Photo copyright issue question

ChicoMendez

If users take copyrighted photos from the net and post them on my community site, ever had any experience dealing with such? Methods of prevention?

would a disclaimer on upload page be enough ?

tnx

mneylon

A disclaimer wouldn't be enough.

If the photo is copyright it is copyright.

Liam Byrne

To cover yourself, make sure that the upload page has a blatantly obvious Terms & Conditions section indicating that "by uploading a photo you [the user, not actually "you"] indicates that they either (a) took the photo themselves, (b) own the copyright to the photo (c) have the permission of the copyright owner and (d) the permission of the people in the photo (d not strictly being a copyright issue but certainly an unfortunate prerequisite nowadays, especially if there are any photos of kids involved :mad: )

If you can, make sure that the "upload" button or whatever is disabled until they scroll through the T&C and have clicked an "i agree" button.

That way, you can at least be safe in the knowledge that they "told" you that they did own the copyright.

You're still likely to get someone uploading (by lying) without having the permission, but if you can show the above then the general action for an occasional breach would merely be a request to take it down asap.

Irish Gardener

If the op's original query was answered ok, I have another query regarding picture copyright.
Just last week from a forum I run, a photo I created and posted, was printed in a regional newspaper without my permission.
I contacted the paper and stated my case regarding copyright as printed on the home page of the site.

Here is an synopsis of the reply I recieved.....

They said they were not aware of any copyright problem with the image they used, and it was used purely for general illustrative purposes to accompany a story.
They said the image was sourced from the web.
They also said that the person in the picture was completely
unrecognisable to any member of the general public.

Does anybody know where I can go from here.

mneylon

Irish Gardener wrote:

Does anybody know where I can go from here.

A solicitor.

Just because they found an image online does not give them any right to use it. Any suggestion of this is hilarious.

Irish Gardener

blacknight wrote:

A solicitor.

Just because they found an image online does not give them any right to use it. Any suggestion of this is hilarious.

Yes, I though that was hilarious.
I would like to see what would happen if I decided to pull images from the newspapers site and publish them.

You say a solicitor, Blacknight.
I just wonder am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

mneylon

Irish Gardener wrote:

Yes, I though that was hilarious.
I would like to see what would happen if I decided to pull images from the newspapers site and publish them.

You'd probably get slapped with all sorts of interesting threats

Irish Gardener wrote:

You say a solicitor, Blacknight.
I just wonder am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

I don't think so.

You take a photo (or write an article - it's the same principle) and someone else takes that work and uses it without your permission.
You are the holder of the work's rights, so you are perfectly entitled to enforce those rights.

I'm currently having a similar issue regarding content:
http://www.mneylon.com/blog/archives/2007/05/26/content-theft-what-to-do/

and I know Krystian had problems with one of his photos a while back:
http://www.irishwebmasterforum.com/site-reviews-announcements/265-worst-site-week-5.html#post8571

He managed to get some money from them by standing up for himself

Irish Gardener

Thanks for that, blacknight.
Interesting reading.

Liam Byrne

Irish Gardener wrote:

You say a solicitor, Blacknight.
I just wonder am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

You could try posting on one of the photographers forums such as the one on The Irish Photographers' Website - www.irishphotographers.ie - and see what feedback you get from people who have probably been through this already.

One small point, though - I assume that the website that you posted it on (and therefore the one they got it from) has a copyright footer and/or terms of use ? Otherwise there is a small chance that they could claim to be ignorant of the fact that it was copyright ?

Irish Gardener

Liam Byrne wrote:

One small point, though - I assume that the website that you posted it on (and therefore the one they got it from) has a copyright footer and/or terms of use ? Otherwise there is a small chance that they could claim to be ignorant of the fact that it was copyright ?

Thanks for the advice Liam.
Yes there is a copyright notice, like the one below, at the bottom of all the pages.


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