Newspaper has stolen my photo - what to do?

Guitarman0

Guitarman0

Guitarman0

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Joined
4 Dec 2009
Posts
1,669
Location
Worcestershire
So I attended the local school football game on wednesday night and was one of two photographers. After the game the team came out (once everyone had gone) and I took a team photo with the cup. I was the only photographer there (which many can back me up on). I sent the photo to my school master allowing him only to post the photo on the school website on the terms that he provided me a credit and that I retained full copyright of the photo.

My photo has somehow made its way into an edition of local newspaper. I did not receive or make contact with worcester news at any point let alone give them permission to use my photo.

Where do I stand? What can I do about this? Would I be entitled to claim damages?

Thanks for the help. I am very new to this and have no experience in the world of copyright.
 
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I just spoke to the police down the station and they recommended I send them an invoice too. I have a copy of an email addressed to my school master asking him to ask permission if he wishes to use my photos for anything other than the school website (and asking for a credit if he does post them to the school website).

With regards to invoices, I have never sold a photo before. What do you guys thing would be an achievable value considering the photo (quality wise the original is pretty good) and the fact that I am the only photographer with that photo (no one else was around to take anything remotely similar)? I would like to overcharge them considering the didn't ask me and as I am a student and would potentially like to fund new gear if they pay up.

Also, how should I invoice them? Via email and give them my bank transfer details or some other way?

Sorry for all the questions, I have never even tried to sell a photo before :p.
 
Raymond Lin said:
It is a Civil matter.

Police only deal with Criminal matter.

That is why.
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Fair point, I did not know that. I was looking for advice from the police, not to file a case or anything and advice is what I was given. The policeman behind the desk was very helpful and I wasn't wasting police time as there was no-one else there and he was sitting around looking bored when I arrived :p.
 
Anyway back to the point, I literally don't have a clue where to start pricing wise for the photo. Would an invoice of £150 be taking the mickey or is that too low (or just about right)? I literally have no idea about the value of photos.
 
neil_g said:
Irrelevant, the paper should have sought permission from the photographer. They are souly responsible for the content of their publication and a simple "are you the photographer" question to the headmaster would have given them the answer.
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Also, the paper must have known I was the photographer as at the bottom of the page it says 'Photo: Ben Alexander'
 
O.k. so I received a reply from my school teacher and it was indeed him who supplied the newspaper my photo provided they credit me. Now, I realise that he is at fault for not contacting me before hand as I explicitly asked him to do so if he wished to use the photo for anything else except the school website but is the newspaper at all at fault for using the photo before contacting me (knowing full well I was the photographer)?

I may just let this one slide as I do not want to fall out with my teachers but I will speak to him and remind he is not entitled to use my images for anything other than the school website.
 
stokecity_m said:
Why did you give the picture to your teacher at all?
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He is the one who manages the school website and he is the one I provided the photo to in the first place to publish on the school website (and the one who gave it to the paper). However I explicitly asked him to contact me before using my photos for anything other than the website.

To be honest I think I may just email him reminding him of the usage terms of my photos and ask him not to do it again.
 
I checked before I started taking photos and I do retain all copyright.

I have decided that I will let this one slide as I am sure it was just a misunderstanding and that my teacher meant well by giving my photo to the paper. I will ask him if next time he could ask me before using it for any non school publications and I think I might even email the paper thanking them for using my photo and giving them contact details incase they want any other photos of my school.

I probably over-reacted a bit yesterday but I just wasn't expecting to see my photo in the paper without permission.
 
Mr. Peri Peri said:
Just wondering, why are you that bothered?

You said you have never sold a photo so you don't do it for a living, I'm assuming it's just a hobby and you do it for fun?

Was your intention to try and sell these photos or did you just happen to see it had been used in the paper? What would the photos have been used for otherwise?
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The bit that bothered me was the fact that it had been used without any attempt to contact me. I realise that a few of my sport photos may have some (small) commercial value but I decided to let the school use them for free as I am trying to build a portfolio. However, the school were the only people I was willing to give the photos to for free.

I did overreact a bit and I suppose end of the day I should be happy that the paper though my photos was of good enough quality for them to include :p
 
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