tempos in a routine or class has more impact if it can be done at much higher speeds and socially. but if it is just performed for the sake of being performed then it has no impact at all. and just _looks like_ they are purely mimicking clips that can be found on the internet. would it not be nicer if australia were more aware of themselves in terms of holding their own weight. sure rip everyone else off - and make it your own - but when on display to the rest of the world, arent we more likely to want to improvise, extend and challenge ourselves to the limits.
i just went and watched all the footage available online (i still havent gotten around to looking at my own stuff yet) and well yeah, it's nothing to be ashamed of at all. it's pretty nice stuff. aussie's can hold their own! fucken yeah!

sure if i were on there (to a greater extent) i'm sure i'd be much less excited but i'd like to think that i'd be able to get over it ..eventually.

incidentally this whole thing reminded me of another situation where my image had been used without my permission:
-at mlx last year someone came up to me and said "hi my name is X. you must be Y, i know you from the AJC dvd." my reaction was pretty shocked as i hadnt really considered that something like that would either exist or have me on it.
it was somewhat shocking but it's not really doing anyone any harm. and if you think about it- if we all started getting upset about our image being used then there would be no images to use. ...coming from an ametuer film-making perspective at the very least.

*edited to remove t-shirt reference.