National press

May 11th, 2010
Ok guys what the &$@@@ a work friend of mine has just bought a copy of THE Sun a UK national paper .... & guess what they have a print of my picture "just a crazy smile" is in the paper today ..


... Now that is great but no one has asked me what should I do ?

May 11th, 2010
Steve What do you want to do? Copyrite? It's something I thought you had to get permission about? Seems that once you/we, or anyone puts photos or anything, on the Internet it's open slather.

You had better give some thought to "What do I want to do about this "? Can I
get legal advice? It's your call and no one can tell you what to do. You have to find out "What can I do about this to put a stop to it"?
Good Luck Steve.
May 11th, 2010
im sure as its your photo you can at least question it but the whole thing of interwizz public domain comes in to question, i dont know enough about it but the fact its a national newspaper so get on it and question it. as above good luck.
May 11th, 2010
What i have done this morning is email the newspaper and asked them how they got the image ... I will let you know what they say if i get a reply ..
May 11th, 2010
Hi Steve, this happened to me a couple of years ago when a pic of mine was used on a TV show to illustrate a new design for a camera. Ripped straight from my website without a by-your-leave, I contacted them straight away, they responded with "we tried to contact the owner for permission to use" yeah, right. We negotiated and I received a small but welcome cheque from them. Keep pressing them for a royalty payment, good luck.
here are a couple of web pages that will interest you pertaining to copyright law:
http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law
http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/copyright_myths
May 11th, 2010
Ross (the owner/creator of the site) might be able to help with this...i.e permissions/copyright once pics are uploaded to the wbsite.

http://365project.org/Scrivna/profile

A member of the public may have even e-mailed the picture to The Sun to publish. Who know's how they got hold of it. I would be well chuffed if they did publish a picture of mine, but its not the point. Copyright and missing out on royalties too.


May 11th, 2010
http://365project.org/discuss/articles/699/365-picture-becoming-a-meme

Just spotted this...some one else has seen it elsewhere
May 11th, 2010
Looks like you do have leg to stand on! Taken from Peters link above. Good luck

7.Restricted acts
It is an offence to perform any of the following acts without the consent of the owner:

Copy the work.

Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the public.

Perform, broadcast or show the work in public.

Adapt the work.

The author of a work, or a director of a film may also have certain moral rights:

The right to be identified as the author.

Right to object to derogatory treatment.
May 11th, 2010
Steve that's great (I mean, not about the not asking you first, lazy journalism for a start! But then we are talking about The Sun!!) Be sure to get your recognition, but well done and very well deserved!
May 11th, 2010
Well, I'm not a techhie, but sites like SmugMug have a way that te image can't be copied. Kind f like a write protect on it. Don't know how they do it, but perhaps Ross knows if there is a way to emulate this type of feature.
May 11th, 2010
DEMAND $$$. this infuriates me. Forget email, don't let them have time to think...get on the phone !
May 11th, 2010
Steve, on Flickr you have the choice of protecting your photos by designating them with different "Creative Commons" licenses. http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
There are different degrees of licensing, though none seem to be as strict as a regular copyright. I find the categories a little confusing too, but it may be a place to start since you have so many of your photos there already.
May 11th, 2010
I've been wondering about this myself... I hate to put a watermark on my pictures because I feel like that will really detract from the picture, but I am worried about people stealing some of my pictures. It would be fantastic if 365 was set up so that people can't right-click and copy the picture - like others have said, that's been done on other sites. I'd be happy to become an ACE member if that was one of the options!
May 11th, 2010
Just found an article detailing some of the technical ways of preventing people copying pictures... not something we can all do probably, but interesting to know what's out there: http://www.wildlifephoto.net/articles/webdesign/imageprotection.html
May 11th, 2010
Heya Steve..
Kinda cool that it made it in print, but would've been nice to have been asked! I guess that they didnt know who you were though, and if off another website other than your own then nearly impossible to find out.

Its a little late now after the event, but you can insist on payment. You should get around £200-£300 for the image (it would be less if they'd asked beforehand but that's tough on them). I work for the national press, and tbh, its just not worth trying to get into an argument, as it will go on for ages and it can get silly... Its totally up to you, but I'd just try and get money, then enjoy a nice slap up meal or something?
also, check its not online (archives too) If you want it off, they have to remove it, but you could use it as ammo to get more money.

TBH, as a photographer, I always think very carefully before putting images online. Copyright, even though technically still mine, I think its lost in reality, its too easy to copy etc and you'd never know. I only put images on that I dont really mind what happens to them.
May 11th, 2010
Justchris, I went onto smugmug and dragged the first picture straight onto my desktop... its not secure :-(
May 11th, 2010
Wow. I guess congratulations are in order that your picture was so fantastic, they took it. Then, I think that's just scary. I - like everyone else on here - put a lot of work into their project and stealing in hopes no one will realize (and knowing you have the better and larger legal team) is just so so wrong. I'm really upset for you - and also you, Peter!!! *hugs* I hope there is something we can do. Maybe I need to read that watermarking thread - even though I don't like watermarking...
May 11th, 2010
Nothing ever prevents anyone from copying pictures when preventing the right click and "save as" option, anyone can hit the the "Prnt Scrn" key, (Print Screen) top right of the keyboard and paste this in Paint/Photoshop, and it will capture the image of what ever is on the screen. Edit and save. Voila..you have a copy of it.
May 11th, 2010
While it's kinda cool that your photo is being recognised as a great photo, it's also rubbish that it's being used without your permission. One thing no one has mentioned though, is can you prove it's yours? We all believe you on here, but once you start talking money, you might find people want more proof. I don't know how you'd go about doing this, but it might be something to consider.
May 11th, 2010
Just take the dog into the Sun newsdesk with a pot of pepper or a feather to tickle his nose!
May 12th, 2010
Steve, I also remembered that here in Germany we have shows on TV about computer and all sorts of tech-related stuff. If you have such a thing in the UK, they might be interested in picking this story up!
May 12th, 2010
Hi Rachael; yes I can I still have the file on my memory card which is inside my camera still ... that should do the trick i think it also proves its not been altered
May 12th, 2010
Hi Steve,

Have you heard from them yet? How big did they use it? For a quarter page you should be able to get about £200 for usage.

I used to be a picture editor and you can't just take photos off the net and print them, it's very bad they did it with yours. I would draft an email together saying you didn't authorise usage and that you would like someone to get in touch asap to agree a usage fee otherwise you will consulting a lawyer.
May 12th, 2010
We would all love to get into print but this sucks, as Chris would say! I like Frieda's idea...:-) Congrats on such a great image though.
May 12th, 2010
It is cool, but you retain the copyright to the image and they should have contacted you for permission to use the photo, it just NOT free for the taking if it's on the internet. A lot of people think because someone posts a photo on the internet, it's for public use, It is NOT. Someone owns the photo, and that's the original creator and no one has the rights to take it.

Sorry this happened, hope they make it right for you!!
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