Re: [Leica] My copyright!

[Stephen Gandy <Stephen@CameraQuest.com>]

another alternative is to send the paper a bill for the one time use of
your copyrighted photograph.

Stephen

Andrew Moore wrote:

> > So, a local newspaper has reproduced one of my photos, without
> > permission.  It could be that the parents passed the print I sold to
> > them for a minimal fee to the editor.  I'm going to have a little fun
> > and explore this.
>
> Keeping track of your photos and enforcing the usage rights is
> very difficult in this situation (i.e., when you provide a photo to
> a party that passes it on to the media as a "courtesy" photo).
> I shot a photo for a local band last year knowing that it would
> be submitted to a local paper that was doing an article on the
> band, and I specifically requested that a photo credit appear
> with it.  Of course it ran without credit.
>
> Recently, the same paper wanted to run one of my photos that
> I shot for a local theatre group, and this time I knew better:
> I spoke with the arts/entertainment editor on the phone and
> politely told her that the photo could not be used without
> credit.  Keep in mine that this was another free job.  It ran
> again with no credit.
>
> To make a long story short, it took many phone calls and
> I had to work my way up the the executive editor to actually
> get any sort of response from someone who wasn't implying
> that the error was mine.  Absolutely unbelievable!  And I
> never even got so much as an apology from the person who
> made the mistake.  To their credit they did run the photo
> the following week with proper credit.
>
> I won't be submitting any more of my work to that paper
> until they (proactively) come to me and assure me that the
> mistake won't happen a third time (it's a measure of how
> badly they do or do not want my work).  It's unfortunate
> not only for me and the paper, but for the local artists and
> theatre group that still want (and can use) publicity from
> time to time.
>
> If I ignored the problem it would give the wrong message
> about photographers and the value of their work.
>
> I've been continuing to freelance for their competition
> ever since.  They may not pay much (who does?) but they
> don't seem to disrespect their photogs.
>
> At the very least you might want to mark the backs of
> your photos with a "do not reproduce without permission"
> and a copyright clause, and a contact number.
>
> --Andrew
> NO ARCHIVE