Stolen Photo - What To Do? - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF-S 15-85mm IS USM

07/07/2011 04:41:25 PM · #1

I just found one of my photos (this one) being used as a background image for an article / section of a Greek company's website. They appear to be a marketing / ad agency.

I know a few of you have been through this in the past and I was wondering what the best approach to take is?

LN13

Canon EOS-60D

07/07/2011 04:50:06 PM · #2

I'd email the webmaster and tell them to take it down or pay you.

Skip

Canon EOS-1D X

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

07/07/2011 04:53:23 PM · #3

use one of the online stock price calculators, determine a fair price, multiply it times three, and send them a bill.

07/07/2011 04:56:05 PM · #4

Originally posted by Skip:

use one of the online stock price calculators, determine a fair price, multiply it times three, and send them a bill.

Now that you mention that, I remember seeing that suggestion before and thinking it was a good one, think I might do that. Hope they understand English!

Edit for bad English (the irony).

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 16:59:13.

Spork99

Canon EOS M6 Mk II

Canon EF-M 22mm STM Lens

07/07/2011 04:58:44 PM · #5

What do you want them to do? Pay you? Take it down? I'd just send them a bill as Skip suggests.

I don't know how copyright is handled in the EU though.

07/07/2011 05:00:43 PM · #6

Originally posted by Spork99:

What do you want them to do? Pay you? Take it down? I'd just send them a bill as Skip suggests.

I don't know how copyright is handled in the EU though.

I was wondering if it was even worth asking them to pay for use, or whether the best I was likely to get was a credit or takedown.

I'm going to go with Skip's suggestion and bill them. I already run my own company so sending them an invoice will be easy enough.

DrAchoo

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

07/07/2011 05:17:42 PM · #7

where's the website? link us.

I think you need to talk to someone there. Might cost you an international phone call. Very little is likely to get resolved without some personal voice contact. That's my experience.

Be professional. You are likely to get some satisfaction if you stick with it.

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 17:17:48.

07/07/2011 05:21:13 PM · #8

Here's the link:

//www.idunited.gr/el/?p=1003

I may call them in the morning, they're a couple of hours ahead of us in Greece so there's unlikely to be anyone there just now. However I'm not sure how the level of English is in Greece in general (not to mention my Scottish accent), and it's not like I speak Greek.

The same image is use on three distinct pages, all in their Social Media section.

Spork99

Canon EOS M6 Mk II

Canon EF-M 22mm STM Lens

07/07/2011 05:21:31 PM · #9

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

Be professional. You are likely to get some satisfaction if you stick with it.

Given the state of the Greek economy...I wouldn't hold my breath.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

07/07/2011 05:22:06 PM · #10

Originally posted by Spork99:

Originally posted by DrAchoo:
Be professional. You are likely to get some satisfaction if you stick with it.

Given the state of the Greek economy...I wouldn't hold my breath.

That thought struck me too.

BeckyT

Nikon D300s

07/07/2011 05:37:10 PM · #11

Beautiful image. Can see why they used it. Wish the best is resolving this.

GinaRothfels

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

Olympus 8mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko Digital ED Fisheye PRO Lens

07/07/2011 05:55:27 PM · #12

Interesting that the blue block with all the text etc exactly covers the area where the watermark is. Looks like a deliberate attempt to cover up the fact that the image is stolen.

DCNUTTER

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 15-85mm IS USM

07/07/2011 06:04:04 PM · #13

How did you even find out about this? I ran your photo through TinEye and nothing came up. I'm curious if there is other software out there that does a similar search.

Dave

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+, S21 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

07/07/2011 06:06:22 PM · #14

Originally posted by DCNUTTER:

How did you even find out about this? I ran your photo through TinEye and nothing came up. I'm curious if there is other software out there that does a similar search.

Dave

Yeah. Google. I have an plug-in or add-on or whatever for Google Chrome that lets me right-click an image and search the internet for usages of it.

So maybe he has that...

R.

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 18:06:32.

nova

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

07/07/2011 06:25:54 PM · #15

You can also search for image files in regular google by first clicking IMAGES, then clicking the camera icon in the far right of the search bar. I don't think it works in all browsers however.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

07/07/2011 06:26:05 PM · #16

Googled it...

DrAchoo

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

07/07/2011 06:53:43 PM · #17

It's interesting that their job is digital marketing which should be intimately familiar with copyright. I'd think that might go in your favor. OTOH, I don't know what Greek copyright laws are like. When you talk to them it will all be bluffing because your only course of action if they play dumb is to hire representation in Greece and that would be work. I had the same dilemma with the Australian company, but it worked in the end. I kept my threats veiled and professional but made it sound like I was fully willing to see it through.

You may want to do some research on the company. Are they big? (good for you, they can't disappear) Is it a out-of-the-home operation? (bad for you). What sort of budget do they have or how many employees? (helps you judge how much to ask for). It will all be a game that you'll have to play. You want them to take you seriously enough to listen to you but you can't scare them off or piss them off or they'll just dig their heels in and make it hard for you.

Also keep in mind they may have hired someone else to do their website and have no knowledge the image is stolen. That was true in my case. Then you go after both them and the company that designed the site (wibiya?).

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 18:55:45.

tanguera

Nikon D750

07/07/2011 07:18:41 PM · #18

Hmmmmm. Checked it out and your image doesn't show up for me. I get a macro of a drop on a petal, all in red.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Carl Zeiss 50mm ZE f/1.4 Planar T for Canon

07/07/2011 07:22:08 PM · #19

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

The other difference in your case, Jason, was that the image was on a billboard and in other printed materials. In this case, they can simply remove the image from their site and then I don't think there's anything you can do.

Also, keep in mind the Greeks are in a bad mood.

yanko

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

07/07/2011 07:24:54 PM · #20

Originally posted by GinaRothfels:

Interesting that the blue block with all the text etc exactly covers the area where the watermark is. Looks like a deliberate attempt to cover up the fact that the image is stolen.

Actually the watermark isn't there. Here is a direct link to the photo on that web site:

//www.idunited.gr/el/images/background/RED_News.jpg

It looks like they enlarged the file, but other than that and some bad jpg compression the images look identical. Although it could be possible that someone else took the same shot from the same POV. I did pull both images into Photoshop and scaled them to the same size and they both line up perfectly. The watermark could have just been removed, which can be done in less than a minute with time to spare.

Message edited by author 2011-07-07 19:27:55.

ErinKirsten

Nikon Z9

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED

07/07/2011 07:29:06 PM · #21

Originally posted by tanguera:

Hmmmmm. Checked it out and your image doesn't show up for me. I get a macro of a drop on a petal, all in red.

Me too

ErinKirsten

Nikon Z9

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED

07/07/2011 07:30:04 PM · #22

I ran a search on an image of mine and found it on a website with daily prayer and for that day it was talking about trust - using my stolen photo!! LOL Too much!!

Stolen Photo on Prayer Site

Artifacts

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

07/07/2011 07:38:31 PM · #23

I must just be naive...

I didn't even know there were tools to find duplicate images on the Net.

Dinking around with Google - the drag and drop in the image search feature - and it didn't take long for me to locate one of my own images that had been "borrowed" by some foreign website whose language I didn't even recognize.

That picture happened to be one of mine with a water mark. The "borrower" took it upon themselves to remove the watermark. :(

Google has wonderful features! This is another it has I didn't know about.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II