Local newspaper stole my photos, what should I do?

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shodoman

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Need some advice -
The local alternative arts paper in Seattle has recently published 3 of my photos taken from facebook. Quite frankly i'm not too sure on the standing of intellectual property rights and facebook but i'm assuming I lost my rights when I uploaded them. Unfortunately, they didn't even cite myself as the photographer - they used some made up name, and they took a crappy 50kb upload that looks terrible!

Their website (which my photos are now hosted on) is full of advertisements and one of the photos was in the print edition of the paper.

What do I do?

1. ask for credit and leave it be?
2. get more pissed off and seek legal action?
3. demand a job!?

any advice would be appreciated
 
shodoman said:
Need some advice -
The local alternative arts paper in Seattle has recently published 3 of my photos taken from facebook. Quite frankly i'm not too sure on the standing of intellectual property rights and facebook but i'm assuming I lost my rights when I uploaded them. Unfortunately, they didn't even cite myself as the photographer - they used some made up name, and they took a crappy 50kb upload that looks terrible!

Their website (which my photos are now hosted on) is full of advertisements and one of the photos was in the print edition of the paper.

What do I do?

1. ask for credit and leave it be?
2. get more pissed off and seek legal action?
3. demand a job!?

any advice would be appreciated
Click to expand...

Reminded me of this

http://gizmodo.com/5681714/attention-the-web-is-not-public-domain

I'd say e-mail them, first ask that the credit is given to you, that is if you don't mind them using them as long as you're credited. If they say no, then ask that they be taken down. Just because you uploaded them, doesn't give them the right to use them on their site, especially with a fake credit. As far as what was used in print, ask them what they usually pay for a photo run in print, and ask for that, or for a correction in the next issue, at least giving you credit. I wouldn't demand a job, obviously they think they can just steal **** and print it, in their minds, why would they pay you? So I doubt that would work. The fake credit part it definitely annoying though.
 
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google up the situation using broad terms; i reckon other folks have suffered through the same thing.
and it could be the publisher doesn't know they were pirated. the person whose assignment it was to fill a need might have done the stealing ...
 
Do all the above suggested, but tell them you will approach other papers in the area with an article about the case if they don't own up.

Also, make a formal complaint with a journalism board. We have those in NL, they act as a mediator in issues like this, their rulings are not legally binding but it will go on record.

Good luck!
 
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shodoman said:
..."but i'm assuming I lost my rights when I uploaded them" on facebook ...
Click to expand...

AFAIK, yes you did. Sorry. People here will jump back and force suggesting legal action, etc., but, unfortunately, there is nothing you can do.

See here:

http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

"For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License")"

facebook can give your pictures to whoever they please, without asking you.
 
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you did not lose your rights when you uploaded to FB but you opened yourself up for this. Anyway, I would write to the editor and publisher and demand what you want to demand. Of course filing for © BEFORE you do any of this is a good idea.
 
My two cents:

If you're talking about a full-fledged, big-city alternative weekly newspaper (e.g. Seattle Weekly), they definitely will have policies against doing what you've reported. They will want to set things right.

I'd get on the phone with their managing editor and be prepared to walk him or her through the problem, succinctly and with a positive attitude. You are helping them solve a problem that they probably did not intend to create. Express more surprise than anger, but don't be afraid to calmly say that you also were angry when you saw your photos on their pages, over the wrong name and looking bad. (On the other hand, if they're going to look bad, at least your name isn't on them.)

As already has been suggested, don't be afraid to ask them what they normally pay for the kind of photo usage in question. They should be happy to (a) pay you for what they've already done, (b) run a correction in their next print edition and (c) immediately correct the credit shown with the photos on their website.

If you want to bring them photos for consideration or work on assignment for them, don't be afraid to point out that they already seem to like your work. (You might want to show them the good versions of the photos, not just the bad versions that they used.) Good luck! And check out http://asmp.org/tutorials/licensing-guide.html.
 
Demand payment, Im not sure what or how your copyright works over there but it should be if you took/directed the image it is your property. If they wont pay seek legal advice, if photography earns part of your income you are on stronger ground. I had this 4 years ago where a hotel paid to use the images for their web site only, they pulled them and used them for business cards and some other thing. They paid quite a lot for taking the ....
 
ferider said:
"For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License")"

facebook can give your pictures to whoever they please, without asking you.
Click to expand...

They can (at least technically), but I highly doubt the paper actually asked Facebook for permission. I also very much doubt Facebook would have given the paper permission even if they had asked. Such a move would be unwise, as there has been quite a bit of controversy regarding the aforementioned clause with Facebook essentially saying it's only there to protect themselves (Facebook). Not saying Facebook ain't evil, just sayin' they ain't dumb... 🙂
 
Did Facebook grant them rights to use the photo?

Assuming not, how does posting them on facebook give a third party any right to use the photos? Yes, like anything put on the net, it gives others access to the image but I don't understand these posts about 'you gave up your rights'
 
I have calmed down a bit.

I sent an email to the art director explaining the situation and asking what their policy is regarding such an incident. I'll see how they handle it. I really want to walk into their office with the negatives, at least it's easy to prove they're mine!
 
Just watermark your images with a copyright protected phrase and this should stop the use by others for commercial purposes.

Contact facebook and ask it if it granted a one-time use sub-license to the publication and ask for a copy of the request and permission grant. More likely than not, there was no such express grant. If, not then your claim against the paper is not compromised by granting a license to Facebook as Facebook did not grant a sub-license.
 
Anyone who puts their photos on the Web, especially all of the free photo sites, should expect this to happen at some point. Even hosting your own content is no guarantee that someone won't steal your photo and use it for their own purpose.

Web copyrights barely mean anything in the U.S. and certainly not in many countries. Just try to take them to court. You'll waste more money than you could ever hope to recover.

In this case, you should definitely contact the newspaper. At the very least, they should credit you. And possibly compensate you.
 
shodoman said:
Need some advice -
The local alternative arts paper in Seattle has recently published 3 of my photos taken from facebook. Quite frankly i'm not too sure on the standing of intellectual property rights and facebook but i'm assuming I lost my rights when I uploaded them. Unfortunately, they didn't even cite myself as the photographer - they used some made up name, and they took a crappy 50kb upload that looks terrible!

Their website (which my photos are now hosted on) is full of advertisements and one of the photos was in the print edition of the paper.

What do I do?

1. ask for credit and leave it be?
2. get more pissed off and seek legal action?
3. demand a job!?

any advice would be appreciated
Click to expand...

A made up name? That's just plain silly. But then, there's a lot of that going around.
 
Above it was mentioned that by uploading the photos to Facebook, the OP gave Facebook a non-exclusive right to use them. Unless the license granting agreement (the terms of FB) state that FB can in turn, grant rights to others, FB cannot grant rights to others.

Also, simply uploading the photos to FB cannot cause you to lose your copyright.

Further, a copyright is created when the work is created. You can apply for a registered copyright, but that is not required. Registration assists in proving a copyright, but it is not the only proof.

Finally, I am quite amused by the "made up name" that the paper used. That is so crazy I don't even know where to begin.

Now for my disclaimer:
Yes, I am a lawyer. No, this is not intended to provide legal advice for which you can rely upon, nor does your reading of this create an attorney-client relationship. Should you have more questions about this, please contact an attorney. If you don't know where to find one, contact the local bar association for a referral.
 
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Are you absolutely certain they are your images? Some people will copy or it could be serendipity....

Any profession designer or art director who has taken more than a single design class is aware of usage rights and copyright. That they made up a fake credit is an indication of their ill will.

Rip their balls off.

Facebook's terms have nothing to do with this.
 
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