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other people selling my photos illegally (edited)
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i was recently contacted by a very kind person whom i had never met to inform me that photographs taken by me , and others , are being sold on a site that they had come across (her suspicions were aroused and she did google image checks). the photographer in question is claiming copyright of all photos ( with a big copyright logo ….in the middle of my/our photos no less!! :evil: :evil: ) and the photos are being sold at a range of prices depending on size but anywhere from e25 to e220 euros. now obviously this is outright theft…but im wondering exactly what i/we can do . i feel a cease and desist letter is not appropriate since these photos were stolen (he even cropped to get rid of watermark on occasion) as a means to make money and not simply to put on a blog etc… this is a .com site trying to target abroad . does anyone know the legalities involved here ?..i presume the law is on our side but to what degree is the thing that worries me . copyright law is weak at the best of times. he may never have sold a print of my photo or he may have sold 15 but surely i should be entitled to compensation without going through a long drawn out episode. any help would be much appreciated.
ps: the site has a few photos i THINK i recognise (as does the facebook page , which is using 2 of mine)and its quite possible i saw them on flickr or maybe even the critique section here on P.I. im wary of saying too much incase the individual is a member here or elsewhere and shuts down the site and face book page. one other photographer has been in touch with me and said he will get in contact with his lawyer. but in the mean time i was wondering has anyone got any advice ? once i have something concrete i will gladly give the name of the site and facebook page.
this is something that involves us all as photographers , professional or the hobbyist , and should be dealt with aggressively.
thanks in advanceonce i have something concrete i will gladly give the name of the site and facebook page.
like i say myself and another photographer are looking into it
Perhaps you could PM Mark here if you suspect that they are a member on this site & maybe he could investigate further. This is a problem for anybody posting full resolution shots on the internet, even if there is a watermark used & is one of the reasons that I don’t like the new Flickr as it encourages people to post high resolution shots.
On a similiar vein, the film & music industry have had a bit of a victory this week, with the courts granting orders to block “Pirate bay” access and downloads, so maybe the courts are finally getting their act together on copyright theft, which is long overdue.
i received this response today to my email requesting my photo be taken down !! i have highlighted the bit showing the offender obviously has a sense of humour…the photos were so bad he stole them to sell them…………
Dear Mr. Healy,
Thank you for your email, which has been passed on to me. It would be helpful in identifying the images if you could supply more details. “Summer Sunset” does not identify the image.
It may well be that an image may have inadvertently been posted in my absence. It appears that a student who was employed on the Internship programme during my absence abroad while on a commissioned shoot, has caused a few embarrassing issues. I have personally removed 3 images, which clearly were not taken by me. I have this morning, removed virtually all the images which were posted on our Business Facebook account.
Our established international credibility and professionalism is of far more importance to me, than having a few poorly shot images on our website. I intend to spend the rest of this week searching through our files to see if any more images have been stored.
Please clearly identify the images you have questioned, and I will personally remove them. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, and I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.Yours sincerely,
this is my reply to him …… :lol: :lol: :lol:
dear terry , ( can i call you terry?)
“summer sunset” should be sufficient as a means of identifying the photograph as that is the title you gave it , sorry the “student” gave it , just above the drop down menu showing prices ranging from e25 to e220 for its sale ……oh and right next to the photo by another photographer charging the same. you just cant get the staff these days !
its good to know that international credibility is of such importance to you …..because i was having problems understanding why anyone would steal and sell images on your site , particularly when like you say , they were of such a poor standard ( although i do know one of the photos had been printed in a number of magazines…but hey , what do they know !! ) . your website is much improved without them and im relieved your professionalism and name remain intact……as you truly seem to have a love of photography.
anyway , thank you so much for the swift response , i shall forward this email , which explains the whole misunderstanding , along with the screen shots to the solicitor i contacted as they have requested.yours sincerely
dallan healy
This is like watching an episode of Ellery Queen from years ago!!!!!!
Who is it & what site?
thx for share’n that with us i’m sure we can all rest happy knowing that …. i will check out that site to c if they have done it to my photos .
jodal1975 wrote:
once i have something concrete i will gladly give the name of the site and facebook page.
like i say myself and another photographer are looking into it
I think thats unacceptable. You should name the site, if not here then by PM’ing the people that ask for the details of the site so that they can check to see if their images are also stolen. By not naming the site or by not PM’ing those that ask that makes you as bad as them in my book as you are knowingly letting other peoples pictures and copyright to be stolen.
Regards
MartinI agree that people should be named and shamed. Feel free to pm me if you’re not comfortable posting.
thanks
Now that it appears that you have verified that the site has actually stolen your photos – are you willing to let the rest of us know the site so that we can check to see if our photos have also been stolen ?
only seeing this now as i do not come onto the site that regularly anymore. fair play to you Dallan for coming across this person and dealing with the matter in a sensible manner.
Lucky to have found the person, would love to know how many times any of the purloined images sold!
Good to see you posted the name of the site, its the right thing to do.
Sorry I could not make much sense of your reply post above, you have edited your original post so many times it hard to know what you originally said… for example you said “the clue is in the title “private message “” I don’t see any mention of this in your original post, have you edited it out of your post? You also said “how do you know i have not given the name of the site to those who have pm’d me “ I didnt say you hadn’t, if you read my post it says “if not here then by PM’ing the people that ask for the details of the site so that they can check” This means if someone asks for you to name the site than you should at least PM it to them…
Anyhow I wont go on, its good that you named the site, people should just come out and name these sites when they come across them so that they can be shut down quickly
Regards
Martin
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