Sorry for the vent, but Im beyond frustrated with the lack of respect for Intellectual property rights. I'm wondering how any one else is handling this issue if at all.
What I'm facing is clients are giving, selling or trading my images to their designers and other venders without my permission. We have even had one designer come to us asking for the photos, we said sure no problem for a (crazy low price per image). She said no thanks I wanted them for free. A few months later we see her flyers in one of the homes we were shooting with our images all over it. Turns out when we wouldn't just give her the images she went to our client and they did. It's a hard place to be in. We want happy relationships with other venders and our clients, but it's not ok to infringe on our copy rights. Every image that I deliver comes with a clearly written usage agreement that is non transferable.
Love to hear any thoughts. This is a problem that is continuing to grow. Im see our images being used more and in places and ways they should be and not by our clients.
Sorry for offending anyone if I do, but I think part of the problem in this part of our business is more real-state photographers are starting to shoot for commercial builders and they don't fully understand how to license their images and price themselves correctly, in the commercial photography world. They are giving it away for almost free.
We need to communicate more with each other and be more transparent with pricing and licensing.
We as photographers in the advertising world are already pretty invisible to the every day person. When someone sees a great image they don't think "What a great photograph" they think "Man I'd love to live in that house." which is our job and thats great, but man it makes marking ourselves hard and now we have to fight for our intellectual property rights as well.
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. :-)
I guess the nice way to say it is welcome to the business. The problem is respect. There are a lot of people who don't respect anyone's work unless it's their own. They feel like they should be paid but don't want to pay anyone else. I've run into this a few times myself and sadly the only way I've found to deal with it is to explain that you are the copyright holder and they have violated your copyright. I have found that sending a bill for the violation sometimes gets paid but normally I have to have my attorney send a cease and desist letter. Sadly this is the world we live in today. Hope that helps
I think that's the direction we are going in I'm just concerned with burning bridges.
Someone that doesn't respect you or your property isn't a relationship (bridge) worth keeping.
Even though it's every photographer's right to go after thieves, I choose my battles carefully. Going through the stress of lawyering up, really isn't worth it on smaller gigs or projects I don't particularly identify with. I'll take the paycheck and move on to the clients I do care about. If the offending party wants you to do another gig, I slap them with a big warning and haven't had problems after that point. Much better to be preventative than to retaliate. But that's just my opinion, man.
In my few years of experience I've found architects to be the most respectful of copyright. A huge part of their job is documenting everything about a project, largely to avoid the chance of being sued (e.g. did the drawings say use nails on the roof, or did the contractor use nails when the drawings said it must be secured with brackets... $10,000's at stake over water damage and replacement).
I find that a strongly worded yet fair message on how you've only licensed the images to the commissioning party, paired with documented usage of the images by the infringer, goes a long way. Hey, you don't have a usage license, only Party 1 does...
Anyone have any good websites that explain this stuff? I'm thinking of a link that could be included in an email that explains the concepts clearly, gives examples of penalties for copyright infringement, etc.
Welcome to business. Theft is part of most businesses. There are several ways to deal with it and as a businessperson you need to decide which is appropriate to each case. Suing a blogger with no money will cost you money for no real benefit. If the culprit is a business then it is more worthwhile to pursue.
As you are in US you should learn about your two most important tools.
1. Copyright registration - this can be done easily and cheaply (all images shot in a 90 day period can be registered in one batch for $55. If anyone infringes during the 90 days or after registration you can sue and be awarded statutory damages of up to $30,000 ($150,000 for a wilful infringement).
Obviously you don't want to have to go to court but having the ability to claim statutory damages is a great big stick you can wave at people. You send them a letter pointing out the infringement and the fact that statutory damages apply. You then offer to settle the matter by granting them a license for the use of the image for only $1,000 (or whatever your normal fee plus some extra for "damages".
If they wont settle it is much easier to get a lawyer willing to sue on contingency because they know they can claim statutory damages and their fees.
2. DMCA take down notice. In cases where it isn't worth sueing cos they have no money you ask them to remove the image. If they don't you send a DMCA take down notice to their web host.
The above things are a bit complex and time consuming the first time you do them but once you know the system it can be done quickly.
I do understand that this is part of the business it not a new problem. It just gets old to have to deal with it. Its not like I don't have enough to do. I really think it comes down to the lack of knowledge for some of our clients. New policy starting today is making sure out clients understand their usage agreement at the first meeting. We never have this problem with our bigger corporate clients.
Thanks for all the responses.
Are your clients real estate agents? That sounds really aggravating, but one positive is that your images are well received, if not in a disrespectful way.
You could try to get ahead of this issue by letting your clients know they can save money by splitting the fees. A standard way to do this in the architecture field is to add 33% to the total cost for each party, and then split the total evenly.