05 Jun
Go Ahead, “Steal” My Work
I frequently run across posts like this on the blogs of photographers I follow:
Recently someone stole one of my photos and PUT IT ON THEIR OWN BLOG or POSTED IT ON A FORUM. Even though I exclusively state in my sidebar that images are not to be used without my permission. I’m frustrated. How could it happen? I’m offended. This is so awful.
Actually I disagree that this situation should be classified as “awful”, but if you want to hold on to your lollipops don’t set them out on the counter in a room full of preschoolers.
Or you could continue to put out the lollipops, and you could turn them into those cool kind that make a stamp on your tongue (Did you ever try those as a kid? They were so fun!). Then all the kids run around the playground licking those lollipops and showing off your logo on their tongues. Instead of complaining about something you can’t control (because you can’t control the actions of others when it comes to right clicking and taking screen shots) find a way to make it work for you.
There are only three reasons I can think of for why someone takes images from your site and uses them for their own purposes:
- They love your work. They want to tell someone else about it. They want to use it as inspiration. They think you should be world famous.
- They hate your work. They want to make fun of you. They are laughing at you. They are a big rude jerk. They think they can build their own self esteem up by tearing others down.
- They love you so much they want to BE you. So they pretend. They steal your work and attempt to make it their own.
Why You Should Love Reason #1-Remind me again why this is a bad thing? Someone likes your work, so they take it and post it on their own blog, or they post it in a forum. Maybe they sourced you appropriately, but likely they didn’t. If you watermarked your photo then someone should be able to do a google search, find your blog, and hire you. If you didn’t watermark your photo, then you put your trust in a majority who don’t followthe rules of citing sources because they were sleeping through their high school English classes. You can either watermark your photos, take your chances that people are going to do the right thing and source them, or not put your photos online at all.
Why You Should Get Over Reason #2-Remember those lollipops on the playground? Someones going to steal your lollipop and crush it under their foot. Or the popular blonde girls are going to make fun of your tongue stamp. Get over it! What’s that old saying? “You can please some of the people, some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people, all of the time.” Not everyone likes your work, and not everyone likes mine. And sometimes people are cruel. If you’re booking new clients then someone out there likes your stuff, and it doesn’t matter that some bully out there stole your photo in an attempt to tear you down.
What You Should Do If You Are a Victim of #3- Contact the person letting them know that they are using your work inappropriately. Ask them to take it down. Take a deep breath, realize that you can’t control what other people are going to do and do your best to forget about it. Hope that the potential clients of this loser pretending to be you will investigate enough to discover that the rest of their portfolio doesn’t match up to your stellar work. No photographer will stay in business long if they can’t deliver the kind of images they put into their portfolio. And then pat yourself on the back for creating something someone else thinks worth stealing. You obviously rock!
When you put your images online you are taking a chance. They might be misused, or stolen, not sourced properly, or torn apart. But I believe that even with those things, what you gain is worth that risk. If you are putting your work online, whether it’s in an online portfolio or a blog, then you must have come to the same conclusion as well. So far, my business is growing almost exclusively because of my online presence. When someone asks “How did you find that client?”, 99% of the time my answer is “Through my blog.”
So yeah, go ahead, steal my work. Take this photo. Put it all over the place. I dare you.
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
Okay, I did it. http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm73/alishainwonderland83/Web%20stuff/img_0428.jpg LOL! No, but really, I agree with this post. Putting your work out there makes you susceptible to people stealing it. But at least it’s out there, being admired!
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Jenna Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Oh my heck. That made me laugh SOOOO hard. Made TH laugh pretty hard too. Brilliant!
And really leads me to wonder what happens AFTER someone steals a photo. I mean, what would you use that for? What do you do after you steal one photo? Keep stealing them indefinitely? It just doesn’t make any sense when you think about it.
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I totally agree with you. I pray that one day someone loves a photograph I take enough to “steal” it.
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2I absolutely love your approach to this! I feel the same way, but the way you explained it was hilarious. Kudos to you!
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3I love you Jenna! You are awesome! Also, your photos are amazing. I really wished you could live closer to me so I could put you to good use around here. (Not that we don’t have really good photographers ’round these parts
. ) I completely agree with you. It’s really annoying when people complain about others copying pictures from their sites. It’s like, “And you plan to do what exactly about it? Other than throwing this five-year-old sort of fit.”
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Jenna Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I’m coming home for a week before my sisters wedding. Maybe we can make something work!
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I don’t care about #1 - in fact, as you say, it’s GOOD. I love sharing the work of great photographers, and I’ve discovered so many great people this way as well. If someone posts a photo I like on their blog or a forum, I’ll immediately go to that photographer’s blog. Score for them, I think!
#2 hurts, but everyone’s always going to hate something, and anyway, if you take photos so ugly that people feel like taking the time to mock them, maybe you should learn something from that experience?
#3 is, of course, the upsetting one. No one wants their work credited to someone else. And it just feels really..dirty and sick that people would do that, in full view of everyone online! If they showed your photos privately to a client at a meeting, no one would ever know. But if they put them online where they could be found out at any moment - there’s something so icky about that. But, as you say, the good of internet exposure outweighs the bad…so I guess we live with it!
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5I love this picture - I actually love all your pictures. But I love the flowers in this one. When I use a picture, I alway include a hyperlink to the original - not sure if that is a proper source, but I try!
I wish I lived closer to you so I could have you take some awesome pictures of John and I.
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Jenna Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Definitely proper sourcing. Go you!
And thanks for the compliment.
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I find this post hilarious! I love it!
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7If they are a victim of #3, they do have some legal recouse, even with the anonymous nature of the internet. I wouldn’t worry about a random blogger who is anonymous, but if it is actually a local photographer passing off the victim’s work as their own, they can and should be sued for it. The threat of a lawsuit will usually scare people enough.
Even if the images aren’t technically trademarked, there are repercussions for stealing them and using them to make a profit (because it wouldn’t be fair use…I think). IP law really isn’t my area of expertise, but anyone who is having a serious problem with this should first of all, watermark and copyright all of their images, and secondly, hire a lawyer.
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8I cannot tell you how happy I am to hear that at least SOME photographer’s have their heads on straight about this subject. I have seen and experienced a few that are insanely uptight about this type of thing….sharing their work, with proper crediting, and praises raining down from the heavens. That STILL makes them get into their copyright hissy fit. It’s rather annoying and I’ve always agreed with your point of view. Thanks for sharing and being level-headed!
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Jenna Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I know! Please explain the logic behind watermarking your images and then disabling right click. You’re just preventing free press! It just doesn’t make any sense to me!
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Lillindy Reply:
June 6th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Thank you…it’s so true and I don’t get the logic either!
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I love this picture. The bright colors are amazing! And you do fantastic work. If someone steals your work, it’s definitely because of reason number 1 or number 3.
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10I think I need to move to TX. We don’t have any fields of blue bonnets or black eyed susans in Philadelphia. And that makes me sad.
Yet another wonderful picture.
)
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11Hahaha, great post. I love your roll with it attitude. The internet is an awesome way to get so much exposure, with really very little negatives in proportion to that exposure…
Um, I totally didn’t mean to just make a photography joke with all the “negative” and “exposure” talk
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12I have a silly question. I am not too familiar with the watermark. I notice it is on the front of your pictures and is very visible. When a person prints their photos is your watermark still on the front of the photograph? Or is that just something you do when you put photos online?
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Jenna Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Each photographer does it differently. I watermark the photos I put online precisely because I know that bloggers sometimes take them and source them properly.
I give my clients watermark free photos for printing, but some photographers don’t hand over digital files at all. It’s different for everyone.
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Lillindy Reply:
June 6th, 2009 at 1:25 am
Mine gave me a disc with photos for printing, but they all have the watermark and honestly it’s a bit annoying when trying to make my own little blurb books and such.
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I find google images kinda entertaining. People look at some of the weirdest pictures from my blog. It’s really popular for some reason to look at my crappy picture of cherry blossoms, me dying an egg, planting seeds, oh and my engagement ring.
I have no idea if they get used at all and I probably never will but to just know people are only looking at those out of context is weird.
I would add though that if you are having bandwith issues because someone never downloaded the photo but just put up the link that is a good reason to get pissed off.
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14I totally agree with all this! Great post.
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15soooooooooo true. Great post Jenna! I have had some photogs contact me after using their photos on my blog, and I am like, ‘A- I said I love your work. B- I linked to your site/blog/whatever. How do you not see this as beneficial to you?’
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16I right-click photos ALL the time and save them in a folder called “photography inspiration”. I would hope any photography would be OK with that since I’m not posting it anywhere and who wouldn’t want to someone to aspire to be like them?
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17Do you use Photoshop to add the watermark? I know I need to do it, but I haven’t gotten around to it/figured it out yet!
Actually designing a watermark would be a good idea too!
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Jenna Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
In the beginning I just had a png file with a transparent background and I would drag and drop that on top of each photo. Then I realized I could make my watermark a brush and things move SOO much faster now.
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I love this photo.
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19I agree (with photography, not so much with an idea). It’s free publicity. Why not ask them to credit you? Or replace it with a watermarked image?
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Jenna Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 1:53 am
Yeah the logic doesn’t apply to all art forms. You can’t “watermark” your words, so having someone take and use your work without a proper hyperlink won’t be free publicity, just plagiarism.
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nailed it with this post, well said! totally agree!
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21wow! what a great pic
I think your work is amazing and I bet your are going to be really sucessful at this
You have the most amazing use of color! This picture…and then those great ones with the bride in the red shoes in the blue flowers. you really do amazing work!
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22I think a lot of people google image search stuff, I mean you are supposed to give image credits but if you a blog like mine that makes no money and my biggest follower is my dad, who cares?
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23I agree with #1! You should read this though - http://www.lifeinmotionphotography.com/photoblog/?p=2379. It’s so unbelievable that there are people like this, it’s disgusting.
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24Yeah, walk a mile in my shoes and you may feel differently. Have you had images of your children or clients children put on inappropriate sites? How do you think knowledge of that would change your business? Your clients perspective? Honestly answer that question and see if you still feel the same way. Have you had someone create identities that appear to be you and email your friends, family and colleagues? Have you had someone steal words, text and images off your site that you worked long and hard on? it is NOT free advertising. it is theft and it is illegal. encouraging someone to partake in it is irresponsible to the profession.
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Jenna Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 2:02 am
I wrote out a long response but then I changed my mind and decided to keep it simple.
What has happened to you is awful. But YOU CHOSE to put your work in an environment with very few jurisdiction.
You can prevent these things from happening to you. Take all of your content down. But I’m willing to take that risk.
I am very sorry for the awful situation you’ve been put in because of the laziness, greed, and disrespect of others. I read your post and I absolutely think you should take action and publicly call out those who are acting illegally. It’s not unprofessional, it’s jealous.
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I totally agree with you when it comes to photography, Jenna. And while I really would like to think like Leo Balbuta on this (see:
http://writetodone.com/2009/04/29/the-culture-of-sharing-why-releasing-copyright-will-be-the-smartest-thing-you-do/), it still sucks to have your words stolen. Unlike with a photo, you can’t put a logo on words.
The success of the whole ‘free copyright for all’ concept is dependent upon the assumption that people will give fair attribution. And while there are many awesome people out there who credit the originators of content they use or borrow, others don’t. I guess all we can do is hope the ones that do outnumber the ones that don’t.
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26I just remembered that a long time ago, before I put a copyright on my pictures, someone stole a picture of one of my African orphans and used it on a website that I don’t agree with without asking me or recognizing me. I was mad and they took it down.
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27I do have to say that people don’t just steal photo’s because they admire your work, sometimes they are lazy to take their own picture, or don’t have the ability, or don’t want to spend any money. However you take it, it’s stealing. It’s taken me a while to put stuff online because I know the risk. But there’s no putting it on line without the risk, so there ya go. It’s just no fun other people trying to get away with stealing the honor. Neither is it fun when a magazine steals a photo for publication when they know they should pay!
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