Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hello TPMG members,

I think it's my 2-3rd time posting a real post.. Always have been surfing around the forum tho!
I have encountered a infringement of copyright..
A newspaper company has used my image without my permission, no reference to where they got the image, altered the image, cropped the photo and removed my watermark.
It started with me, doing a favour to a sports team.
I gave the edited files to the sports team, for the purpose to post on their websites and for personal use.
A member of the sports team, gave the picture to a news reporter, who then posted on his article on the internet and ran it through press. The newspaper is sold at $1.00 each. The newspaper company is currently sponsoring the league for the articles to be posted on their newspaper.
I have contacted a copyright specialist and she told me to first contact the sports team, then ask the newspaper company for a compensation regards to usage of my image. I did exactly that.
The newspaper writer then contacted the sports league committee to pay for that usage on behalf for them.
According to copyright acts and bill c-11, we have rights for our images, even if the client paid us for commission work, when being posted publicly and/or being used for profit, to get compensated.

I am currently in process of getting ready to suing the newspaper company/ reporter for infringing copyrights of my image.

Just to let you guys know that when you are giving your files to your clients, don't forget to put watermarks, have the copyright section of the image filled (press: shift+option+command+I in photoshop to access XMP data of your image), and make a contract with your clients regarding your image usage. Also, news reports ARE allowed to post your photos without your permission, AS LONG AS there's a reference of the author of the image. Failed to do so, is an infringement.

I hope my experience with this kind of topic is of any value to our forum...
It's also my first experience with this sort. So if you know more, please let me know below...!! I need all the help I can get!!!

Thank you~!!

This is something that happens far too often unfortunately. Good luck and please let us know how it goes!

Thanks for the info, keep us updated on the outcome

take it easy with the action you choose. not to say don't take action, just think it out well before. it is likely the newspaper didn't know the rights to the image didn't belong to the person that provided them. a simple explenation and a request to remove the photo and correct the lack of your paternal right would be sufficient. i wouldn't make a big stink about it because it might hurt your relationship with these people, or even your reputation. until you've notified the paper, they've done nothing wrong.

when i was sixteen i took portraits of my friend and his bmx. he was sponsored and up and coming. a german bike company was coming out with a signature bike frame for him, and the bike rider provided one of my portraits to be used on the packaging. it was an international company and my first published photo. i didn't find out about it until months later. no compensation, not even my paternal right was honoured. i lost my mind and scared them with a lawsuit. it got my friend, the rider, in major hot water and all parties involved distanced themselves from me as fast as they could. this should have been a great happening in my early career, instead it was the last and only time i worked in the sector.

you have every right to have final say how your work is used until you license those rights to someone else. i fully support fighting to maintain those rights. i just warn caution to how you go about it. if you are at the point in your career that your work is starting to be used by other people for their needs i think you should look in to becoming a carfac member/

I think that it's naive to think that the newspaper didn't know that there might be a rights issue. These days they seem to do everything that they can to get 'free' images and video, to the point of really not caring what the ultimate source was.