Is it legal for somebody to do this?

[GeorgieGirl]

Photos should be like Master Keys to buildings where a Do Not Duplicate is impressioned on to the Brass Key. And is respected by any other Locksmith to say NO to.

 

[KmH]

I know that once you take a picture, it's automatically copy-written by you. Well, if you don't give somebody the permission to "edit" pictures you've taken, and they do, could they get in trouble for this? I've had a couple people edit my pictures, and honestly, it made me mad. It was kind of a slap in the face. I took my time and put it into those pictures..And there they are putting stupid little boarders around them and stuff. Really?

Has anyone done this to you? Is this "legal"?

Not that I would take this anywhere (like court), but what would you do in a situation like this?

Just for clarity... copyright...not copywrite..so it is copyrighted, not copy-written.

www.copyright.gov

The FBI won't be knocking on their door anytime soon. (actually, criminal copyright violations are handled by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, go figure).

The only way they can get into trouble for that, is if you sue them for copyright infringement in federal court, or for breach of contract in local civil court.

You can't sue for breach unless a contract is involved (verbal or written), and you can't sue for infringement in federal court unless your copyright(s) are registered with the US Copyright Office. U.S. Copyright Office - Registering a Work (FAQ)

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

I think KMH covered it well. Start adding something to the contract. IF there is no contract, make an invoice and add some stipulations that they must sign off on ( thus making a more low key contract ). It pisses me off too, partly cause I am a control freak haha. I hate when family asks for pics and even re-crops them. I always ask ( what sizes do you want ) so I can compose them in a decent manner but they always beat around the bush about it. They don't comprehend why I ask (aside from the whole enlarging and reducing issues involved ) that cropping essentially destroys what I created. Its like taking a painting of a balanced landscape You decide you don't like one of the rock formations on the one side, so you trim it off, and then hang it in your house. Now you have an unbalanced painting that was not the artists intention. Its disrespectful. Then they sit around telling people about who took the pictures and how good they are ( like they are doing you a favor at this point ) which just makes you more irritated, because the picture infact is now inferior to your technical skill level. The problem is, the average person does not understand that. So the best way to handle it, is to be up front about it, and include it in your invoice/agreement. Thats my opinion though.

 

[vtf]

My thinking is to raise your prices and only cater to those worth sueing because your approach wont work here and they dont care or even understand. Being worried about your files after you sold them on cd is not going to stop, you will have to change your process, or just go with the flow and take advantage of it. Remember that everytime you're in small claims court, you're not shooting.

 

[mrshaleyberg]

Well, I'm not trying to sue. I'm just baffled that somebody would actually alter an image to make it look HORRIBLE. Why? If you want a ****ty looking picture, just tell me..I can make it look like ****. How I know that somebody altered a picture, was because she posted it on her facebook. It looked like she had taken it into photobucket and put a stupid boarder around it. I think it was purple?
Anyway, I didn't appreciate it. If somebody isn't happy with something, they can come to me!

At least I do have a legit printing company.

I know though, for a fact, that if I was given a cd with a few images on it (which I have been), I would not alter them. Even if they weren't to my liking.

Another thing I don't like is when somebody asks (like I got asked today) "Hey, can you give me a cd full of the raw files so I can photoshop them myself"?

Uhh..really? You're even asking me that?

 

[mrshaleyberg]

I doubt that hardly anyone really cares about your photos. Apparently this/that one did care.

I take wedding photos and give access to all of them - about 2000-2500 per wedding - to anyone who wants to give me their email.
I got a photo Christmas card from the Bride and groom that they also sent to who knows how many people and it had your "And there they are putting stupid little boarders around them and stuff. Really?"

I did not care one bit that they put a border on my photo and then bragged how cool the photo was. I was compensated for the wedding and it is done and over with. What they did do however is advertise for me for free.

I hope this wasn't one of those, "for $xx.xx you get a session and a disc of edited prints." I hate that crap.

Why do you hate that?

Because, where I am from that is what MWAC do. They do not have a legitimate printing company to process their work. Case in point, you charge upwards of $2k for a wedding and then the clients are left to print their photos at the local drug store. I don't want my work being advertised on drug store, ink jet prints.

I know what you mean! Pretty funny actually. I only gave this woman a few images on a cd, and she was willing to pay extra (only reason why I even gave them to her). At least I have a print company I go through. The woman that did pictures of my son (that got me started doing my own) gave me a cd with 10 pictures on it for 100 dollars..And then the only way for me to get them printed was to go to CVS or Walmart..But the pictures she did were horrible, so I threw the cd away anyway.

 

[arcooke]

This would piss me off too.

I need to figure out a gameplan myself.. I'm still just doing everything for free right now because I'm still new and far from ready for paid shoots. I just give them the digitals when I'm done editing and they do whatever with them.

Being that all my "clients" are just friends of mine, or friends of friends, I always see my photos pop up on their facebook pages. They post them up on facebook and the "wow great pic!" comments start rolling in.. but nobody knows who did it. Which really bugs me.

 

[Alistair]

OP,

Yes, it would bug the crap outta of me too, and the best thing has already been said. Change your process of how you are doing things if bothers you that much, other than that, it wouldn't bother me to bad if they paid for it, and that's what they want to do, so be it. Just know your better than that. =) The other option is to Watermark your pictures before you send 'em out to folks.

arcooke,

Hahaha. I have a few of those like that too, but most of my friends are pretty good about mention my name. I think a lot of it is I'm the only one with equipment, and all of that jazz. Maybe ya should speak up, and say something then in a friendly manner.

-Ali

 

[deebert]

Arcooke, I'm in the same boat but I try to mention to my friends and family that I can only get better by practicing and I that appreciate it if they spread my name around if they liked my work.

And as far as the OP, if I was given a CD of pictures that I felt I could improve (according to my personal taste) in order to feel better about hanging them on my wall, I would do so. This would be the case if the photographer gave me the CD without specifically saying "you cannot edit these in any manner". If the photographer did say "you cannot edit these in any manner" and I was unhappy with the photos, I would talk with him/her to get things straightened out so that we would both be happy.

My $0.02 - If I am paying any amount of money for photos, I expect to receive pictures that don't need tweaking. The way I see it is if you don't want them to add a purple border or crop it funny, sell them prints or make it clearly known that they are not allowed to do anything to your photos.

 

[adversus]

In the age where more and more people want their pictures digitally, I'm surprised that anybody is, well, surprised, that this happens.

Put yourself in customer's shoes. You are selling a service, skill & access to your equipment.

Your skill gives your customers:
-Proper exposure
-Proper lighting
-Proper framing/poses

Your gear gives your customers:
-Complicated lighting and exposure setups they can't accomplish on their own
-High resolution RAW files
-Tons of raw (pun intended) material to work with

Case in point, the music industry is in a death spiral right now because they've been in the business of selling plastic discs. People don't want plastic discs anymore: they limit what you can do with them. They want digital files, i.e. just the music.

I think of photography the same way. More consumers may be wanting, in this analogy, just the music, not the plastic disc. They don't want your prints as much as they used to 10 years ago. They aren't going up on the mantle like they used to. Now they're going on Facebook, into home made movies, slide shows, digital photo frames, etc.

Think of your pictures as a raw material, that your client has commissioned, and that they want to use to build something of their own. If that means a ****ty border, so be it.

Granted this point of view is probably not shared by hardly anybody else here, but that's how I think about it.

 

[John Mc]

I can see the point in being angry that the image looks worse then what you supplied her with in the first place. i suppose,its your image and an advertisment in a sence. so you'd want it to look its best.
On her Facebook,are there good comments and is there a caption saying who took it?
If theres good comments,ask for a caption up saying you took it and a link to your site or blog,might get you more bussiness.if there's no good comments.then no harm no foul,you'll just have to be upset.

 

[atabrem]

It looked like she had taken it into photobucket and put a stupid boarder around it. I think it was purple?
Anyway, I didn't appreciate it. If somebody isn't happy with something, they can come to me!

my advice about this.. is USUALLY when i hear people dealing with a situation like this, they ask the person NICELY, if they want something different done with their image, or if they'd like to see a different edit, to remove the one they have posted, and you will replace it. problem solved, no pissed off clients.
no they shouldn't be messin with your images in the first place, but it's best not to give yourself a bad name in these situations imo.

 

[sobolik]

I doubt that hardly anyone really cares about your photos. Apparently this/that one did care.

I take wedding photos and give access to all of them - about 2000-2500 per wedding - to anyone who wants to give me their email.
I got a photo Christmas card from the Bride and groom that they also sent to who knows how many people and it had your "And there they are putting stupid little boarders around them and stuff. Really?"

I did not care one bit that they put a border on my photo and then bragged how cool the photo was. I was compensated for the wedding and it is done and over with. What they did do however is advertise for me for free.

I hope this wasn't one of those, "for $xx.xx you get a session and a disc of edited prints." I hate that crap.

Why do you hate that?

Because, where I am from that is what MWAC do. They do not have a legitimate printing company to process their work. Case in point, you charge upwards of $2k for a wedding and then the clients are left to print their photos at the local drug store. I don't want my work being advertised on drug store, ink jet prints.

You should change your mind. You should encourage everyone to print all the copies they want after you get your fee/compensation. Free advertising is what every company seeks. There is no better advertising than someone spreading your photos all over the planet at no cost to you. Of course this assumes that the photos are any good and people seeing them would want to hire you.

I see pro photographer work and it don't impress me so I can see how a lack of business might be misinterpreted as they are stealing my photos and I get no business.
Why would anyone want to steal photos of someone else's wedding, family or party? they wouldn't.

ps I have never seen a drugstore use an ink jet printer. They use archival quality materials for prints that will live longer than you do.

 

[Bram]

Yo OP, How about if you are posting these online you slap a FAT watermakr over them so nobody would bother taking them? Just an idea that's what I would do.

 

[wtdeane]

This is a fight between your business sense and your artistic sensibilities.

The digital photographer now has to contend with the exact same issues Graphic Designers had to deal with 25 years ago with the Desktop Computer. Suddenly people had this sense of power and control over design in the business world they never had before. Susie Secretary was pumping out letterhead and creating business cards rather than the designer they had ben working with for years. Boss is thinking: I can save money by letting Suzie do it. Suzie is thinking: I love the creativity. Better than crunching numbers all day and doing menial things; This stuff matters!

Graphic Design, as a business has not gone away. Some designers have not been able to cope with the change and have left the business. The remaining designers had to change how they did business. I work with designers that STILL gripe about how "Business used to be", 25 years later!

This is what Digital has done, (is doing) for Photography.

There is no ONE right answer. You, as a professional photographer, have do deal with the realities your market demands. You, as an artist, can choose to work in your market fully to gain more money, or on the fringes and make some money but maintain your artistic sensibilities.

Do what is right for you. You will strike a balance with what is important to you.

Cheers!