Walmart refused to print... this happen to you?

Curtis N wrote in post #3706483
They're doing the right thing, trying to prevent copyright infringement. Of course, they wouldn't bother unless there was some risk to them. It's CYA.
Their ability to handle these situations professionally varies. Dealing with poorly trained minimum wage employees is the downside of fast, cheap prints.

Whoever you choose as your print vendor, work to develop a personal relationship with them. You'll both be better off, and someday they might prevent some tightwad from making 100 copies of one of your pictures.

True, but I'm more worried about Internet theft of photos and subsequent use in other countries or even states. Obviously Wal-Mart was not concerned with this until they lost money though.

MaxxuM wrote in post #3704707
....... their policy is they cannot print copyrighted stuff. Well, long story short, my daughter was with me and she was in a few of the photos so they let me have them.


I guess I should be flattered – but it was was still annoying.

Duh! ... Tell them that all photographs are copyrighted by whoever took the pictures! Amateur or pro; good pictures as well as bad -- it doesn't matter. Also, unless they have been a judge in a juried art show, then they aren't qualified to make any sort of judgment about the pictures anyway. If they didn't have their heads up and locked in the stowed position, then they would know enough to look at the metadata if they want to determine ownership rather than arbitrarily speculating about the ownership of the pictures.

I had the same problem at Costco, I took 2 pictures of my daughter in to get printed, I waited for over an hour, when I went up to the register and inquired were my prints where, the cashier told me that my photos look like they were done by a professional. I said thank you and they made me sign a release form.

bill boehme wrote in post #3706988
Duh! ... Tell them that all photographs are copyrighted by whoever took the pictures! Amateur or pro; good pictures as well as bad -- it doesn't matter. Also, unless they have been a judge in a juried art show, then they aren't qualified to make any sort of judgment about the pictures anyway. If they didn't have their heads up and locked in the stowed position, then they would know enough to look at the metadata if they want to determine ownership rather than arbitrarily speculating about the ownership of the pictures.

Does Walmart or any store for that matter have the ability to look at the the metadata to determine ownership?

3Turner wrote in post #3707695
Does Walmart or any store for that matter have the ability to look at the the metadata to determine ownership?

Same here... The EXIF data is embedded with my name on each pic... I hope I don't run into this scenario at Sam's Club...

I have problems all the time with one Wal-Mart that I have printed at. I don't mind signing the form and take it as a compliment but they are soooo nasty about it and look at me like " Here you go - liar!" Snotty!! The other Wal-mart I go to couldn't be nicer and have gone out of there way for me and ask photo advice etc. (Too bad cause the other is much more convienient to have hubby pickup for me)

I had some pictures printed at Wal-mart and they gave me a real hard time also. I gave them my business card and they still didn't believe me. They were very disrespectful and even asked me how I could take pictures if I was in the pictures. (They thought the girl in the photos looked like me). It was all very weird.

3Turner wrote in post #3707695
Does Walmart or any store for that matter have the ability to look at the the metadata to determine ownership?

Well, they should if they really are concerned about copyright protection as they claim. Their present policy of idle speculation is ineffective at best and really not any better than having no policy.

Changing or removing image exif/metadata information is trivial, it takes seconds with something like EXIFer.

I like going to the "mom and pops" print shops. I've yet to run into someone denying to print my photos. Then again, I am in Albuquerque and those shops take what business they can.

tim wrote in post #3712077
Changing or removing image exif/metadata information is trivial, it takes seconds with something like EXIFer.

Are you saying you can change the name of the owner from the original EXIF, to make it appear as if someone else's camera took the photo?

bill boehme wrote in post #3706988
Duh! ... Tell them that all photographs are copyrighted by whoever took the pictures! Amateur or pro; good pictures as well as bad -- it doesn't matter. Also, unless they have been a judge in a juried art show, then they aren't qualified to make any sort of judgment about the pictures anyway. If they didn't have their heads up and locked in the stowed position, then they would know enough to look at the metadata if they want to determine ownership rather than arbitrarily speculating about the ownership of the pictures.

Exactly! They should be asking everyone who brings in film or a media card to get prints to sign the release...

Somebody PLEASE link to the whattheduck.net comic strip, this thread isn't complete without it!

Put your pictures on CD. Write "permission to print" on the CD. Done.

I have had this same thing from many places. I just deal with it. They are trying to protect me.

davidfig wrote in post #3717339
They are trying to protect me.

I think they are trying to protect themselves. We [photographers] are just being protected by consequence. In any case, it wasn't that they quested the legality of it; it was their attitude about it.