Please help me! At japfest this year I took a shot of the Miltek GTR owned by Richard Marshall and I was particularly proud of it. I run a blog called JDY Motorsport UK and edited and posted the picture on there the day after. My logo was at the top left of the shot like most of my other work but on saturday a friend of mine showed a link to me where a company had used the shot and cropped out my logo. ....is this illegal? I was contacted by the owner of the car and he asked if he could use a high res shot for his own use (to frame) he never said anything about giving the shot to said company who incedently has the name written on the car. Obviously I'm a little annoyed about this and dont really know where to turn. I have send an email with the following message; I took the bottom shot and to be honest Im a little annoyed that my URL and Website logo has been cropped out of the picture. I would have liked to have been credited and asked If the shot could have been used. Can I ask that the picture be credited to me by using the full original picture or removing it completely from the site. Thank you, J. Young I have now removed the shot from my blog and reposted with a watermark which is also a little annoying as it ruins the shot in my opinion but I guess thats what it has to come down to. link to the site: http://www.litchfieldblog.co.uk/?p=999 link to my site: JDY Motorsport UK please can someone knowledgable in photography give me some advise, it would be greatly appreciated -J
Hmm, if they took the image directly from your blog and cropped out the watermark, I'm fairly sure that that's a case of copyright infringement. If the pic was given to them by the owner of the car who you provided with the image, it might be different, although I'm not sure. It might be worth posting this up on a photography forum or the like, they'd be more in the know on this.
He never told me he was giving it to the company to use so i didnt give permission, the legitamate way to do it would be to ask me for the right to use it and an unmarked copy. I find it insulting that they have just clearly cropped out my logo. Might sound pathetic to some people but my blog is my life and this has wound me up beyond a joke.
Yep total copyrite infringement. As the artist you own the copyrite to the image. You did not give your permission for the image to be used commercially and somebody is using it. Get in touch with the company in question and explain that they are illegally using one of your images, agree a usage fee or get them to stop using it.
The shot on the Litchfield blog appears to have your URL on the bottom-left if that's a new development or not? Either way mate, as has been said it's copyright theft. You own all rights to the useage of that image, and as above it's to your terms how/where that image is used. If you're happy that the image is used provided you get a credit, then fair enough. Although some might push for a useage fee, when all said and done as nice a shot as it is, they'll probably just pull the plug on it and remove it, meaning you're not getting the exposure for it. If it was me, I'd ask for a CLEAR credit, not some pokey little URL that's barely legible. It's worth bearing in mind that just because you give them permission to use the image on their website, that doesn't give them ownership of the copyright; you're effectively loaning them the image. If at any point you don't want the image displayed on their site, you're well within your rights to ask them to remove it. If they don't, they're still breaching copyright. We had something similar at work recently when a newspaper stole one of our techies images. He was lucky in that the image had been printed and distributed, and he's now chasing them for £1k! Best of luck with whatever you decide bud, maybe even try and coax some commissioned work out of them as a professional apology.
Good image James. 1) Screen grab so you can prove what's happened. 2) Copyright infringement is clear but grey area is that you released the image to the driver. Litchfield might say they thought they had permission from him; I'd say the intent to infringe copyright is upheld by the fact the watermark's been removed. 3) If it's good enough for them to want to use, it has a value. 4) Credit (url or whatever) doesn't buy new camera equipment or cover fuel costs. You need cash for that. Correspond direct with Litchfield. Keep it courteous and professional - they *may* not know the full background. Ask them to take it down or pay a small fee to continue using it. If it would benefit you to do so, offer to waive the fee if they give you a guided tour and let you blog about it, and make sure they blog about your blog (incl an apology) so you get lots of traffic. Make it win/win.
As everyone has said already, it's your photo and they should pay you a fee (here it's double the standard rate for pictures, roughly £250 for freelance work, more if it's used for marketing purposes). Had this happen to me once where a company cropped the hell out of the picture and used it for marketing. I gave up in the end since a lot of people related to the company (well known one) started half-threatening me about making a case against them.
Just to throw a spanner in the works, does their usage of your image not fall within editorial use? It appears to be a blog type post?
my email; To The Blog Publisher, My name is James Young, owner and photographer of JDY Motorsport Uk. It appears that you have illegally used one of my images in the Litchfield 'Japfest 2011' blog. Japfest 2011 Although you have your relations to the vehicle in the shot, you are however not permitted to use my image without permission from myself and to point out that you have cropped the image to remove my web URL and logo and have given no credit to me what so ever is unjust. This is clear copyright infringement. Legally I can ask for compensation of some kind or can ask for a usage fee from yourself. I do not wish this to become a legal affair and obviously I would like my shots to be used where ever possible therefore, if you would like to keep using the image I will require a published credit and apology. Yours, James Young
Jord, from what i've seen on most blogs, if not all, including mine. the images are never cropped to hide a logo/url/photographers watermark and where possible the blog gives props to the guy that shot the image or blog that it came from. any of this has not happened.
It doesn't make any difference mate. If you take an image, and then I post it somewhere else, unless you've given me specific permission to do it then it's copyright infringement. Granted you're unlikely to take me to the small claims court for it, but it's still effectively the same idea. That includes whether the image has a watermark or not.
thanks for all the help guys, an email was sent and they have now removed the picture. I'm not very happy that they've decided to not reply to my email with an apology but obviously im not good enough for that... :-/
Don't worry about it; it reflects badly on them, not you. People kick up such a fuss these days about piracy, and the effect it has on a multi-billion pound industry. But nobody gives a shit when it's some poor photographer trying to get a business off the ground. Glad you got a result anyway
