Some things… you just shouldn’t do…

You gotta love how my blog is turning into one big rant space…

So last night, while milling around Facebook… I noticed a “Friend” posted some new images to an album.
One of the images was mine that we (the friend and I) shot a few weeks back for an editorial, but something was off.
The proportions were off, so I investigated further.
Not only was my watermark removed…but this friend had put their own in it’s place.

As you can see in the image.. I expressed my displeasure. I proceded to email this person and request that they take down EVERY image of mine, from Facebook, or anywhere else they may have been posted by her, and that her rights to use my images have been taken away.
The offenses aren’t limited to just Facebook… On her website…images have been cropped, and watermarked by her… but they have also been “edited” beyond what I provided.
This is absolutely unacceptable without my permission.

The following is her response to that email:

“The Only reason they are cropped is because you put your “phone number”
so big in every single picture. I’ve never had a photographer give me
unedited photos with their phone number on the picture. It’s not
professional and I put my own watermark on them to ensure no one would
take the pic…my site is in flash.
I work too hard to take those pictures down so if you want a copyright
watermark that I’ve seen on your facebook photos that’s fine send me
those. You had your name and number too big on the picture it was
distracting.
You can be upset but Im a stylist with a professional site and I’m not
going be advertising photographers..so u can send me those with a
proportional watermark that’s not giantic distracting viewers from your
work.”

Now… She has a point… The images I send out have a fairly big watermark that stretches across the entire bottom of the image… but it serves a very important purpose… It “inspires” people to contact me for an un-watermarked version to which I ask where its going to be placed. Those too lazy to ask, have to deal with a big obnoxious watermark.
But, its a simple matter of asking me for another copy.. and I am happy to oblige.

However… she has no inherent rights to my images. As far as the LAW is concerned those images wouldn’t exist if I wasn’t there to hit the shutter. Of course there are all kinds of moral conundrums associated with this… but the bottom line is that the Photographer and ONLY the photographer has the absolute right to do with the images what he/she wants.
The one exception is a person’s likeness…(hence the need for model releases)

Here is my response to that email:

“I understand your concern about the watermark ..
But you are missing the point…

You modified my images without my permission… Had you asked before making changes I would have provided you unwatermarked images.

You also are missing the fact that you edited the images beyond what I did… That changes MY work…

At the end of the day April… those images are my property, and I have the absolute right to say and do with them as I please.

I want you to remove every image from your website, and anywhere else you have them.
You right to use my artwork has been revoked, and nothing is going to change that.
This goes for your blog as well (even tho nothing was changed about those images).

So you can take them down yourself… Or I can send a DMCA to Godaddy and they will do it for you.

If you aren’t familiar with a DMCA take down notice… you should read up on it.”

Her response:

“I took them down..but you wouldn’t of given me images with just your copyright if that was the case you would have done it in the first place. Your whole purpose was to advertise. I know about DMCA and you are missing the point that I’m not out trying to steal your credit or claim someone else did the work that you did. I get that its your work, but I’m glad that this happen so in the future I know what to put in a written contract to ensure that if a photographer wants to work for free with me he won’t be able to put anything other than his copyright name..and not send me pics for me to use….advertising his work.”

Moral of the story children…
The images you collaborate on…belong only to ONE person…
The Photographer…
Don’t assume you have any right to alter or use images you worked on. They are NOT your property.
99.9% of photographers…Including me… are more than happy to accomodate any reasonable requests you may have with regards to images produced. Removing a watermark, or editing an image for you is not a big deal, and is a totally legitimate request (in most cases).
But NEVER assume that it’s ok to alter another persons artwork without their permission.

If she would have only asked… all of this would have been avoided.

UPDATE: After sending a DMCA notice via Facebook… the offending image has been removed.