Internet has helped. Many folks. Including photographers. To display the work they have done. It really feels good when a wide audience appreciates your hard work, skill and patience. It helped thieves too. To steal people's work. And use it for commercial gain. I heard of a few, but ignored them as stray incidents; but as the days are passing by, I see such violations are rampant and something needs to be done. First, celebrated wildlife photographer Vijay Cavale's photographs were stolen by a resort he happened to be a guest. Birds Lagoon, has not only slupred Vijay's entire website to make their own gallery, but also they removed the copyright statement and replaced with their logo. After a lot of efforts he could convience them to remove the images from their website. The next victim (among them I know) is Suyog, whose work was stolen by a cheating ad agency who calls themselves as Workaholiks. And they happily used his images in billboards, newspaper ads, and billed the clients. Efforts are going on from Suyog's side to resolve the issue, but I guess they aren't someone with whom polite negotiation will be effective.
When we are at it: Using someone's work without permission is of 2 types. Fair use (example would be to forward an image of Anna Kurnikova to a buddy who wouldn't have seen it otherwise) and copyright violation. Copyright infringement is of two types, innocent and deliberate. You see a photograph, unclaimed, you use it for commercial gain. Innocent! When the actual owner claims the work, you have to pay a 'fair' licensing fee (settled by court). But deliberate violation attracts damages too. And the owner can get an injunction immediately to stop the usage.
Now the legal B.S. is out of the way, I guess there are two ways to deal with such an issue. First, drag them to court. They can simply claim innocent infringement, send you a cheque of 5000/_ and dilute the entire issue. So you take the second step, publicize the incident too. A threat to damage their goodwill and credebility sometimes are more effective than a lawsuit running in stealth mode. A precedent should act as a good deterrant.
Finally, I am hoping to open a "Hall of Shame" website (with help of the other photographer communities I participate in), where such incidents go down the permanent records of these offenders.
When we are at it: Using someone's work without permission is of 2 types. Fair use (example would be to forward an image of Anna Kurnikova to a buddy who wouldn't have seen it otherwise) and copyright violation. Copyright infringement is of two types, innocent and deliberate. You see a photograph, unclaimed, you use it for commercial gain. Innocent! When the actual owner claims the work, you have to pay a 'fair' licensing fee (settled by court). But deliberate violation attracts damages too. And the owner can get an injunction immediately to stop the usage.
Now the legal B.S. is out of the way, I guess there are two ways to deal with such an issue. First, drag them to court. They can simply claim innocent infringement, send you a cheque of 5000/_ and dilute the entire issue. So you take the second step, publicize the incident too. A threat to damage their goodwill and credebility sometimes are more effective than a lawsuit running in stealth mode. A precedent should act as a good deterrant.
Finally, I am hoping to open a "Hall of Shame" website (with help of the other photographer communities I participate in), where such incidents go down the permanent records of these offenders.
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14 comments:
Hey Kousik!
I feel the second step would have a lot more impact, than the ever ending litigation.
Apropos your Hall of Shame idea,
http://www.recessmonkey.com/index.php/2005/08/15/plagiarism_awards_gather_steam
FYI, as posted on Suyog's blog
----- Original Message -----
From: tej
To: Suyog Gaidhani
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: Regd the payment for the Temple Bells photograph
hi
tej here your amount can be collected from our office on any working day you need to collect it as we require you to sign a voucher for the same as we have not recieved an invoice.
regds
tej
Hello everyone
I’m Tej here from Workaholiks, as the mail above says his cheque(dated the 3rd of December,2005) has been ready for a week now. He has sent us a reply to the mail saying he will not be able to pick it up and that we should make arrangement to have it delivered to him. Firstly when a client says a cheque is ready for us we still make arrangements to pick it up. If he was too busy to collect it he should have waited for us to make arrangements.
Secondly, the day he called us I offered to meet him wherever it was convenient for him. He said it was most convenient to drop into our office as he works close by. After this initial interaction he spoke with other people in my office several times before he came by, after 7:30 when everyone had left office. The second time he came to our office I met him and discussed the issue. I asked him if he could do some photography for us because I thought his work was good and told him the same. He even sent us some more images but it didn’t really fit what we were doing. Last week he sent a mail saying he wanted a date to pick up the cheque and I replied to it saying I would send it by courier. The cheque is ready and has still not been collected.
Thirdly however ironic this may sound I agree with all of you about protecting intellectual rights. The project Suyog is referring to was named Temple Chimes by us in an attempt to clearly position it. The new project right next door being done by another agency is called Temple Bells the ads came out about a week ago. The problem lies with everyone wanting " cheap and Best", every agency would love to be able to do a shoot with a professional photographer but tell the client this when we start and they will go to someone who is willing to do the job without the added cost.
As for Vasu's post ((client helping supplier.. ever heard of that ?). )!!!About us being unprofessional, I don’t understand how the professionalism of the agency can be based on a work done as a favour for one of the core members. The job he is referring to was not paid for and initially was only supposed to be a design, on which I spent my Saturdays and Sundays, spent money on travel, prints etc. It ended up being a favour taken too far when posters invites envelopes etc. also got added on and NOT just the design but also the production of all of them during a weekend.
I was asked if I could design a brochure and I did keep my end of the bargain. The person I was initially interacting with conveniently forgot to mention to anyone that this was not a job taken up by the agency I had no obligation to see any of the production through.
This is what I do for a living and I really don’t mind doing something for free for friends but I definitely do not appreciate a judgment about my agency being passed on it.
There are always 2 sides to a story and before people start making allegations and judgments it’s fair to listen to both sides.
Thank you,
Tej
you are right kousik.
and they are also involved in a business which is supposed to be creative. they cant do such things. I already wrote a mail to them about the same. I encourage others also to do the same so that they understand that its already publicised and they are also prone to such violations
There are thieves who can steal anything.
Kousik,
I agree with Vivek, litigation never gets you anywhere. It takes time and money, and you probably have to pay more to lawyers than you may get finally as compensation for your stolen work.
Stealing photographs is as unethical as is palgiarism. Unfortunately the Internet makes it all too easy to just copy and paste someone else's work.
I would be interested to learn whether your Hall of Shame will have any effect.
I wish you luck with it but doubt that it will have much impact on this sort of lowlifes...
@ Tej: Now I have listened to both sides, let me make my final observations. You missed the *whole* point of the exercise. The logistics of sending Suyog money is not the issue. The issue is, you have stolen someone else's work, used for commercial gain (and hoping to get away with it).
I wonder if it is acceptable to you if I steal some of your possessions, sell off, and if later caught red-handed, ask you to send me an invoice. It must be fun to run an ad agency in this manner.
Screw the money. We don't want it. Stop violating our rights. Thank you.
Way to go Kousik. Someone has to do something about Intellectual Property Rights. I have seen Vijay Cavales photography. They are spectacular. It's a shame that people just download it for their selfish gains.
Photo piracy, stealing is bad, but not sure how this can be curbed. In this particular case the (c) owner found the violation and the culprits. But internet being a medium w/o any borders; I am not sure how this can be tackled in a full proof way.
Sounds like a good product idea, to search 'your' photos/arts/images on net and look for vilolations, using some deadly combination of steganograpy and all.... Google here i come...
(deleted earlier comment, for some typos)
@ Manish: Well, if there is a technology to watermark your photos, there'd be technology to get rid of that too. When your photos are used breaching the license (like my published photos are CC licensed, so a few forms of usage is Ok), just drag them to court, and let them trace back the original source (when you submit your own and some court appointed expert determines that the photo under dispute is derived from that).
Whether you trust the judicial system to get it resolved in reasonable cost/time is a different issue. Even watermarking can't avoid a court case to do a final settlement.
Force, a magazine published from India also stole some images that were copyrighted, owner has sent them legal notices and Force bullshitted about this and that and finally it will reach the court if they don't agree to compensate and stop using stolen images. This is a dispute I'm following with interest as I want Force to be punished for blatantly stealing and them claiming the image was theirs to begin with. One more thief trying to get away. Out of court settlement is a cop-out. Send a notice, then slap a case and follow it to the end. Expensive but will make all these thieves think twice if publicized well.
You're partially right - fair use grants you the permission to use a copyrighted image but under certain conditions. For instance, if it is a piece of art, you could use a smaller resolution version of the image, or share such images provided you had the right to distribute. However, unauthorized distribution of such images would constitute a copyright infringement, commercial or not. This is a very fine line, because it entails us to define a "buddy" - however, some publishers, like Corbis, have images that you can only use for a particular purpose or for archival; even sharing those would constitute a copyright infringement under the terms.
Secondly, use of good watermarks over the entire image, rather than a part of the image (e.g. the corner), can usually prevent such occurences in the future.
Thirdly, if this isn't your livelihood, you could be a good samaritan and put it up under a Creative Commons license. :-)
And btw, nice blog. Cheers.
@ metlin: I don't think even good watermarks can stop a determined guy, as there would be technology to remove the watermark too!
And of course, all my published images are CC licensed, though the non-commercial clause in included. But there are cases where I removed the non-commercial clause when someone wanted to print my photos in a magazine/book that they want to sell.
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