Should I be mad?

This is one reason that I a) get paid up front for images and b) don't publicly post images unless I am okay with this kind of thing happening. Doesn't make the theft right but in the end, you have to protect your own interests and not rely on people to act in an ethical manner (because too often they won't as you just learned).

I would be mad if they didn't give me credit or cropped the photo (happened a few time, everything was resolved after one super nice (not being sarcastic here) email from me. Facebook is such a huge FREE advertisement, I'm surprised so many photogs are against their clients using images as their profile photos. I encourage that!! I even crop and resize those photos for them. This brings me more clients.

Taking photos is an interesting thing, isn't it?

I figure that if someone isn't profiting from your work, or degrading your reputation, then it's no big deal. But you can always stick to the letter of the law. It's your choice.

As a teacher, it's not uncommon for me to show students a picture online. For example, if I'm teaching about the Panama Canal, and am trying to explain how locks work, I might simply go to Google, type in "panama canal" and click images. Then I'll pull up the images and show the students (I keep my google on strict filtering, just in case something goofy is in there, like girls in bikinis). Often people let their albums on flickr become public, and those images show up in a search.

If someone takes your photo uses it to make money, or photoshops it to where you would be embarrassed, I think that's bad.

But nine times out of ten I use Wikipedia and it has images that are fair use and contain stipulations for people who plan to use the images in their own work (give credit, not for profit, etc.).


My facebook pic is my own photography/art. Others should do the same. Creating a profile photo isn't difficult, and taking someone else's work is just lame and uncreative.

You can never ask "should I be mad" -- if you are, you are, if you aren't you aren't. If it bugs you enough to post about it here, then it probably bugs you enough to make it worth taking the two minutes it takes to fill out Facebook's DMCA form to have the image taken down.

I'm in the boat that I don't actually care if people steal it for facebook, it's not like you were going to get paid for a facebook profile picture anyway. Put your name/website on it if you want by all means but seriously... facebook

next time put your logo on it and have them tag you. free advertising to their friends.

Ahhhhh,, Facebook rears its ugly head again

FYI,
California just passed a strict Identity Theft law about using others peoples images. Some of the things described in this thread may be illegal there now.

Right now I have at least 30 people who have used one of my pics as their profile pic. Most of them have a watermark, and if it does not most are considerate enough to give me credit. If they dont, its not that big a deal

focus.pocus wrote in post #11577387
don't know how it works where you are at but we had a case like this come up in S.C. and they ruled that once the image is online for public viewing it is fair game unless someone is making money from it ie. advertising a site etc... using it on a social network site (myspace in this case) is not against the law here... some photograher was stiffed it seems from what I could tell and they copied some pics from a client only board and chose not to buy them... they photoshopped the watermark out also or had someone do it for them... just thought I'd share...

Since Copyright law is under federal jurisdiction, can a state enact a law(s) that goes against Federal law?

Quote:
Originally Posted by focus.pocus

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'text/html'

don't know how it works where you are at but we had a case like this come up in S.C. and they ruled that once the image is online for public viewing it is fair game unless someone is making money from it ie. advertising a site etc... using it on a social network site (myspace in this case) is not against the law here... some photograher was stiffed it seems from what I could tell and they copied some pics from a client only board and chose not to buy them... they photoshopped the watermark out also or had someone do it for them... just thought I'd share...

Since Copyright law is under federal jurisdiction, can a state enact a law(s) that goes against Federal law?

The answer to that question is, "No," however it depends on exactly how the plantiff filed the case. There are two cases to consider: Contract and copyright. Depending on which the plaintiff sought to consider decides whether it went to state or federal court.

If the plaintiff decided that a breach of contract case was stronger (abuse of the contracted license provision), then he might have taken it to state court.

Also, for that matter, was that case actually heard in state court and not a federal disctrict court? I know of one federal copyright case in which the court ruled that that putting an image on a website constitituted "publishing" as defined by the copyright law, but a decision of one court does not necessarily make it law--and just because something has been "published" it does not become "fair game unless someone is making money from it."

A state judge making that ruling would not only be conflicting with the fedeeral copyright law, but also with the Berne Conventions--which is an international treaty ratified by Congress and thus having the legal authority of the Constitution itself.

So I doubt that a state judge actually made that specific ruling.

Svetlana wrote in post #11579135
I would be mad if they didn't give me credit or cropped the photo (happened a few time, everything was resolved after one super nice (not being sarcastic here) email from me. Facebook is such a huge FREE advertisement, I'm surprised so many photogs are against their clients using images as their profile photos. I encourage that!! I even crop and resize those photos for them. This brings me more clients.

You'd be amazed at how oblivious people are. I have photos on my facebook, website url in the bottom right corner, with comments saying "I love your photo (insert name of kid here)! Who took this??" and then the kid responds with my name, then the same friend replies "How can I get in touch with him?"

This is why I could care less if the client steals the photo and crops it down.

How does it take food off your table if they snake a picture of them that you took to use for their profile pic?

Just go here http://www.facebook.co​m/legal/copyright.php and report it I should be taken down in a couple of hours. Same thing happend to me with some graphic design work I did. FB handled it quickly, just take it as a lesson.

Ryno wrote in post #11578492
does it really matter?

it's facebook...

Does it matter if some one takes your car?

it's a car...