MattPharmD wrote in post #16983072
To me this is like telling a store owner that if they don't want to be stolen from they shouldn't put their products where the customers can get to them.
Isn't that's exactly what shops like Jewelery stores do? they seem to still be able to do business.
Whats wrong with taking the images to the client on your laptop and showing them the pics and letting them select what they want? You could take payment and burn a disk or USB there and then. I have done that for years. You could send them a disk of low res or heavily watermarked proofs, You could make proofsheets and send them which is also something I have done and works well.
Photographers were selling pics long before the internet came along.
Putting photos online is part of doing business today, and so is dealing with copyright infringement.
No, its A way of doing business and a pretty poor one at that in most cases. Image theft is just one reason why.
As for copyright infringement, what percentage of cases of that do you think actually result in the shooter getting anything?
How many shooters do you think actually do anything about it ( other than to complain about it on forums) and have the money to retain a Lawyer to fight it?
There ARE other ways of selling and protecting your pics and putting them online is far from a nessicity in most cases. Often it seems to be done because it's easy and dosen't take much time or effort on the part of the shooter. It also happens to be a poor way to get the best returns from a job, shortchanges the client on customer service and is open to abuse as shown here.
It would be a lot easier to take the pics to the client or print out proof sheets than it would be to try and recover monies through legal means that's for sure.
When so many shooters are still asking " How much should I charge?" it's pretty naieve to think they are going to know or be prepared to take on copyright infringement.
I would tell the OP to figure out what the goal is, and that will tell him if he needs a lawyer. Please don't ignore/forgive the magazine though. Either ask them for a large licensing fee or get a lawyer and go after the willful infringement damages.
