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Copyright question
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An elderly pensioner friend of mine recently purchased his first DSLR. He’s a keen photographer and has been taking photographs for many years. However, he came to me this morning with a question. And it leaves me wondering what the answer is. Having taken a series of shots locally, he was particulary pleased with the result. He took them to a local professional printer/framer to get them printed and was advised that the printer could ‘stitch’ them together to get a lovely panoramic shot. Not being in the slightest bit technical, my friend was chuffed and went ahead with the purchase. He paid for the stitching, printing and framing and was mightly pleased with the outcome.
That was until earlier this week, he passed a shop locally, the premises also owned by the printer/photographer and saw his stitched photo in the shop for sale. I asked if he was sure it was his shot and he said 100%. Whilst he’s not keen to cause any bother, he would like to know where he stands on the whole copy right issue, particularly as he paid for the print, stitching etc. I asked if he has the origianl jpg/raw files and he said he does.
I think he’d just like to approach the printer and point out that the photo is in fact his ‘intellectual’ property, but is afraid to do so until he knows if he can stand over this. Anyone have any ideas? He didn’t copyright, watermark the photo as he planned it to be for his own family use.
Any help here would be great.
Thanks
Mardai24
p.s. loving the forum. Great site. :DIMO if he has got RAW file /files from his camera he will win every case in any court, but first he should go to this printer /photographer and ask him how much he will get for every sold photo
chris
Thanks very much indeed for the response. I’ll give him a call now. That approach is a good one, i.e. how much for every print sold! Appreciate the speedy response.
no problem, but i am not a lawyer,
Your friend situation is very similar to one situation in different european country which i read in net :-)absolutely no idea how much :-) , iam a hobby photographer :-) , so i do now what the prices are for photos (heh heh stolen photos )
Let your friend begins to bargain from ten thousand per one photo :-) ;-) ;-)
chris
and pro printer worth his salt would not do this ever to his customer
i have had customers come to me recently where this kind of thing has happened to them before
i wouldnt stand for it at all. and long term its a really bad business decision
. as long term the customer ain gonna go back if he felt he was badly done tovery interesting this. let us no what the outcome is. i wouldn’t like someone making money off my photos and not getting any off it.
i would even take a photo of the item for sale in his shop so you have proof he was selling it.
it annoys me that a few bad eggs like this mess it up for all decent printers, as customers will start not to trust any when they have had a bad experience with one
Your friend should go to the pinter, advise them that it’s his photo. The printer should then be given an invoice for the use of the image, and also a cease and desist letter, telling him never to use the image again.
Inform the printer that he is clearly in breach of copyright, and that if the matter is not settled to the satisfaction of the photographer, the matter will be taken further.
Your friend definitely owns the copyright, and the printer has no right to use the image without full consent.
as others have said I’d invoice the printer for the image and tell him to forward payment of any sales to me also, if the printer tries to say he owns copyright as he stitched the image he speaking nonsense, if that was the case there would be plenty of rich dark room and retouching assistants knocking about.
Thanks folks. I spoke to my friend last night. As mentioned, he’s elderly and a pensioner, really just wants a quiet life, but this got up his nose. I read him the comments and, aside from the good advise, he was quite chuffed with the positivity for him. He really had been in the grey area of ‘what do I do, is this acceptable?’ He’s going to talk to the printer who generally is a good bloke and see if there’s been a ‘mistake’ and have a discussion about it. All going well, he’s happy for the photo to be sold and make some €’s. But if goes into a negative position, then he said he’ll be happy to get tough. I’ll keep ye posted. It might take him a couple of days to work up to it. Good idea too, taking the photo of his photo on sale. We both liked that one. Cheers and thanks all, again. Much appreciated.
personally I wouldn’t get into c&d letters, as you could end up in a scrap, it is possible in some situation to generate a “new” copyright by using an image as part of an overall new artwork, provided it is different enough to the original, I’m not suggesting he’s in the right, but legal battles get pricey very quickly and a c&d can quickly be rebutted with a declaratory judgment for non-infringment and license…. and it’s a grey enough area to be a drawn out battle as the court will want to explore the difference ip wise of a single image and a stitched pano and whether it becomes a new work,
I’d keep it face to face rather than getting lawyers invloved….
Interesting post…
the photographer would be well advised to set up copyright info ‘incamera’ if possible at the very least, to help avoid confusion regarding ownership.thanx Gerry,
I’m just a beginner but I occassionly get good shots of interesting marine subjects. I’m retired from a research position so I very well understand IP.
But until I saw your post it didn’t dawn on me to use the comment feature in my camera.
That’s good and simple advice.
thanx,
Thank you all for your responses. I’ll certainly check out his camera to see if it has the in camera copyright option mentioned above. I’ll also mention to him about copyrighting his photos. He probably just never thought of it as it was a personal shot for family use.
Once I catch up with him again I’ll ask of the outcome and post a note.
Mary
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