Hello everyone
I wonder if you could give me a little advice concering photographs on the internet.
Hubby and I have recently become Eddie Stobart spotters. I have taken dozens of pics and uploaded them to a fanclub website. Today a member told us, he has taken thousands of our photos and burned them onto a CD and is selling them on e-bay. He thinks he has hit on brilliant money making idea and wondered why no one else as done this.
There's a few of us members who are a little upset at this, we share the pics freely but we are annoyed that someone has decided to make money from this, especially as the pics are ones that we took.
This member seems to think he is not infringing any copyright issues because buyers are paying for his time searching for the pics and the actuall CD. (Personally I said, if people want to see Eddie Stobard pictures all they need to do is type the name into Google images and they will be hit with millions.) lol
I did warn this member that if one of my pics is on his CD then I would be seeking Lawyer advice. (Empty threat but it might work!)
So what is the copyright guidelines of pictures on the internet?
Gail x
As I understand it the photos are protected under your copyright unless you have given permission for them to be used elsewhere. He has no officail right to either copy them to his computer and certtainly not to cds for sale.
chris
surely the copyright is owned by Eddie Stobart, they are his lorries and his logo, the person selling pic's of his company making money from someone else business, people are buying ES merchandise but it is not endorsed by ES themselves.
If i took a picture of a coca-cola bottle and sold the pic im sure coca-cola would be on my back and taking me to court, (by the way i haven't took any pic's:D)
sure you can take pic's for your own private use, but making money from someone else i would think not
this is just my thoughts, im no legal expert:D
The copyright lies with the photographer - the photos were taken (I assume) in a public area and are just records of that space.
chris
Chris is spot on. The person who took the photo's owns the copyright, and just because they are being displayed on a website does not transfer ownership of copyright to any other person unless the terms of use of that website explicitly state that so that the person uploading their own images understands the transference of copyright.
A person taking images from the internet and selling them when they are not their own images IS breaching copyright and is liable to legal action and could potentially be sued for damages (especially if the original owner uses those own images for their own business interest so would be losing revenue).
If you don't know the personal details of this person you can get your solicitor/lawyer to contact the website of which he is a member, stating the breach of copyright that has come to light and the legal need to obtain his details for legal action purposes. Then seek court action to have him cease his actions and potentially make a claim for monies owed due to misuse of copyrighted material.
All Love and Reiki Hugs
complain to Ebay, they will investigate and may prevent him selling them
Thank you everyone for your replies. I have been in touch with e-bay and let them know. I am pleased to know that the pics do belong to their owners after all. We have let this member know but he still can't see the harm in it. We have also asked him if our pics are on his CD and he won't tell us, so basically we are going to have to buy the CD to see and there is no way I want to line his pockets.
Will see what e-bay do about it.
Thanks again
Gail x
Well, if he's told you he's taken your photo's and is selling them, then it's probably a good bet that he is, so you don't need to buy one.
Of course, if you're planning legal action, you could obtain one for evidential purposes and then claim that money back from him as part of your costs for taking legal action.
Just a quick point, if Eddie Stobart has trademarked his logo or whatever, photographers can't republish it without his permission. If not, the copyright lies with the photographer, and this applies to international law as well under the Berne Convention. I find it impressive, in a bad way, that he actually openly admitted to selling these for profit.
Well I contacted Eddie Stobard and E-bay and heard nothing from both of them. I've warned this guy NOT to use my pics so if he does I'll have a case. Seems e-bay and Stobarts don't care though.
Angel x
Eddie Stobart is unlikely to care as your photo's and the others by followers of his trucks are good advertising for him. The only time he would have an issue would be if you were trying to pass off the pictures as "official" photo's as if they were authorised by his company. In that case you would be breaching the trademark as you would be using the name as if you were authorised to do so, which you're not.
All Love and Reiki Hugs
Others are absolutely right. As long as you took the photos in a public place the copyright is yours. The issue about Eddie Stobarts trademark being in the photos, while worth noting does not change the copyright position. Trademark law is designed to stop you passing yourself off as part of the company or to gain benefit from their trademark and as you say the photos are for yours and other's enjoyment.
Besides Stobbart enjoys having such a loyal following of fans and actively encourages them to photgraph their trucks.
There is an issue if you were publishing people in the photograph (in that they must consent to being photographed) In the commercial world this means getting a model release form signed (Again less applicable to your case as the photos were for your own enjoyment){Can you imagine getting your family to sign a model release for all those holiday snaps :D}
As this individual is in effect selling stolen goods, I am surprised that ebay is not interested as it is a breach of their terms and conditions.
This is a bit 'bolting th stable door..' but you might want to consider watermarking the photos in the future as this embeds the copyright information visually in the photograph and cannot be easily removed. Many free software programs do this (I use GIMP)
Hope that you get some satisfaction - sounds like a really frustraiting situation.
Copyright lies originally the photograph taker but in this case the copyright rules imposed by the fanclub website where angel user posted might supreme rule. For under that rules only those snaps are shared on public sites. Sharing the name of that fan club site might help here. Anyway it might be protected under creative common use for not using any material for commercial purposes. So the user can ask ebay to stop selling the cd in context with supportive proof of ownership over it.
Additionally the user can consult for legal advice if the revenue concern is that serious other she might need to bear with her loss. Regrets!