Another News Organization Lifted My Image
Another news organization lifted my image, but this time it was quite a bit closer to home.
Back in May I blogged about the Wall Street Journal illegally using my copyrighted image on their website (LINK). Well, last night I was tipped off by a friend and found the exact same image being used for a news story on the local ABC affiliate's website.
I fired (pun intended) off an email to the webmaster about the smoking gun (pun again intended) I found on their website incriminating them in the illegal use of my image. Within the hour I was contacted by the Executive Producer of Online Media for the station. He apologized for the usage and removed the image. In discussing the situation with him, he told me that this image had made their way into their purchased image collection and he assumed it came from Getty.
This is becoming extremely frustrating. I have neither the time nor resources to go after these companies that illegally use my images. In both cases, the photos were low-res samples taken from Flickr. While I enjoy the exposure and community Flickr provides, I have to wonder if it is worthwhile. My other alternative is to blatantly watermark my images there, but I hate the look of it in addition to the effort that this would require to retro-fit my 3000+ image collection on the site.
Links:
The Wall Street Journal Lifted My Image
Smoking Gun on Flickr
Smoking Gun on iStockphoto
5 Comments:
definitely caught with a smoking gun
Although a clear copyright infringement, why not use these ripped off photos and hope the photographer doesn't have time to find you doing it? How often do they get caught I wonder. If it's only a small percentage of the time, than an "oops, I thought... I'm sorry" and a quick graphic change seems like a good way to go. That is of course if you don't have a problem not giving credit where credit is do, paying the fees, and infringing on other's copyrights.
Sadly, you'd think a media outlet, that lives and dies of producing copyrighted material, would have a greater respect for copyrights and credits.
Along these lines:
How Every Flickr Photo Ended Up on Sale This Weekend
"While I enjoy the exposure and community Flickr provides, I have to wonder if it is worthwhile"
The answer... Yes
I saw this and thought of you.
http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2008/07/07/how-every-flickr-photo-ended-up-on-sale-this-weekend/
"What most remain unaware of is that Flickr fosters copyright infringement through their API."
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