Need advice on photo ownership

375ultramag · Nov 26, 2013

I was featured on the from page of a Calendar in Alaska last year for a business. The photo's in the calendar were 16x24 and had photo credits on them.

Recently a friend phoned me to congratulate me on my contract with Walmart. I asked what she was talking about and she said she seen a framed print that she recognized as mine in Walmart in Fairbanks. I hopped in the car and drove down to the Walmart in Wasilla which is 350 miles away and sure enough. There is my picture framed and for sale for $31.00 in a 16x24

I took the picture and purchased it. Then found the manager and asked where they got it from and who the photographer was. They told me the name of the local business they got it from. All 6 of the pictures in that calendar where in Walmart for sale.

I contacted the company last week about this and they are pretty upset as they go out of their way to put out high end calendars every year with only 6 photos in them.

It is obvious what this other business has done was scan each picture, crop off the photo credits and then frame and sell them to Walmart.

I do not have the photo registered with the copyright office.

What are my options and what would you do. I know this photo is in 8 Alaska Walmarts.

Thanks for any advice

Ysarex · Nov 26, 2013

Lawyer.

hirejn · Nov 27, 2013

This looks like a pretty clear violation. However, it's possible when you submitted to the calendar you gave the company the right to sell your work in various forms. This is why the terms of contests and other generic vanity submissions should be reviewed carefully. A forum is not a good place for actual legal counsel. You would have to get that on your own. It's harder to get damages if your images are not registered. But for the price of registration it's something to look at.

bryguy_ASU · Nov 27, 2013

This kind of reminds me of that photographer who recently won a settlement from pictures used and distributed without permission. Pictures were grabbed off Twitter. Not sure about fine print from that calendar site.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Phot...um=ForumSoftpedia&utm_campaign=ForumSoftpedia

Overread · Nov 27, 2013

hirejn reading the post it sounds like the calendar company has not sold the photo to a 3rd party; it was their product that was copied and edited before being re-printed and then sold to Walmart by a 3rd company acting without permission from either the photographer or the Calendar company.

Best advice is to consult a lawyer with regard to this, you may also want to discuss matters with the calendar printing company as they might also be taking legal action.

vintagesnaps · Nov 27, 2013

Have you checked back with the company who made the calendar? I would think about staying in touch with them to find out what they're doing about it if the photos were taken from their calendar and printed and sold at WalMart by another business (who must not be too reputable to do that). I didn't realize a chain store would sell prints (or anything for that matter) just in local or regional stores.

I think you can still register the photo with the US Copyright Office even if it's been some time since you took the photo and it's already been used in some way. I'm not sure of the website offhand, make sure if you do a search for it that you're on the official US gov't. website (I've noticed that searches seem to sometimes show imposter sites in the results) - I think the site is .gov, if you look on the site you should find how to submit your work for copyright.

Or try looking on ASMP's site, they have info. about copyright. Supposedly it's better to try to pursue violations if you have copyrighted your work.