Newspaper & copyright

I should know this but I dont. The local paper used one of my photographs from a rodeo. I did not give it to them. The person that purchased the photo must have. They did did not cut my copyright out but it was unreadable. Would you atleast call them and say that I should have been contacted and been given photo credit at min or can they do that. Should I also contact the customer?

I'd call them and tell them what's happening but you definitely need to prove it was your photo and prove who bought it off you (which, by the sounds of it, you know).

Thanks for the responce. They fell all over them selves and offered to pay. I let them of the hook this time. I just asked to make sure people are doing their job.

HammerCope wrote in post #8098420
Thanks for the responce. They fell all over them selves and offered to pay. I let them of the hook this time. I just asked to make sure people are doing their job.

Why, exactly? Just curious.

Wow, I can't believe they offered to pay. Must have been because of the copyright mark. No way of saying "we didn't know it was your photo".

I would have accepted payment, personally. But maybe you can turn this into a regular paying gig.

I'm shocked they offered to pay. Having worked in the newspaper industry for more than a decade, they hate having to pay even their own employees. Papers invariably try for rights grabs.

If they offered to pay, you absolutely should've taken that offer. Or at least bartered for an ad in compensation. And suggested you could freelance for them in the future.

Of course, they might have tried to get all of the rights for payment... Maybe they put this on the wire?

I let them of the hook because it's a small town paper, I deal with them all the time. I just mainly wanted to know if it was worth my time to call them and it was. Plus if they offered to pay that fast they knew they were in the wrong. The next call is to the people who purchased the photograph.

^ i would have called them on it, and would have let them know the legality of the situation for future reference. i understand why you let them off, being a small-time paper, however instead of a payment i would have asked that they print an advertisement for your photography services in the next couple issues of the paper because it would help your business, but at the same time it would not cost them.

Of course you call them on it and of course you accept payment, you don't let them off the hook for stealing your image no matter how they got it. They would have been thankful you accepted payment (regular stringer fee) and not gone for more!! Papers have editors that are paid to do there job, one part of that job is to make sure they have permission to use photos from the copyright holder. Now if the person you sold the print to said they owned it (doubt it) that's a different story.

This paper is small enough that I know they normaly dont pay for pictures. An as for asking for free ads an ad in the paper would not do anything for my bussiness. I shoot rodeos and 99.99% of my sales come from people that live out of the curculation area.