Copyright issue, Plagiaris, not giving a proper credit in the big publication Please help !

Case resolved.... sorry but non of the answers here were helpful. Life just showed me that you can do much much more than just "do nothing" "there is nothing you can do"

I'm not a lawyer but I would think the answer would depend on what your purchase agreement stated.

Was it stated that if the photo was used for commercial use that credit must be given to you? If it didn't then I'd think there would not be much to argue. Yeah it sucks but if there's no written agreement there would be no legal action to take. Again I'm no lawyer so I might be way off.

With that said looking for an answer on an online forum isn't the best course of action. I'd get in contact with an actual lawyer and see what they say.

I wouldn't bother contacting a lawyer as there is nothing to gain and any legal action would cost more than the return. They made a mistake, they have apologised and offered compensation of $1000. That is as good as you would get if you took them to court (which would cost more than $1000 in legal fees).

Put simply it would be virtually impossible to prove that you suffered any damage (in excess of the $1000) because of their mistake. If there was no mention of credit in the contract you probably wouldn't even win/get the $1000.

What remedy would make you happy? Start at a realistic point, they aren't yanking them off the shelf and reprinting them over this issue. I don't know which book but this sort of thing rarely gets a second printing but an agreement to make the change is fair. After that you need to decide How much cash it takes to soothe your feelings. Then negotiate or spend some cash on a lawyer to negotiate for you.

Can you prove in a court of law that you were harmed in excess of $1000? The important word here is "maybe". It's very hard to prove "maybe" and "I feel like".


............"Conjectur​e, judge".

I would also ask for a single copy with the corrected credit. Just for vanity.

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rypson wrote in post #17877690
Company that purchased picture from me gave credit to someone else for the cover picture. There is not even a word about me being an author of the picture.

and here is my questions... what are my options? Author of the book is giving copies to very important people in US, to most important politicians in US and maybe it was the biggest chance in my life to be noticed here and there ? I feel like they stole my dreams !

I think you are over-reacting. There is little, if any, chance that any opportunities would ever develop because of someone seeing your name as a photo credit for the cover image. In fact, there are thousands upon thousands of books on sale today that have interesting artwork or photographs on the cover and no credit is given for the originator of the cover art.

If your dreams were built upon having your name on the inside leaf of a book cover, then perhaps you would benefit from building a more substantial foundation for your dream. Having the cover image, and having gotten paid for it, is what counts, and that can be a great foundation upon which your dream is built. Whether you have the credit line to go with it or not doesn't really affect anything, with respect to the furtherance of the dream.

I think you are very fortunate to have the publisher offer you $1000. Members here often say that credit lines are not worth anything - not a single dollar. I would tend to agree with that thinking. The fact that in this case someone thinks a credit line had monetary value is really favorable to you.

This actually seems to have worked out ideally for you because having your name appear in the credit would do you no good at all, while having the additional $1000 will most likely be of real benefit to you. Take the money and run!

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i very seldom get work because someone saw one of my photos, looked for my name, and contacted me.
i very often get work because someone who bought from me before recommended me to someone else. The person you sold the photo to knows the real story and as long as you don't get on their bad side may still help you out in the future.

+1 on asking for a copy of the updated book. it's useful in your portfolio.

And whats with calling them a plagiarist if you were paid, even though you werent properly cited?

In the past ten years of my photography, I've never been contacted by a potential paying client from a "print credit" - not a single one. The fact that they are agreeing to $1,000.00 (after the fact) is very fair, very rare and I believe you should give serious consideration to taking them up on their financial offer. Properly marketed by YOU, the book cover through YOUR promotion on social media and with your potential clients is likely to produce much better results than you would if random people read your name on a dust jacket. Congrats on getting the $1,000 offer and now go promote the fact that your work is so good that it is on the cover of a published book.

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rypson wrote in post #17877690
Case resolved.... sorry but non of the answers here were helpful. Life just showed me that you can do much much more than just "do nothing" "there is nothing you can do"

You should have found the answers here very helpful, as they attempted to show you that having a print credit does not matter, and is not important. You seemed to have been mistaken about this fact, so all of our efforts to correct your thinking should have been something that helped you to change your thinking and your feelings to the correct way of seeing things.

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rypson wrote in post #17877690
Case resolved.... sorry but non of the answers here were helpful. Life just showed me that you can do much much more than just "do nothing" "there is nothing you can do"

How very anticlimactic.

rypson wrote in post #17877690
Case resolved.... sorry but non of the answers here were helpful. Life just showed me that you can do much much more than just "do nothing" "there is nothing you can do"

I would not have known what the original post was if I didn't find it quoted in the thread. You appear to be quite the person to deal with and you should be happy with the $1K they offered you. You may want to dial down the drama when trying to work in this Industry, people talk and you're not always judged by the images you produce.