I found a couple images of mine in a magazine.. advice pls?

Ill keep it short.

I shot an event, posted some pictures here.. http://www.pbase.com …_palms_foundati​on_1142006

Yesterday I found a magazine with 4 of my photos from my site^ with the images still tagged with my symbol on the bottom right!!

I absolutely did NOT grant any permission to publish anything..

Can I do anything about this? any advice would be great..

Send them an itemized bill with "Pay to" instructions. And improve your watermark so it's more than just a symbol. Add your name or website or something. If you had your url on there, it'd be free publicity for you. With just a symbol, no one knows who you are or what it means. And make it bigger.

EDIT: And stop uploading huge originals.

I know that you will be able to get redress for this and I will leave it to the more legally savvy people here to give you details, however a word of caution. The first image on your PBase gallery is a poster. Unless that is your work you may very well be in breach of their copyright as well.

We get these kind of posts so often and then they follow the same course that maybe a STICKY would be a big help as it could outline options. While there are going to issues about options worldwide those same issues apply each time there is a post. Some of the sticky could outline how to avoid problems in the first palce and some could say what to do if there are problems.

The ultimate solution is to do what I do: shoot crap. If no one wants it, it won't get stolen.

My question is, did you give copies to the foundation event organizers that put this event on? If so then the foundation is as lible as the mag. for their use. If the foundation is a non profit organization and you go after them for copyright violation it could backfire on you and give you a bad name. Getting published is every photographers goal or at least a goal of mine, but if it were me a would chalk it up to "hey did you see my spread in ______ magazine" nobody else knows they ripped you off they just see you as a published artist. Now if those photos were a selling point for the magazine then that is different they are using you shoots for gain, but from the looks of the article layout in your shot it was more of a news type story about the foundation. Keep a copy in the studio and show it off to clients. my motto is "use those who use you".
I know the holy rollers on copyright will turn red over the above comment but Pick your battles, If it was a national magazine such as News week, vogue, People, or some one like that they would respond to a well drafted letter that was polite and professional but if it was a local mag., they most likely don't have the dough anyway.

hi

similiar happened to me about a month ago, and in fact was used as their new weekly flyer for their event! trust me - it sucks (when everyone else is saying "gee, you should be flattered")

i say the same as cdi-ink: eg i make my watermarks straight across my pic now, and sometimes resize to much smaller. but IMO it's the watermark that's key--it 1--allows you to post online the pic at a nice large viewing size, and 2--leaves NOOO chances of someone thinking they can simply get away w/using it w/o your permission or paying you for it.

seriously--i'm still not quite over what happened to me. but at least you'll now be better armed

PS: club events are NOTORIOUS for stealing pics and using them at free will, w/o regard for even the club-goers themselves! i know - i've been shooting now for a few yrs for them.

I can completely understand. I'm only 18, and I take a lot of my friends' senior portraits and I take pictures at all of the sports I go to and dances and parties and stuff, mainly because no one else in our school has a $3000 camer set up, so in order for the best I take them. I don't mind them using my pictures from sport games or dances, that's understandable, plus, I've given then written permission to do so. but the senior portraits is what really gets me mad. I right click protect my galleries and I don't let anyone see the originals, but there's still that pesky "prnt scrn" and they apparently do it all of the time! I don't charge much for a sitting fee, because I have the prices on my website set so I make the majority of my money there, but when I see my pictures on Myspace and Facebook and other social online things, it gets me mad, because they didn't pay for them! ugh...

also, I got an event invitation from a band that my cousin often performs with, I went to her last concert and took a ton of pictures FOR HER, well, in the envent invitation, there were 5 pictures - - -and they were MINE...and they didn't say who took them either...no photo credits at all. that really made me mad too...people don't respect the photo profession, everyone thinks photos are just public domain, and think that they're their's just because they happen to be in it.

- RE

rosselliot wrote in post #2771242
also, I got an event invitation from a band that my cousin often performs with, I went to her last concert and took a ton of pictures FOR HER, well, in the envent invitation, there were 5 pictures - - -and they were MINE...and they didn't say who took them either...no photo credits at all. that really made me mad too...people don't respect the photo profession, everyone thinks photos are just public domain, and think that they're their's just because they happen to be in it.

- RE

oh dear god not the band.....! yea they'll do it to you too. i honestly don't think it's malicious intent per se, but still........do they not know how to read, or something called 'common courtesy'??? especially something like bands - how would they like it if after they performed they got written up in a review, but w/no mention of who they were??? i bet alot of complaining would follow - THAT'S what!

anyway, in terms of the internet itself, "stealing images" is not exactly "criminal" eg taking and using an image for your website like an icon or something.

for myspace, i simply text right across the face. problem solved

and for everwhere else, i TEXT TEXT TEXT. right across the entire pic i'll do it. if you'd like, take a look at patrick mcmullan's site.....perfect example (IMO).

and if an agency or someone wants me to "show proof they're mine", i'll send them a large size, but w/the word 'proof' across (or something different than what they saw on my site to prove it's me). then, i offer to come and show my book in person. a PITA, but i'd rather this way.

goforphoto wrote in post #2770751
My question is, did you give copies to the foundation event organizers that put this event on? If so then the foundation is as lible as the mag. for their use. If the foundation is a non profit organization and you go after them for copyright violation it could backfire on you and give you a bad name. Getting published is every photographers goal or at least a goal of mine, but if it were me a would chalk it up to "hey did you see my spread in ______ magazine" nobody else knows they ripped you off they just see you as a published artist. Now if those photos were a selling point for the magazine then that is different they are using you shoots for gain, but from the looks of the article layout in your shot it was more of a news type story about the foundation. Keep a copy in the studio and show it off to clients. my motto is "use those who use you".
I know the holy rollers on copyright will turn red over the above comment but Pick your battles, If it was a national magazine such as News week, vogue, People, or some one like that they would respond to a well drafted letter that was polite and professional but if it was a local mag., they most likely don't have the dough anyway.

This is a silly comment. The goal of professinal photographers is not to get published, it's to get paid. When people steal your work, especially print publications, you don't clap your hands with glee that you've been published, you shake your head with consternation and sorrow that people don't value photography. You then feel better knowing that your attorney is about to get you enough of a settlement to buy you a new 500mm /4L IS . I don't understand how battered one's sense of self worth has to be to feel happy that someone has stolen his or her work.

byronc wrote in post #2770656
Ill keep it short.

I shot an event, posted some pictures here.. http://www.pbase.com …_palms_foundati​on_1142006

Yesterday I found a magazine with 4 of my photos from my site^ with the images still tagged with my symbol on the bottom right!!

I absolutely did NOT grant any permission to publish anything..

Can I do anything about this? any advice would be great..

Hi! Here's what you need to do.

First, open your phone book and call an attorney that specializes in copyright law.

Second, if you haven't already done so, immediately take the infringing images and put them on a CD. Then, make 4x6 prints of each of the images. Then, go to the copyright office online and print out their forms for registering photography, and the continuation form for registering a batch of published works. (Pbase will count as publishing here.) Fill out all the paperwork, then mail the CD and the prints off to the copyright office (along with $45).

Your attorney will likely be able to recover significant money for you, but of course you should listen to his advice, not mine.

Think about it. Getting published will get you paid. It is all in the marketing, so what a local publication printed you pics and didn't give you a dollar or two, but when you aproach a national mag. and they ask have you been published before at least you can say yes.
If you are not established it is better to get something in print than nothing at all depending on the type of work you are into. When you start worrying about getting a buck for every time you push the shutter you are in for a long hard road. Once you have made a name for yourself ,yeah go after the copyright crooks, but if you are a nobody with a camera whats a little press going to hurt. It has nothing to do with self worth just use it as a tool to market yourself to bigger fish.

goforphoto wrote in post #2771911
Think about it. Getting published will get you paid. It is all in the marketing, so what a local publication printed you pics and didn't give you a dollar or two, but when you aproach a national mag. and they ask have you been published before at least you can say yes.
If you are not established it is better to get something in print than nothing at all depending on the type of work you are into. When you start worrying about getting a buck for every time you push the shutter you are in for a long hard road. Once you have made a name for yourself ,yeah go after the copyright crooks, but if you are a nobody with a camera whats a little press going to hurt. It has nothing to do with self worth just use it as a tool to market yourself to bigger fish.

So, let me ask you, are you saying this from personal experience, or are you just guessing? Because allowing your work to be stolen is NOT the way to impress potential clients.

You're right that there are some situations that are not worth fighting. Most wedding and engagement photographers allow people to put their pictures in the newspaper's announcement section, for example; given how tight the wedding photography market usually is, if they sued all their clients for doing this, they wouldn't have any. However, letting a magazine steal your photos for an editorial story is not, in my mind, something to turn a blind eye to. That magazine is not a resume builder, and nobody is going to look at it and say "golly, who took these snapshots? Call that man and book his photos for our next multinational advertising campaign!" The magazine exists to make money, they used the original poster's photographs to make money for them, and they haven't given anything to the OP for his work. Pretty clear cut case of image theft.

People seem to make excuses for why it's not so bad when people steal their images. I don't know if this is to protect ego or what -- but it's *not* a big plus when people steal your work. It's a big negative, which is why courts will award you big damages when people do it. You can certainly make lemonade from your lemons, but that doesn't mean that you smile and shrug and feel honored that someone would steal your stuff.

You are missing the poin tof my original post all together. The mag. most likely got the images from the foundation that it was doing the story on.
What you are saying is sue everyone regardless, what I am saying is, if you took the shots at a charity event then sueing a charity is not really something I would do for the simple reason I have morals which do not include making a buck by sueing a charity foundation because they used a photo or two of mine. The whole point of a charitable organization is to raise money for what ever it is they are raising money for and suing them is just uncool in my book that is why I say "pick your battles".

You would lead me to believe that if an organization like say "Relay For Life" were to use a snap or two without you knowing it you would sue the pants off them for doing so.
In my opinion that is not the way to get my name up in lights may be yours but it isn't mine.
The old saying still holds true, "Carefull who you step on on the way up"