Unauthorised Use of Photographs

I wonder if anyone can tell me where a photographer stands when they find their photographs being used by a Company in their advertising for the sale of cameras, without any sort of permission being sought or given or any credit being made to the photographer.

I came across a Turkish (Sorry Gonul)  Nikon site using 30 of my photographs to advertise the Nikon Coolpix S3100 camera.  I have sent them an email!  I also emailed Nikon UK because Nikon USA don't seem to have a way of contacting them other than by letter or phone.

The URL for the site is  http://www.turknikon.com/nikon-kompakt/stil/nikon-coolpix-s3100 - just in case they decide to remove the photos!  You can be my witnesses!

So - does one have any legal rights or recourse in a situation like this?  Anyone know? 

If nothing else CathyML start by taking a screenshot. Clearly if you took the photographs you own the copyright, and they do have to seek your permission to use them, with an inevitable cost.

Failing that of course you have a Court case on your hands.

Hopefully there will be a POE member, a legal beagle, to respond regards your dilemma.

C&S may be able to help you, I will mention it to them.

Good idea Ron and I have taken the screenshots. Thanks for your input, much appreciated!

I haven't really given any thought to this before as I only take shots for fun so I am quite ignorant about the do's and dont's of the situation!

I had this situation last year when I noticed a local not-for-profit group seemed to have hi-jacked five of my pictures from PoE, for use on their own website. Before I went out with all guns blazing, I was careful to make sure that the images really were mine by noting the matching features on the images eg shapes of clouds, shadows, times on clocks etc. What really riled me was that they had put their own copyright on my pics !!! 

My first action was to contact the Webmaster of the offending site pointing out the images were copyrighted, and drawing their attention to PoE's Terms & Conditions. It was initially difficult to get a response from the Webmaster, but eventually I got a telephone number and explained that the images were copyright and any use (even for not-for-profit) required acknowledgement both of myself as the photographer and PoE as the site owner. The Webmaster told me that 'someone had found the images for him off the web', as if this let him off the hook. I was not impressed.

To be fair, once they realised that PoE's T&Cs required acknowledgement of the source, they displayed my name and PoE as the source on each of my images on their website.

Maybe I was lucky in that the organisation involved was local, and I knew where they were located ! In the case of unauthorised use of images by an overseas website, it is obviously more difficult, but I would try contacting the Webmaster of the offending site in the first instance, and see if this gives any joy.

PS While writing this post, CathyML's next post came in, and I see the images were taken off Flickr...not sure what Flickr's T&Cs are......I assumed that the pics had been lifted off PoE 

Has anyone else spotted the latest picture of Micks original Keswick photo, number 1131952  being passed off as someone elses? ...I was going to post a comment because it was so good, then saw that Mick has written his own comment, pointing out the fact it's his.

I am suprised that Mick hasn't posted a thread, and in his defence I agree with him.

.Maybe the new member doesn't understand the rules.

Thanks for pointing this out Karen. I have deleted the recent 1131952 picture.

This is totally unacceptable for which the offender could be sued by Mick for copyright. The offenders account will be deleted if it happens again.

Cathy--I see that the Nikon Turkey blog your photos are on are now credited to you with a link to your Flickr page;in fact, on Flickr for the S3100 camera for Interestingness, guess whose photos come up the most? I think the problem is also your photos are too nice!  Is the 3100 still current down there? In the UK , it's been superseded by the Nikon S3200.   And. happy birthday to you too Cathy.

Edward--you might find a website Tineye usefull, especially used with Google Chrome for comparing images as actually the same one no matter how much it might have been altered, if it's been found by them plus tells you which sites are using an image that might be yours and not one that just appears to be similar. 

Paul, Thanks for that tip - I have just added the TinEye plug-in to Chrome and it looks very useful. I suspect it would not work for images that have been incorporated into slide-shows, as my series of stolen pics had been, but nevertheless, a very useful add-on.

I agree with your comments about Cathy's pics being too nice.....it is flattering to have your pics used by others...  but not without acknowledgement, or without payment if used commercially ! 

It was surprising to find a company the calibre of Nikon doing what they did and their reply holds no water as all Cathy's photos are copyrighted as All Rights Reserved. 

Nikon's reply next page has updated the situation and it's a private person, not Nikon, Turkey. 

I thought Cathy's table top photo of a volcano going off was brilliant.