‘Stolen’ Images - What To Do Next

The casual term for this is ‘Image Theft’ or ‘Stealing’ but what is really happening is that your copyright is being infringed upon. The development of the digital age has made it incredibly easy to upload your photos to the internet and in front of a wider audience. Something that not so long ago was a lot more difficult to do. It’s thanks to social media and large photo-sharing websites such as Flickr and 500px, that make this possible for us do now, but with a positive comes a negative: copyright infringement.

This was something that happened to me quite recently, and it was only thanks to a friend spotting my image (pictured above), that I could do something about this. In the depths of the internet, it was being used by a government agency of all people! APHA (The Animal Plant & Health Agency), had used and credited my image in one of their blogs about red squirrel, but had not asked permission to do this, so where did I go from here?

It is very tempting to go in ‘all guns blazing’, but trust me it’s important to resolve the issue in a professional and calm manner. I researched my options on the best way to handle this and there are a couple of outcomes to aim for. Firstly, a request to remove the photo from their website. Or, payment for the photo’s use and an allowance for them to continue using it under a proper license. Another option is payment and removal, but this is sometimes harder to achieve. Some cases do go as far as taking the company/person to court, but this is an expensive headache and can be a long drawn out process. However, sometimes it is unavoidable so it should be your last port of call.

I chose to go with option 2) Payment for the photo’s use and an allowance for them to continue using it under a proper license.

Because APHA are such a big organisation it was easy to find their contact details, however if you’re dealing with a website that’s a bit tricky, have a look in the menu or in the page’s footer (the bottom of the page) for a ‘Contact Us’ link. If this gets you nowhere, then try Googling “Website Address” Contact Email – make sure to use the quotation marks too. If this still doesn’t help you then a final check on who owns the domain name is another option to try. Head over to whois.com and type in the website address. It’ll give you all of the details of who registered that website – unless they’ve paid to protect their information. If you’re lucky, you’ll now have their telephone number, email address and even registered address.

So after finding APHA’s contact information, I put together a letter to send to them with all the relevant information and evidence about their copyright infringement. It’s really important to obtain evidence of the photos unauthorised use - I did this by taking screenshots of the blog and made sure the date, time, etc. were all included. 

To have an idea on what to write I did a quick Google search to find examples, it’s a balance of keeping things professional and showing you mean business, but not appearing aggressive in your delivery. It’s also important to across like you know what you are talking about, if you don’t then you’re more likely to have no success and have your bluff called. 

Nobody will actively welcome an invoice for your photo, but at the same time they don’t want to get into legal difficulties. Introduce yourself as the photographer of the work, and include your screenshot/photo. Explain that they have infringed your copyright, which is illegal, and that you have attached an invoice which will allow them to continue using the photo and settle the matter.   

The invoice should amount to your usual fees for such usage, plus a margin for ‘damages’. The latter is optional though, and remember that the more you charge, the less likely it is you’ll get the matter settled quickly. Because I was unsure on what usage fees I should be charging them, I went to Alamy.com and searched for a similar image under Rights Managed usage.

Fortunately I was lucky and APHA handled the situation really well and paid the fee that I asked for, but chose not to continue using the image. However, not all companies will be like this so don’t be afraid to follow them up with further emails, phone calls, and even social media if they are being particularly stubborn. The important thing is to not give up!