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What to do when someone "steals" your photos...
- Thread starter NowInc
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BoarderPhreak
Well-Known Member
A a photographer...
BoarderPhreak
Well-Known Member
BBBRRRAAAPPPPP!!! Wrong answer.
ddbowdoin
Well-Known Member
I'm not a fan of legal fees
BoarderPhreak
Well-Known Member
Then register your photography (file a copyright)... After which you can sue and include legal fees. Without doing that, yes - while you still hold copyright... You'll be responsible for legal fees.
Often, sending a C&D (or an invoice) will be enough. Other times, you have... "Stubborn folk."
Either way, YOU are right.
BoarderPhreak
Well-Known Member
I prefer not to make lawyers any more money than necessary... I'll send my own initial sternly-worded C&D first. So far, I've had a very good success rate with this. In fact, I've gotten ISPs in Vietnam (I live in NY) to take down violations this way! It helps to suggest (and follow through) with reporting them to their ISPs and upstream providers.
Typically, the problem is a single person that just doesn't know any better. But more and more, news organizations are the infringers. They'll take a photo, put it up - and worry about it later. When confronted, they'll offer a paltry "standard fee for photos" as if that'll make up for it. Of course, things get thorny if it's in print rather than online. It can quickly escalate from there...
The important thing is to STAND UP for your rights... Or this will simply continue, with the infringers thinking it's okay and they'll get away with it.
Typically, the problem is a single person that just doesn't know any better. But more and more, news organizations are the infringers. They'll take a photo, put it up - and worry about it later. When confronted, they'll offer a paltry "standard fee for photos" as if that'll make up for it. Of course, things get thorny if it's in print rather than online. It can quickly escalate from there...
The important thing is to STAND UP for your rights... Or this will simply continue, with the infringers thinking it's okay and they'll get away with it.
ddbowdoin
Well-Known Member
I work for a very small business and we're in the process of working with a developer now to rework our website. He says word for word... "yeah, just google search and pull any image you want and we'll use it on the site"
ummm dude?
BoarderPhreak
Well-Known Member
Wow. Yeah, that's a good way to get a bunch of people in legal trouble. Part of the problem is everybody's a "photographer" now that everyone has a camera, cell phone, tablet or laptop with a camera in it. Flickr, Google, etc. - all are fertile picking grounds for taking shortcuts in grabbing whatever suits your fancy. And really, nobody's addressing this problem. How would you even start? And then there's countries like China that just don't care.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
You might want to explain the amount of legal liabilty he's opening himself up for if he does that....
CP_alum08
Well-Known Member
Depends on a few things. If the photos are "stolen" from somewhere like Flickr and you don't have any copywrite settings on then shame on you. If you do, then shame on them.
Also depends on who's doing the stealing and for what. If its just someone's blog I don't care. This happened almost daily when I was posting regularly to Flickr. It bothered me a little at first but I began not to care. Now if I saw one of my photos in a magazine or tv commercial without my permission there would be some explaining to do.
Also depends on who's doing the stealing and for what. If its just someone's blog I don't care. This happened almost daily when I was posting regularly to Flickr. It bothered me a little at first but I began not to care. Now if I saw one of my photos in a magazine or tv commercial without my permission there would be some explaining to do.
ddbowdoin
Well-Known Member
yeah... I found myself actually a tad speechless in the moment.
CP_alum08
Well-Known Member
I have an interesting issue to ask about and I figured I'd post it here because it has to do with copy write.
I somehow found myself on the Magic Kingdom wikipedia page today and the first picture that shows up is mine...and I did not put it there. I'm sure all of you are the same, in that when you see a photo of yours you instantly recognize it as being your own regardless of where the photo is. I have the photo on Flickr without a watermark but it DOES have the copy write on. Here is the odd part - the photo on wiki is credited to someone else (which i expected) but all the EXIF data has been changed! I'm not really mad or anything about it being on wiki without my permission but it does seem odd that the EXIF data was changed, no?! The coloring of the photo is slightly different but I'm pretty sure I uploaded it to flickr and then re-edited it and re-uploaded it again later.
here is the wiki link, the photo in question is the very first one on the right side under the old magic kingdom logo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Kingdom
and here is the photo on flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjbalogh/5594197470/in/set-72157626149007719
there is a man walking under the castle wearing a green shirt and the time on the clock is about 8:05. Thoughts?
I somehow found myself on the Magic Kingdom wikipedia page today and the first picture that shows up is mine...and I did not put it there. I'm sure all of you are the same, in that when you see a photo of yours you instantly recognize it as being your own regardless of where the photo is. I have the photo on Flickr without a watermark but it DOES have the copy write on. Here is the odd part - the photo on wiki is credited to someone else (which i expected) but all the EXIF data has been changed! I'm not really mad or anything about it being on wiki without my permission but it does seem odd that the EXIF data was changed, no?! The coloring of the photo is slightly different but I'm pretty sure I uploaded it to flickr and then re-edited it and re-uploaded it again later.
here is the wiki link, the photo in question is the very first one on the right side under the old magic kingdom logo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Kingdom
and here is the photo on flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjbalogh/5594197470/in/set-72157626149007719
there is a man walking under the castle wearing a green shirt and the time on the clock is about 8:05. Thoughts?
CP_alum08
Well-Known Member
Do i know the bdesham person? No.
sporadic
Well-Known Member
That's very odd indeed. What I find even stranger is the one linked in the Wikipedia article has noticeable more detail. To the point that I'm not even sure your photo could be photoshopped into the one on wikipedia.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...erella_Castle.jpg/819px-Cinderella_Castle.jpg vs http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5302/5594197470_dfe3b63b72_b.jpg
Also, when searching google images for the one from the Wikipedia article, the exact same photo is being used on hundreds of sites - https://www.google.com/search?q=cinderella castle&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSYRpfCxCo1NgEGgIIAQwLELCMpwgaOAo2CAESEJoDnQOiA58DpAOgA3BudncaIIPny4I1qvtmi9PldYZUcFH3cImJeleXaMc7e51U1GSfDAsQjq7-CBoKCggIARIEysN8Vgw&sa=X&ei=wRmeUcjlHo288wShnoGwAQ&ved=0CCkQ2A4oAQ&biw=1462&bih=917#imgrc=_
sporadic
Well-Known Member
Looking at the photos even closer, they are in fact two different photos. You can tell by the relative size of objects in the photo. The one in the Wikipedia article was taken from further away, causing the different layers of the castle to compress (all the castle features look bigger / closer in size). Probably someone behind you at nearly the exact same time with a longer lens. Considering the odds of you grabbing the exact same frame at the same time with a different focal length and finding it on the internet, I'd start playing the lottery
EDIT: I was incorrect here. The blurriness was causing me to see size inconsistencies which weren't there.
I'm seeing some blanket statements that are probably misleading people to either do nothing or sue, depending on which poster you are inclined to believe/follow...
The best approach is probably a little of both.... First what is the person that stole you photos doing with them? If they aren't making money off of them or using them for some nefarious activity you are probably best off simply contacting them and asking them to stop... If you decide to take legal action it really doesn't matter if they end up being held liable for your lawyer fees or not, because the reality is the lawyer YOU hire will come after you for their payment and the world is full of people that have been sued lost and owe money that they will never actually pay... So don't mistake the fact that someone else is technically liable for what will actually happen in reality.
Now, if you are lucky and your photos that were stolen are being used to make someone lots of money then by all means sue them and try to get the money they made off your work... But realize that even in that case it will take months if not years to do and you may not end up with that much after legal fees because again see the above, just because the other party is supposed to pay doesn't mean they ever will.
The best approach is probably a little of both.... First what is the person that stole you photos doing with them? If they aren't making money off of them or using them for some nefarious activity you are probably best off simply contacting them and asking them to stop... If you decide to take legal action it really doesn't matter if they end up being held liable for your lawyer fees or not, because the reality is the lawyer YOU hire will come after you for their payment and the world is full of people that have been sued lost and owe money that they will never actually pay... So don't mistake the fact that someone else is technically liable for what will actually happen in reality.
Now, if you are lucky and your photos that were stolen are being used to make someone lots of money then by all means sue them and try to get the money they made off your work... But realize that even in that case it will take months if not years to do and you may not end up with that much after legal fees because again see the above, just because the other party is supposed to pay doesn't mean they ever will.