A few days ago, someone pointed me to a photography tour to Rajasthan announced at shoesonloose.com/holiday/iso-incredible-shots-of-rajasthan/ While browsing through the tour detail and the images on the page, I was taken aback to see one of my images being used on the page without my knowledge!
The image of two silhoutted camel walking against a colourful sky was a photograph I had made three years ago in the deserts of Rajasthan. We have used this image extensively before in the materials pertaining to our own (now highly praised) Rajasthan photography tour page and also on our facebook page. It is also found on my flickr page and is available for licensing on my personal website.
Below is a screenshot of the image in question used without authorization by the above mentioned website (click to see large). The links above make it obvious that the photograph in question belongs to me and has been used by shoesonloose.com. Just to make sure, I also checked licensing reports from the agency that sells my images, and the photograph was not licensed to anyone so far. I also checked sales reports on my website and no one had licensed the photograph.
The Questions
This left me pondering. Copying images on the internet is not new. But –
How right is it for a photography tour organizers to use images from a direct competitor? Wouldn’t it bring to question the credibility of the organizers and the tour itself?
Their potential clients are photographers too. Would photographers/photography-enthusiasts trust an organization and sign up with them if they are infringing the rights of people of their own kind?
Do photographers tend do any research about these aspects in the marketing materials of the promoting organization to look for these issues before signing up? While my guess is that often innocent photographers/enthusiasts may assume the credibility of the organizers, what is your take as an external observer or a person who may be interested in photography tours?
What is your take on this? Let us know in the comments section.
The Actions We Took
We couldn’t fathom the fact that a direct competitor to us (as I mentioned before, we run Rajasthan Photography Tours too and we have had great feedback about this tour) would use our images without permission for their benefit. So we decided that it is time to act on this. We have officially notified establishments that may help us contain the damage.
1. Notice to Google
We have notified google.com via their ‘Removing Content From Google‘ form that acts under US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
2. Notice to Hosting Service
We have also notified GoDaddy.com, the hosting service that hosts shoesonloose.com to remove the infringing content from their servers according to their policies mentioned in ’TRADEMARK/COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT‘ document.
3. Notice to shoesonloose.com
Using the contact details available on the website, we have notified shoesonloose.com to remove the infringing content from the above mentioned page and any other parts of the website and/or their marketing material (electronic or print).
4. Intimation to the photographer leading the tour
We do not know if the photographer leading this tour is aware of the fact that the images used in the webpage infringe another photographer’s copyright. On the surface, it appears that the photographer may not have any role in the images used by the organization. So we did not think there is a need to send a notice to the photographer. However, since the photographer leading the tour was mentioned in the page, we have intimated the photographer on our images being used on the webpage of shoesonloose.com that markets the tour. It is up to the photographer to take it up with the organization.
5. Intimating another photographer whose image has been used.
We did further research to check on the sources of other images on the webpage. The intent was to intimate other photographers whose images may have been used in the page, and in case they had not been contacted by the organization for permissions, they may become aware of it and take further action if they wish. We found one of the images on the page, at http://www.flickr.com/photos/david-trattnig/4318506087/in/photostream/ and have intimated the person who has uploaded that image on flickr.com Some more images seem to have come from Rajasthan Tourism website, one appears to be from the photographer leading the tour and of some, we couldn’t ascertain. But we make no assumption on whether these images were used with or without permission and we have merely limited our role to intimating the photographer who has uploaded the image on flickr.
What are your thoughts on such organizations? How would you react to a situation of this kind? If you are a photographer looking to participate in a photography tour, what would be your take on such situations and would such a tour be of interest to you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Updates
1. The photographer leading the tour responded to our intimation and worked with shoesonloose.com to get the copyright-infringing images used without authorization removed. Our photograph, and many other photographs on the website are no longer displayed on the webpage mentioned above.
2. GoDaddy.com responded to us as well, and pointed out an error in our notice to them. GoDaddy was only a domain registrar and the website was not hosted with them. This was an error in our homework before we sent the notice to them. They also helpfully pointed out the company which is hosting the pages. By this time, the images on the website were removed, so there was no need to send a notice to the hosting company.
3. Google wrote us, telling us that the infringing webpage and photograph were removed from their search results. Google search results no longer display this webpage.
4. This update is made 10 days after we initially published this story and filed the complaints, 13-Jan-2013. shoesonloose.com has not responded to our notice so far.