"Can I give you $20?"

I'm out at the soccer fields shooting a couple of matches this afternoon and this guy comes up to me, says, "Are you the guy that shoots all the game photos for the soccer club?"

"Yep, that would be me."

"Well, I stole some photos off your website. I'm too lazy to order prints by e-mail. So can I give you twenty bucks?"

"Hmmm. How many did you steal?"

"Uh, two I think."

"OK then."

"Thanks. My conscience feels better."

"All right. Go in peace and sin no more."

"Oh no, I'm sure I'll steal more of them. I'll give you some more money next time I see you out here. Bye."

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Nice one, Nill.

I had a look at your site, can't quite blame the guy for 'stealing', you don't exactly promise speedy delivery to ordered prints. I dunno, but maybe a paypal link to a high res download would make it easier to 'steal' higher res shots, but at least get some payment.

Best wishes,

Ray

Good point Ray, I need to change that since I finally (thanks to Qimage!!!) caught up with my two-year print order backlog and am now turning them around in a a few days at most.

Paypal link to a higher-res download... interesting idea.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

getting pictures pinched

it happens to the best, and worst of us. I'm not sure I have much pinchable, but certainly the corporation I work in has many a screen saver built from my websites.

On the net, I even found, totally randomly, a tiger shot of mine, with a chickens head grafted on it, being sold on t-shirts and plates and things. I asked the person to withdraw it, or pay me. He withdrew. At least you got some compensation I guess . .

Rob

Rob.Martin said:

it happens to the best, and worst of us. I'm not sure I have much pinchable, but certainly the corporation I work in has many a screen saver built from my websites.

On the net, I even found, totally randomly, a tiger shot of mine, with a chickens head grafted on it, being sold on t-shirts and plates and things. I asked the person to withdraw it, or pay me. He withdrew. At least you got some compensation I guess . .

Rob

Click to expand...

I had a national newspaper scan an image out of one of my books for use in an article. The book had been sent to them ages ago as a review copy by my publisher.

I saw it, since I get that paper delivered, called the Editor, and was told they could do that under the Fair Use provisions of Copyright. Fair Use is "for the purpose of critique or review".

This was an image used to illustrate an article by the travel editor about a place that was in my book. They just grabbed a shot and ran it with the article, although they did attribute the image to me. Not for review and not for critique - just because it was handy.

They said that I should be glad of the exposure from the credit.

I told them I have had my work published all over the world for the past 20 years, one little pic in a newspaper excited me not one little bit.

I sent them an invoice for $300, which would have been about fair - they paid it after grumbling, and then paid it again by mistake!

Needless to say I did not tell them about the mistake and ended up with $600.

Point is, it's not just dodgy third-world companies that nick images and reproduce them - major publishers do it too!

Hi Nick,

Needless to say I did not tell them about the mistake and ended up with $600.

Point is, it's not just dodgy third-world companies that nick images and reproduce them - major publishers do it too!

Click to expand...

I can't tell if you're an 'honest sort of guy' or not ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

I have the same problem with my pbase account. Some of my shots have as many as 15 direct links. I have now disabled direct linking but am not sure if it really works.

Bev

Ray West said:

Hi Nick,



I can't tell if you're an 'honest sort of guy' or not ;-)

Best wishes,

Ray

Click to expand...

My agent normally charges triple the base fee when an unauthorised use is found, tracked and billed. I figured double, even by mistake, was fair. In hindsite I probably should have charged them the full $900 to make my point clear, but it would have been 'resisted'.

To reassure you that I have at least some moral fibre, if they had paid this amount twice in error I would certainly have owned up.

Does anyone have an opinion about Google Images?

They offer millions of photos as a free service, and it looks like all of them have simply been "stolen" from picture hosting sites like Pbase, etc.

I was shocked to find tons of my photos being offered to the world by Google Images. My Pbase account clearly states unauthorized use of my images is not allowed. And here is a billion dollar company making profits by using photographs they basically stole from unsuspecting web users.

Roger Lambert said:

Does anyone have an opinion about Google Images?

They offer millions of photos as a free service, and it looks like all of them have simply been "stolen" from picture hosting sites like Pbase, etc.

I was shocked to find tons of my photos being offered to the world by Google Images. My Pbase account clearly states unauthorized use of my images is not allowed. And here is a billion dollar company making profits by using photographs they basically stole from unsuspecting web users.

Click to expand...

Google Images seems to index images, hosting only the thumbnail. At least for my images, Google does not seem to host the original image file.

If I look up my own images using Google Images, clicking on the thumbnail Google returns opens, in a frame, the PBase page containing the image. The PBase page, of course, contains my copyright statement. I was surprised that searching for the keywords I entered into either the image metadata or PBase failed to find the images, but looking up my PBase account name returned some (43 out of 454) of my images. Google returned references to full size images for only 10 of the 43 images, and for the other 33 a link to the PBase page containing a thumbnail.

When you click on one of the thumbnails of your image returned by Google, what gets displayed?

Bob

happens to all of us

Hi Nick,
That's a good story that illustrates both the good and bad of the internet. Thanks for starting the post. My images have been put up all over the net, sometimes with a credit and sometimes not but I've only once been asked if someone could use an image. I have since either taken down or resized most of my images. It's just too hard to protect them and I don't like to put a big watermark on them as I think it ruins the image.

Just to add to the stories, one time at an art show a woman asked if she could borrow one of my framed prints. I replied that they were for sale and to ask the gallery about a purchase. She said, no I don't want to buy it, I just want to copy it!

Wow, that's pretty bold! Kind of reminds me that I thought I had seen all the cell phone rudeness there was to see until the other day when a girl got on the elevator with me yapping away on her phone, and then the guy on the other end of the call says something like, "Well we just won't stand for that *&^*." and she says "Hey, don't talk like that, I've got you on the speakerphone and there's people around!" :-(

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

It takes all kinds

I shoot for a prep school, particularly (though not exclusively) for their web site, but also for other electronic and print media. I'm on a retainer, but hold the rights, including sales, to all my photos.

Recently, a parent from another school approached me on the sidelines during a soccer game to ask if I was the one who took "all those pictures." (I'm never quite sure how to answer that - which pictures exactly?!?) He waxed poetic about a picture from a previous game that included his son. I offered to provide a print, but he proudly announced that they had already printed one off the web site. Trying to be subtle - which seldom works - I pointed out that the web images are severely reduced in size, since they are intended only for viewing on screen, and that the actual photo was of much higher quality. He was oblivous, and assured me that it looked just great. Completely oblivious. I momentarily considered telling how search for and to purchase other prints, but abandoned the idea as a waste of my time and energy.

On the other hand, I have parents who buy every picture of their child that I take and then slip me an additional $20 or more because I "don't charge enough." They take me out for dinner, invite to their sports banquets, and generally go out of their way to respect what I do. There is definitely a cosmic balance operating.

A cosmic balance. Yes I think you're right.

As I make the shift from devoted amateur to semi-pro, I'm struggling with the notion of stamping a copyright notice on my web images. Thoughts on that?

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

I don't currently post images on a website for client review, but I can definately sympathize with those who do. I do buy a lot of stock photography for my designs however, and have always been shocked at how easy it is to download a low res version for proofing. That low res version may not print very well, but it is perfect for anyone who wants to use it on a website or in an email.

There are some sites I've encountered however, that show images that can't be downloaded. I have been assuming (guessing) that these images were being displayed in a Flash file that won't permit a single image to be copied. In fact, I have done a few websites for people that included a Flash gallery of images. I used an inexpensive utility ($25) called Slideshow Pro to produce a very nice picture review gallery. I was about to post a link to the site and decided to visit it myself, and discovered that the product has been upgraded and offers a lot a photographer might want to use. It's worth a look.

Check it out Here. If you go, be sure to check out the "SlideshowPro Director" link as well.

Cheers!
Tim

Hi Tim,

Unfortunately, the examples of the photog's sites on the slide show pro, allow printing, (right click) so I am unsure of the security offered. In reality, afaik, if it shows on your vdu, it can be copied and printed if required.

I think you have to adopt the 'supermarket approach' everybody pays for the 'shop lifting'.

Best wishes,

Ray