The Press

steavyd

steavyd

Suspended / Banned
Messages
282
Name
Steve
Edit My Images
No
Looking on a local paper site yesterday I saw they had used one of my pictures,I spoke to the writer involved last night and he told me, the Editor simply Googles images until he finds one that fits the story and simply nicks it if there is no copyright on it.
The pic was shrunk for web use at about 40KB, and I said to the writer, well at least it's not printable, yes it was he replied, we used it!
He then said they couldn't credit it because they didn't know who took it, says quite clearly on the site they nicked it from, 2008 Photography by me.
This has happened to me before so I'm not getting over excited about it but it just shows they will do whatever they want for a pic.
One upside to this, if they use anything of mine in the future (which is very likely) they will pay and credit..........But I spose he would say that to my face!!!!:suspect:
 
EdinburghGary said:
Seriosly, do not let it drop. You are taking this bending over and being royally shafted. Does your site not have a copyright notice on it?
Click to expand...

Was nicked from a site I provide pictures to, all the pics in my galleries have a copyright accross the bottom.
 
Absolutely.

A client of mine bought some pics from me of a horse, they were then distributed all around the west coast used in publications etc.

The original print had a copyright sticker on the back, with a stamp underneath it too incase it was taken off with a note saying what license the image had applied to it.

To cut a long story short, I got to find out which publications had used them, sent in a letter with an invoice, followed later by a phone call to discuss with the picture desk.

Result: 4 payments totalling £350.00 and a credit in the publications the following week.

NEVER EVER give up your work.
 
andrewc said:
Send in a bill anyway. The Editor should know that all photos have someones copyright...
Click to expand...

yup, send em a bill. if they dont pay up then use the small claims court.
Either that or go to their offices and nick a lap top or two as their office is obviously oblivious to theft.
 
I have some friends in the urban exploration scene and there have been a few incidents of publications using images without prior permission and they chased them up successfully. At the end of the day the publisher is in the wrong by illegally using your picture so they don't have a leg to stand on really :)
 
Chase them up.

We have freelancers who supply us feature images and we can use them as many times as we want within our magazines but if they find their way into a brochure for example, the freelancers is hot on chasing people up and getting dosh out of them.
 
Bill them. They are deliberately avoiding paying the going rate for picture use, or employing a photographer to take the picture. As already mentioned, it is theft that currently people think they can get away with. Don't let them.
 
agree with the above, it will hopefully teach him a lesson and stop him doing it again.
 
Thanks for your replies.
Just recieved a call from the paper to say they will be paying me, specially seeing as they have used another 8 or so today.
The Editor must be a member on here....:):)
 
These days image use is treated as a numbers game. Steal the photos. Pay up if caught. It costs far less to pay the odd clued up tog than it does to pay for every image. Sad but true :(
 
Good to see they are doing the right thing. Just realised you're from my part of the world, was it the C&E/ET? Mayb I should keep a better eye out on their site...
 
Peterborough ET, I cover Peterborough Speedway, they send thier own guy to home meetings but he missed what they wanted last night.
 
I was going to say you need to look into this a bit further. There are some websites in which you put photographs on (for example facebook and myspace) and the small print basically says you give up all rights to any images you put on there and they can use them for any publication/publicity they want, therefore, if a paper uses them they get royalty money and not you. It's all a bit of a grey area if you ask me, but it might have been worth looking at if you hadn't received payment as to whether the site you have them on has the same clause!
 
bill them
 
They should be paying you a minimum of £20 a picture as well, so don’t accept any of this we’ll give you £20 for the lot AND your name in the paper rubbish, like they are doing you a favour.

Unfortunately nowadays there are too many people who seem happy to have their images stolen, or are prepared to let publications use them for free.
 
Use the NUJ rates. They are agreed between publishers and the Union, they will bauk but they dont have a leg to stand on. As mentioned above, it's a numbers game thee days, they ony ever pay for what they get caught stealing. They will actually respect you more for it too, show them you know what you are doing and that you are not a soft touch.:nono::rules::naughty:
 
I had this happen a few times. Woke up one morning to find one of my aviation photographs used in the weekly paper. It was to coincide with a story to do with runway expansion. It was watermarked in the lower left corner as per all the images featured on my Blog!. The Photoshop editor was clearly in training as the watermark was simply blocked out with a big black box. Really amateur. After speaking to them we agreed on a fee and went from there. Now, when they are looking for something of that genre and sometimes something else I get a call. What I am trying to say is be tactful and diplomatic as it could lead to good things.
 
I sent a number of low-res images to local papers to accompany a grasstrack report submitted together with information about how to obtain the hi-res images. Picked up this weeks paper and they have used one of the low res submissions.

Will still be billing them for it though!

Have learnt this week that the BBC local sports sections of the mass BBC website has no budget for images!
 
Glad to hear they're paying. I've just this minute finished a letter and invoice to The Sun for pulling the same trick on me. All the time people don't push for fees, they'll keep doing it, and freelance photographers will suffer.

So, if this happens again, get an invoice in! They broke the law, so they have to pay, no two ways about it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top