Learned A Business Lesson In Photography

[Ballistics]

For school assignments, I need to have all of my subjects sign waivers as a part of the assignment. It's all for fun, but it's just to get us used to having waivers a part of our work flow.
So Thursday night, my wife brought one of her acquaintances to the school's studio and we got started. I told her I needed her to sign a waiver, but left it at that and went on with the shoot. Everything went well but I completely forgot to get her signature. Oh well, I guess I'll just have my wife contact her and get it later.

The following night, last night, I upload the image onto facebook and I tag her in it. She doesn't respond to it or anything. She downloads the image, and then uploads it onto her wall. My wife, seeing this, asks her to tag her makeup page(she did her makeup) and my photography page in the image, or at least make a mention of it in the comments. No response. A few hours later she makes it her default image. My wife sends her another message with no response.

So now, I have no signature, and for some reason this girl is ignoring my wife's messages. I'm not out money or anything, but I learned to make it a vital point to get the signature before hand. Glad the lesson was learned on such a small scale, and luckily the images aren't worth anything anyway lol.

 

[MLeeK]

I think that every one of us has forgotten the signature a time or two. I've done it so many times I can't count. Once in a great while you will end up with a problem, but not often.
If it's a problem and continues to be a problem you can request Facebook remove it from her page as a copyright violation.

 

[gsgary]

Big deal its Facebook so what delete all her photos

 

[Ballistics]

Big deal its Facebook so what delete all here photos

I know you're not a fan of facebook Gary lol. It's not a big deal at all which is what's nice about learning a lesson in these circumstances.
However, she downloaded the image from my page and then uploaded it so I don't have any immediate control.

 

[Ballistics]

I think that every one of us has forgotten the signature a time or two. I've done it so many times I can't count. Once in a great while you will end up with a problem, but not often.
If it's a problem and continues to be a problem you can request Facebook remove it from her page as a copyright violation.

Yeah, It'll probably be resolved within a few days. And if it isn't, it's not really something to lose sleep over fortunately.

 

[jamesbjenkins]

Like you said, be glad you learned that lesson as painlessly and without loss of any revenue!

 

[tirediron]

Lesson learned!

 

[pixmedic]

Somewhat on topic, i learned to get the patients signature at first contact whenever possible. If i forget to get it, the company cant bill for it.

 

[gsgary]

I know you're not a fan of facebook Gary lol. It's not a big deal at all which is what's nice about learning a lesson in these circumstances.
However, she downloaded the image from my page and then uploaded it so I don't have any immediate control.

Contact Facebook they wiltake it down

 

[imagemaker46]

Signatures are usually an afterthought in a lot of cases, I've gone through it several times in my career. The downside was that one of my images fell into the wrong hands and a lawsuit against me was started by the person in the photo. To make it clear, the lawsuit was filed against the person who used the photo without having a release signed, they in turn tried to sue me for not having a signed release. The photo was never intended to be used in the first place, as I had just dropped off samples of my work with a potential client, if was this client that used the photo.

I talked to the lawyer representing the person in the photo and explained what happened, we cleared things from my side and the suit was eventually settled without me being involved. It was however a very stressful few months.

 

[Overread]

Before you start sending takedown orders and getting legalities involved I would honestly just try talking to the person in person not through the net. Copyright is something they do not teach in schools and the generation that has grown up with the net basically has no idea what so ever that copying and using images for personal use can be against the law. Indeed there are many (old and young) who encourage it and its simply an area they don't know any better about.

A personal and polite discussion is most likely all you need to explain your position and the seriousness of what the client did. After that if they' still refuse to budget then you can get all legal.

Note also that many people are -- well - very slow at reacting to demands placed through the net - communication is often seen as not being "as serious" or something that requires instant action.

 

[Ballistics]

Before you start sending takedown orders and getting legalities involved I would honestly just try talking to the person in person not through the net. Copyright is something they do not teach in schools and the generation that has grown up with the net basically has no idea what so ever that copying and using images for personal use can be against the law. Indeed there are many (old and young) who encourage it and its simply an area they don't know any better about.

A personal and polite discussion is most likely all you need to explain your position and the seriousness of what the client did. After that if they' still refuse to budget then you can get all legal.

Note also that many people are -- well - very slow at reacting to demands placed through the net - communication is often seen as not being "as serious" or something that requires instant action.

I was never going to take any action against her or anything of that nature lol. She ignored texts and messages etc. However my wife was able to finally get in touch with her, and she agreed to meet up on Monday. She still hasn't given any credit however, so my wife just left a comment under the image.