To the extent that all advertising involves at least some hyperbole if not outright deception, iStock has exceeded the bounds of its policing authority.  According to the article, either the user him- or herself writes the phony comments, or a staff member of FakeYourSpace writes them in accordance with the user’s request.  It goes on, “Kelly Thompson, iStockPhoto’s vice president for marketing, said its licensing agreement did not allow Web sites to post photos that might lead the average person to “think that the model endorses” the product, Web site or person in question.”  Doesn’t that disqualify a great percentage of the uses to which clients put stock photography every day?  Consider the highly attractive telephone sales rep ”waiting for your call,” the handsome, pensive businessman sitting at his desk, confident in the advice he has received from whatever bank, or the healthy, happy, elderly couple enjoying a round of golf knowing they won’t be interrupted by a “going problem.”  The stock photo models in these ads don’t endorse the companies in question any more than do the models endorse the MySpace clients hoping to make a better impression.  To this writer (who has no MySpace profile, by the way) at least, the line iStock has drawn by this demand has more of a value judgment in it than it should.  One might naively argue that a MySpace profile isn’t an advertisement, but is meant to be accurate and therefore warrants different treatment.  People who believe that should send me their email addresses.  I’ll forward all kinds of investment opportunities from the widows of deposed finance ministers of third world countries.  Unless MySpace actually polices and guarantees the verisimilitude of all the information found on the site, the accuracy argument gives MySpace profiles more credit and credibility than they deserve.  Nonetheless, we regret to report the New York Times article offers no example of the MySpace fiction-writing, which would, no doubt, make for highly entertaining reading.

FakeYourSpace now seeks other sources of imagery for their “service.”

Click here to read the complete article on The New York Times web-site.

Click here to see original friend picture from iStockphoto.