I guess it never occurs to some people that if it isn't your work, and if you cannot find the owner, and there is no release to the public domain available, then you just don't get to use it.
It is so easy to strip off the exif data, remove any invisible embedded watermark, and change file names that it is almost impossible for any photographer to tract their works. Unless it is on the web under its original file name, or is on the front page of mass circulation magazines, you are unlikely to find that you have been infringed.
I attened a desk top publishing seminar a couple of years ago, where the subject of photo rights came up. The speaker flat told the audience, the bigger the publication, the more widely it is read, the more likely you are to get caught. So if you are doing an inhouse bulletin or flyer, you can do just about whatever you want. When asked if that wasn't illegal, he responded "Technically yes, but it isn't like you will ever get caught. Even if you are, if it is an office newsletter or flyer, and you aren't Coca Cola or Xerox with deep pockets, they are just going to ask you not to do it again."
I see the attitudes have not changed, only now congress is making it legal. If you see something you want, and it is too much trouble to find out whom to pay, then just take it.
Too bad that doesn't extend to cars. I saw a nice Ferrari last weekend, I wanted it, the owner wasn't around... If he had been around, I wouldn't have taken it. |
