is this article true?

[annie]

http://photothisandthat.co.uk/2013/04/29/is-the-uk-government-trying-to-kill-of-photographers/

[Guest DaveW]

Would have thought the fact your post on TIPF or similar sites says "Annie" at the top shows you are the photographer and is date stamped, plus the sites will have your email on record anyway so they can hardly be claimed as orphaned photo's?  Best idea for governments would probably be to make photo's free to publish after say 50-70 years. 

 

Lifting photo's off the Web goes on anyway and Photoshop and other Post Processing software can be used to remove copyright stamps.  If you don't want a photo pinched the golden rule is never post it on the Web.  This software says it removes dates, but the implication is that it removes any text, including copyright:-

 

http://www.softorbits.com/photo-stamp-remover/

[colinb]

some of you might like to sign this petition

 

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49422

[NannyFerret]

some of you might like to sign this petition

 

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49422

I've signed.

I would be very upset if anyone else tried to pass my photographs off as their own.

[fuzzyedges]

Looks like there isnt any brown envelopes going to the goverment from photographers only from the big companies that want everything as cheap as they can get them, to sell dearer and pay no tax

Why else would they alter the copyright rules and give it another name

Just another ill thought out bill. If this lot is good at anything its short sightedness and brain fade

[annie]

i have been and signed.....

[Guest DaveW]

As with all laws they need to be enforced. How well are copyright laws enforced anyway and can you afford the legal costs of taking a company that used your image to court hoping you would win? No doubt you would need to bring a civil action against the user yourself since I doubt the authorities would do it for you?

 

http://www.is4profit.com/business-advice/general-advice/copyright-basic-facts/claiming-and-enforcing-copyright.html

 

As I said in my earlier post many so called protections are illusory unless you personally are prepared to take the offender to court in whichever country your image was published since if used abroad off the web you would probably need to bring a case in that country = expensive unless you win.

[Guest]

I have chased people that have used my images and I have obtained payment. I got one payment from a man who initially told me to f*&^ off and assured me he knew the law and I wouldn't get a penny from him. I had several discussion with the guy offering to rent him the image for a small fee or to come to an arrangement where he could keep the image and I would have happily have settled for £20 for the image for him to use as long as he wanted. However every attempt to discuss it with him was met with verbal abuse so in the end I sent him an invoice based on a monthly usage fee for the 24 months the image had been on his site plus an unauthorised usage fee of the same amount and suggested he take proper legal advice before I went for a CCJ against him.

 

After he got proper legal advice he sent me a cheque for about 10% of the invoice I had submitted. This I accepted and sent him a revised invoice. Why did I accept 10% of the original invoice? well I had invoiced for monthly usage over a period of 24 months which came out to £2,000. he sent me a cheque for £200 as then it would be an argument about how much the image was worth and what loss I had incurred. In all honesty the image was a very poor image that I would be lucky to charge £5 for so I was happy and he thought he had scored a huge victory by getting rid of me for £200 when I had originally asked for £2000. 

 

If he had discussed it amicably with me I may have settled for just a link from his site as it was a busy site or I would have charged £20 but by being rude and abusive to me it cost him ten times that.

 

Whilst searching for help online about what to do in this case I found a piece all about how a uni had used someones image in their prospectus, He found out and invoiced them for £1300 they paid without question so it can be worth checking if people are using your images without permission. Personally I only charge people if its a company, individuals don't usually get invoiced just warned and asked to remove the image or credit me with a link.

[JohnP]

Nearly 11,000 signatures on this petition, there were only just over 700 when I signed yesterday.

 

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/49422

[Guest DaveW]

Yes bluff often succeeds if the person thinks legal costs will be more to defend it. It may have cost him more for the legal advice than he even paid you Richard. The legal landscape in the UK has also changed from how it was in the past, since we now have the American style "Ambulance Chasing" lawyers willing to use "no success no fee" as an inducement to get the public to sue anybody they think can make a profit from. We also have the example of patent wars going on with smartphone and chip makers at present, some of which they may loose, but where many will not take the risk of loosing plus the legal costs, so settle out of court. 

 

The problem these days is images lifted off the web can be used in any country, therefore you may have to pursue them in their courts not ours to get recompense. As Richard says though, you might as well try and get paid, even if it really came to the crunch you are not prepared to go to court over the matter and risk having to pay their legal costs if you loose:-

 

http://www.blogher.com/bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-using-photos-your-blog-my-story

Edited May 2, 2013 by DaveW

[fuzzyedges]

16,446 today

[Guest DaveW]

If it's an e-petition you need quite a few signatures. From the Governments Web site:-

 

"e-petitions are an easy, personal way for you to influence government and Parliament in the UK. You can create an e-petition about anything that the government is responsible for and if it gets at least 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons."

 

Good luck, you have a bit to go.