Any people with UK copyright knowledge?

Up until recently most of my work has been for my own website (business) and for a few magazines where I trade pictures for their interviewer and other things so a fair arrangement.

Gradually I have been putting galleries of the subjects pictures for purchase and that has been doing quite well. In some cases I will give the subject some pictures for their own personal use on their own website so long as I get prominent links etc which is important for me in building traffic to my niche site. In all cases the images are explicitly for just that use and no use for anything else unless agreed etc.

Anyway, last month one of my pictures was used in an advert in a high profile industry magazine without permission, payment or credit. The subject gave them to the company thinking that they would pay me if they were used. Hmmm.

I sent an invoice to the company for my regular rate advertised on my gallery and they got in touch saying that the picture was rubbish, the lighting poor etc When challenged about why they used it then they said well it was ok. They flatly refuse to pay and say that I've been paid for taking the pics anyway so push off.

The industry that I work in survives on copyright . My question is, what's the best way to take this forward? Have I legs to stand on? In the exif of all images the copyright info is there and so is the 'not to be used without prior agreement' tag.

Cheers

Mike

Hi Mike

Please take what I say with a very large pinch of salt as I am unsure what specific breaches there may be or what remedy in law you can take.

1) The recipient of the image was given it with strict license conditions attached ~ whther they paid for it or not is academic

2) The fact that he/she gave the magazine a copy of the image ~ the way you describe it this was in electronic form with EXIF intact ~ does not make them gulity per se of an infringement, the breach was done by the magazine as 'they' must have realised that person was not the copyright owner.

3) The fact they used it then "rubbished" it & you does not detract from the fact they have failed to pay for the said usage. They are just ducking & diving/squirming to have been found out!

4) As you say your industry is rife with DRM controls but the publications industry is a flagrant infringer of photogs "rights".

I suggest yo talk to this organisation http://www.thebfp.com/​frames.html and see if they can advise and were I in your shoes would within your own set limits of any upfront costs (no idea but what about small claims court???) take & push this as hard as possible. Oh the BFP are the publishers of the Market Handbook and as I understand it would take a dim view of a magazine (especially) if listed by them not paying their dues for image usages.

Best of luck and thanks reading my pontifications this far

Thanks for those thoughts.

The magazine wouldn't have known about the picture as it was photoshopped in to a larger advert. The magazine that I saw the ad in is one that I work with so I'd rather not get in to anything heavy with them anyway. I chatted with the editor who was shocked at the use. They have always been above board and I've taken most of their cover shots for the last few years. The picture in question wasn't one that this mag had used so wouldn't have known it was my pic.

OK, off to visit the bpf

Cheers!

Mike

who was it you contacted?

the editor and the publisher should know that they need permission for copyright use

echo - sounds like you have been reasonable and done the right thing to date.

I'd recommend you try to find some proper legal advice on the matter - www.photoattorney.com might be a good place to start.

I know the industry you work in all too well. It's a very two faced industry when it comes to copyright and photographers. They'll do whatever they can to protect their own copyright while at the same time they massively undervalue photographic copyright or make totally unreasonable rights grabs.