Copyright Issue

Basically here is the a long story short....

One of my clients who I am doing a baby package (4 shoots) came in for their final shoot. She purchased some prints. We had a discussion via e-mail which was something along the lines of:

Client: I dont' have to purchase 100 - 4x6 prints (I charge $20 for a 4x6) if I want to use them on a holiday card.

Me: No I can design a card (gave her a prices list) for you or you can buy a digital file with prints rights for $75.

It just came to my attention she took one of the 4x6's she purchased and scanned it in and ordered a card from snapfish. I'm really pissed off. I tried to call snapfish last night and had to resort to online chat with some guy in India. But I'm serious considering consulting an attorney. The other issue is with my baby package I give the client a custom designed coffee table book of the 4 shoots. I'm thinking of just e-mailing her and telling her I know what she did she's in violation of my copyrights and our business relationship is ended and that I am still contemplating legal action.



Thoughts?

That sucks. Maybe just watermark on everything, including prints lol.


Really, people don't see the value of photos well today as technology process.
I hope you can handle this problem

Sounds remarkably similiar to a situation I ran into where the people think that buying a 4x6 print entitles them to do whatever they want with a purchased print.

It is why I know do not print anything smaller then an 11x14

So you are going to pay attorney fees and court costs to recover $75 usage fee?

Jeni-

Part of delivering a professional service is precisely defining legal use of the images by your customer. While the image use is technically a copyright violation, I would never agressively persue legal action unless I had clearly educated the customer in the permitted uses of the images in writting as part of a signed agreement of your services. Unless you have a invoice/contract that clearly specifies that scaning is not permitted without purchase of the digital file. then you are very likely to run into this same problem many times.

-Scott

amfoto1 wrote in post #11409571
So you are going to pay attorney fees and court costs to recover $75 usage fee?

That's what I was thinking. Bear in mind also that this client probably has friends. If you send her a snotty letter, then she will undoubtedly bad mouth you to her friends, with a potential impact on your business. Better just to drop it. If she comes to you for services at a later date, you'll be forewarned.

joedlh wrote in post #11409599
That's what I was thinking. Bear in mind also that this client probably has friends. If you send her a snotty letter, then she will undoubtedly bad mouth you to her friends, with a potential impact on your business. Better just to drop it. If she comes to you for services at a later date, you'll be forewarned.

And if you let a person walk all over you, they will tell those same friends, who will expect to walk all over you too.

jenirose3 wrote in post #11409363
Basically here is the a long story short....

One of my clients who I am doing a baby package (4 shoots) came in for their final shoot. She purchased some prints. We had a discussion via e-mail which was something along the lines of:

Client: I dont' have to purchase 100 - 4x6 prints (I charge $20 for a 4x6) if I want to use them on a holiday card.

Me: No I can design a card (gave her a prices list) for you or you can buy a digital file with prints rights for $75.

It just came to my attention she took one of the 4x6's she purchased and scanned it in and ordered a card from snapfish. I'm really pissed off. I tried to call snapfish last night and had to resort to online chat with some guy in India. But I'm serious considering consulting an attorney. The other issue is with my baby package I give the client a custom designed coffee table book of the 4 shoots. I'm thinking of just e-mailing her and telling her I know what she did she's in violation of my copyrights and our business relationship is ended and that I am still contemplating legal action.



Thoughts?

Did you register the images at the U.S. Copyright office prior to her infringing them? If yes, then you can consult an attorney, though note that it may still not be worth it unless she's really wealthy. And also note that it may completely destroy your business, since she WILL tell people and word of mouth will get around that you sue your customers. You are completely in the right in this one, but it's more about how you appear to the people you want as your customers. Personally, I'd sit down and talk with her and explain to her that she needs to pay the $75 for the digital rights to that picture. BTW, in the future, you should put a small watermark on each photo, even if it's in like 4 point font. It should say "Copyright (your name)". You can make it translucent, too, to make it even less of a distraction to the picture. On 4x6 proofs it's probably the only way to make sure people don't do this kind of thing. With larger enlargements, my father in law (during his 15 years of owning a studio) actually went out and bought a gold foil stamper and had an attractive small circular stamp made with his studio name on it. He'd stamp every enlargement. It both made it obvious that it was a professional picture and not to be copied and actually added value to the photo for most customers, because the stamp looked quite cool and intricate and was proof for the more snooty types that their family photos were done by a real professional (back when people cared about such things).

Here you have a customer who came to you 4 times, hopefully she spent good money with you? What was your total sale from this customer?
Why just not give her the file for those Xmas Cards?

sspellman wrote in post #11409583
Jeni-

Part of delivering a professional service is precisely defining legal use of the images by your customer. While the image use is technically a copyright violation, I would never agressively persue legal action unless I had clearly educated the customer in the permitted uses of the images in writting as part of a signed agreement of your services. Unless you have a invoice/contract that clearly specifies that scaning is not permitted without purchase of the digital file. then you are very likely to run into this same problem many times.

-Scott

This is all over my website as well as the contract they signed:

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:

All images copyrighted by photographer, Jeni Rose-Dullaghan. It is illegal and unlawful to scan, copy, or reproduce Jeni Rose-Dullaghan's work in any manner or medium and punishable by law with fines starting at $150,000. As an artist, Jeni Rose-Dullaghan wishes to have complete control over the final look of her client's images, and scanned images damage her reputation as a photographer by distorting and devaluing the image quality.

Thank you for respecting Jeni Rose-Dullaghan's work and livelihood by choosing not to reproduce her images.

Clients are not permitted to reproduce any images produced by the photographer for any purpose.

Likewise, clients cannot authorize any reproductions of the images for commercial use, personal use, for photographic competition or display without express written permission. This includes scanning of work on Kodak picture makers or other printing/scanning machines at local stores (such as Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, CVS, etc.), or on home printers and scanners. No other camera or equipment, other than the photographer’s is allowed in the photo session.

All items are priced from the Current Price List and in effect at the time of this agreement. Prices are guaranteed for a period of 30 days following the date of the portrait session. Items purchased more than 30 days after the date of the session will be priced from the most recent price list in effect.

In addition we had that e-mail exchange. I wonder how I could be any clearer?

Book'em Dano.......Say Aloha!!!

Ernst-Ulrich Schafer wrote in post #11409730
Here you have a customer who came to you 4 times, hopefully she spent good money with you? What was your total sale from this customer?
Why just not give her the file for those Xmas Cards?

Well this gets rather envolved....but she came to me via another client. My work is more custom and artistic where as JCPenney and the like is more vanilla. I'm not going to say bad or my work is better it's different. This client obviously likes vanilla but she also saw my other clients images as well as my portfolio of work on my sight. So she never really purchased a lot. My average print sales from a shoot are around $600-$800 plus my session fee of $200 for a session or $250/hour for an event. She maybe spent $100 in prints. Mainly because she wanted these JCPenney/Portrait People type shots. I know I should give the client what they want. But frankly I am more concerned about my art and what kind of studio my work represents me as. I don't want to compete or align myself in anyway with JCP or PP, etc as a photographer.

When she asked about cards I priced them at cost for her and told her so since she was a package client. My cost was $1.10/each. She paid anywhere from $.73 to $.93 from Snapfish. Mine would have been a custom designed card. So not only was I giving her the card at cost I was donating my time to design it.

I thought that was generous enough.

Email Version 1?

Tammy,

I was over at Amanda's today and I noticed your Christmas card. As I am sure you are aware scanning a print image and using that file is in violation of my copyright. When you purchase a print from me you are only paying for the paper and the print image on it. You are not paying for printing rights. All of my paperwork provided to you prior to our first shoot specifically states regarding my copyright:

All images copyrighted by photographer, Jeni Rose-Dullaghan. It is illegal and unlawful to scan, copy, or reproduce Jeni Rose-Dullaghan's work in any manner or medium and punishable by law with fines starting at $150,000. As an artist, Jeni Rose-Dullaghan wishes to have complete control over the final look of her client's images, and scanned images damage her reputation as a photographer by distorting and devaluing the image quality.

Likewise, clients cannot authorize any reproductions of the images for commercial use, personal use, for photographic competition or display without express written permission. This includes scanning of work on Kodak picture makers or other printing/scanning machines at local stores (such as Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, CVS, etc.), or on home printers and scanners.

I know clients look at my prices compared to some of the chain places and ask why I charge the prices I do. I edit each image from your session and only present you with fully edited proofs. Editing is approximately 8-10 hours (on top of the time I spent shooting) per session. My pricing and prints are priced accordingly not only to cover my time but to cover insurance (car, equipment, home studio, liability), overhead, equipment, equipment repair, gas, marketing, website, hosting, product costs, studio and camera supplies, editing equipment, CPA etc. The list goes on.


I've attached an invoice for $xxx.xx. Please submit your payment upon receipt.

Thank you
Jeni


or Version 2?

Tammy,

I was over at Amanda's today and I noticed your Christmas card. As I am sure you are aware scanning a print image and using that file is in violation of my copyright. When you purchase a print from me you are only paying for the paper and the print image on it. You are not paying for printing rights. All of my paperwork provided to you prior to our first shoot specifically states regarding my copyright:

All images copyrighted by photographer, Jeni Rose-Dullaghan. It is illegal and unlawful to scan, copy, or reproduce Jeni Rose-Dullaghan's work in any manner or medium and punishable by law with fines starting at $150,000. As an artist, Jeni Rose-Dullaghan wishes to have complete control over the final look of her client's images, and scanned images damage her reputation as a photographer by distorting and devaluing the image quality.

Likewise, clients cannot authorize any reproductions of the images for commercial use, personal use, for photographic competition or display without express written permission. This includes scanning of work on Kodak picture makers or other printing/scanning machines at local stores (such as Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, CVS, etc.), or on home printers and scanners.

I know clients look at my prices compared to some of the chain places and ask why I charge the prices I do. I edit each image from your session and only present you with fully edited proofs. Editing is approximately 8-10 hours (on top of the time I spent shooting) per session. My pricing and prints are priced accordingly not only to cover my time but to cover insurance (car, equipment, home studio, liability), overhead, equipment, equipment repair, gas, marketing, website, hosting, product costs, studio and camera supplies, editing equipment, CPA etc. The list goes on.


I would appreciate in the future if you would respect my work and not violate my copyrights.

Thank you
Jeni


or neither.

It is a gain vs. loss question. And it can get quite convoluted. Yes, she broke the law. That is not a question. The question is what have you lost from it vs. what will you gain by going after her.

Your lawer fees will out weigh any gains you may get. You failed to mention if the images are registered as well. If they are not, your $150,000 fine has just been reduced to your regular retail price. $75? The fine you refer to is only for registered images.

And as mentioned the action could bring down your entire company. All you need is some reporter going through the court docket looking for interesting cases and them picking up on yours. Then the next thing you know you are on page three of your local paper about you suing a repeat customer over $75.

Not to mention you have a proven fan, and client, of your work who has had 4 sessions so far, who will now never come back. Is never shooting them again worth $75?

Now for the gain side......$75.

There are times to bet the farm, and go after people. And there are times for wrist slapping. You have to know when to use each approach appropriately.

the 1st. more meany

2nd is pansy.

She is aware once she agreed to the session and she violated it. she need the 1st version.