WalMart printed copyrighted material

[Lyncca]

Hey guys,

I'm not sure what I should do about this, if anything because of the circumstances, but I wanted to see what y'all thought.

I recently took pictures of a friends baby when he was born and sent out the pictures in an email to her friends and family. The pictures had a black border on them and had at the bottom, "© Lyncca 2008". In fact, some of them are the exact same photos in this thread:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=113809&highlight=newborn

Anyway, she got out of the hospital and sent me an email and said she was sending them to Walmart to get printed and wanted to know if she needed to do anything specific. Before I could get in touch to tell her that I needed to give her a print-ready copy, she had already sent them, but then called and said, that because of the copyright, she didn't think they would print them anyway, which she realized after sending them, but before I got hold of her.

Meanwhile, I met her that evening and she had the printed photos! Walmart printed them INCLUDING the freaking copyright on them! (and they turned out great since they were only 4x6.)

I guess the whole point is that I was going to give them to her, but I wanted her family to pay me for any prints. I'm not upset with her at all, especially since she realized and called me about it, but I can't believe they printed them without confirming her ID at all.

My friends just say that, "oh, all you could do if you sued was get the ink and paper". Now, I'm not even planning to sue, but its not the point of the ink and paper, now is it?

Any advice?

 

[Big Mike]

I'll bet that when you send photos into Wal-mart (or any other lab) there is small writing somewhere that says "By clicking/sending these image, you own the copyright to the images."...or something along those lines. I believe that they have gotten into trouble before, and I would think that they have covered their own @ss.

When someone brings photos into the store, they should not be printed but I believe that the customer kiosks also have a disclaimer screen....so if people are ordering prints...they are ignoring some type of warning about copyright.

 

[Lyncca]

Yea, I wouldn't be surprised about the disclaimer, but someone had to physically process them or look at them at some point. I don't think Jane Doe who picks them up is anything close to Lyncca. :er:

I obviously don't want my friend in any trouble (and like I said, I was giving them to her regardless), but it chaps my hide that anyone can just any pic and go print it and the chain can just say, "well they signed a disclaimer..."

 

[Big Mike]

Well, that's just it. If someone walks into Wal-mart and asks for a copy of a print that they have...they will most likely (hopefully) be turned away.

But if someone has confirmed that they own the copyright, either via the web site or the kiosk, what else is a Wal-mart employee to do? The certainly can't question everyone...and if the images have a copyright right on them, they would assume that the person either was the photographer or owned the rights.

There are ways to prevent this type of thing. Don't be so free with your files (maybe not applicable to this scenario), or maybe use a watermark copyright that is right over the image. That way, if someone wants a print without the watermark, they will have to come to you.

 

[Lyncca]

Yea, I certainly won't be very free with my files. Honestly, I didn't think they would print anyway since they were only web ready.

Now, I am just telling people they can view them on my gallery, and order through there (just set up smugmug today) or contact me and I can help them.

 

[Big Mike]

I've been doing some research into putting some sort of print ordering system onto my web site or using a service that handles it for me.

 

[JIP]

Well you did give them the images if you wanted to add a cavaeat to them you should have told them. I am not sure how people might have reacted to "you can have them but your friends will have to pay for them". If yo want to sell them sell them if you are doing a favor for a friend just do it.

 

[Garbz]

Ha so for all the crap walmart put people through as discussed in the other thread they have completely failed the one time it would have legitimately prevented a copyright infringement.

GG walmart!