The copyright demon: is somebody stealing your work?

Over the last few years, at seminars and workshops, I have been asked the question: what do you do when somebody steals your image? My answer has been somewhat vague, as I haven’t really had any direct experience of it.

Well, now I have. And I know more.

A month or so ago, I was photographing in town and walked past a small gallery in Central Christchurch. There, sitting in the window was an image I had shot for an organisation, printed (badly), enlarged to around 30″ by 40″, in a frame and for sale. It was the first I knew about it.

I called in a couple of days later to talk (euphemism) to the owner, who wasn’t present. He has a day job. His assistant gave me his card, which had the same image printed on it! No permission, no remuneration.

So did I flee or did I fight? I thought about it for a couple of days and the more I did so, the angrier I got.  And it occurred to me that I had to face it, for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which being to hold the ground for my peers.

Time to write a letter.

To cut a long story short, and because the matter is largely now resolved, I got justice and what I sought (no, no $$$, but mana was restored).

It has taught me a thing or two.

1.       If you do commercial work, then don’t start until you have an agreement in place.

2.       Under New Zealand law, the person commissioning the work has ownership unless he/she/they contract out of it. In other words, my clients had copyright in the first instance but, by signing an agreement, I retained intellectual property. This gave me two legs to stand on. The gallery owner, who had helped himself to work they had commissioned, had none.

3.        If you do this sort of thing regularly, then it is worthwhile being a member of your local professional organisation. They will give you a contract to hand to your clients. In New Zealand, the NZIPP has a form you can send to clients to explain the Terms and Conditions under which you will operate. They will also support you at time like this.

4.       You may be afraid you will lose the job if you ask for copyright. IMHO, if they won’t agree, then are they worth working for and will they respect your rights?

Interestingly last weekend I caught up with a fellow professional who had had a similar issue with a national airline. They wrote him a nice large ( obviously unbudgeted)  cheque, because he had a contract.

And if you want to see what some photographers will do to protect their rights, check out this site. Thanks, Ivan. Some hints here…

1.       For  your website… watermark your images, and disable the right click. It helps…

2.       If you photograph weddings and/or portraits, supply digital proofs as pdfs (enable the security features), low-res, watermarked…all of the above.

3.       If any of you have had similar experiences and want to share, please do so.