A few months ago I found out about the upcoming Google Licensable badge. Provided you embed the required metadata in your image files, it’s a label that will be added to your photos in Google Images, with links to a page that includes your Web statement of rights and a link to license the photo.
The Swiss camera brand ALPA has won a copyright infringement case in China against counterfeiters who copied the company's designs. In its ruling, the Chinese court acknowledged that ALPA cameras are "objects of applied art" that are worthy of protection.
The past few years have made it abundantly clear that platforms hold disproportionate power in the online sphere – from Uber to Grubhub to Amazon. Online success is predicated on building both utility as well as a critical mass of users, and for that, platforms should be congratulated.
A federal court has tossed a photographer's claim of copyright infringement against a major online publication that embedded her Instagram photo against her wishes. The court concluded that the photographer signed over the right of embedding by posting the shot to the photo sharing service.
Last night, once the kids were safely nestled in bed and only the wife and I remained awake, I reached for my iPhone, opened up the Remote app to fire up my Apple TV, launched Apple TV+, and hit play on one of the tech giant's newest shows: Amazing Stories.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court of the United States dealt a major blow to photographers' copyright protections when it declared that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement because they have "sovereign immunity."
Photographer Rosie Hardy recently recently opened a pandora's box of image theft and appropriation when she discovered that several of her images were being shared as "free to use" stickers through the PicsArt photo editing app. After a bit of digging, she found that her stolen photos had been used without permission, credit, or compensation over 1,500 times.
After Lady Gaga's new song "Stupid Love" leaked onto the Internet and went viral last weekend, the singer called out fans who had listened to the unauthorized release. Problem was, Lady Gaga's Tweet used "pirated" stock photos that had "Shutterstock" watermarks splashed across them, and this unauthorized usage didn't escape the company's notice.
Photographers, beware: if you're ever contacted by a big brand on Instagram or any other social network with a request to "share your photo," make sure you read the fine print of any terms you're shown. If you don't, you could easily be agreeing to give away unlimited usage of your work.
If you're a 500px member who hasn't logged in to the photo sharing and selling service for a while, you may be asked to agree to an updated Terms of Service document upon logging in. The latest agreement is causing an uproar (and a new wave of account deletions) among many photographers, but it doesn't appear that anything has changed from a legal or rights standpoint.
Getty Images has announced that it will be transitioning all of its creative stock photography offerings to a Royalty Free licensing model and ditching Rights Managed licensing entirely—a move that will be more convenient for customers, but worse for photographers.
At Adobe MAX 2019, Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky announced the Content Authenticity Initiative – a nascent and ambiguously defined way for attribution to travel with an image and allow consumers to know, in the words of Adobe VP Dana Rao, that “the content they’re seeing is authentic.”
Two former photographers for the New York Times have filed a lawsuit against New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, accusing the department of copyright infringement after NYC Parks "unearthed" a long-lost trove of photos from the 1970s and then wildly publicized them without permission.
The Splash News and Picture Agency is making headlines today after filing a lawsuit against Jennifer Lopez for copyright infringement two years after she shared one of their photos of her in an Instagram Story without permission.
If you're a family photographer preparing for the holiday season, a word to the wise: don't offer Grinch-themed photo shoots. After a photographer's holiday photo shoot went viral—with coverage in People, TODAY, Pop Sugar and more—Dr. Seuss Enterprises purportedly went on the offensive, sending an aggressive cease and desist letter that has since spread like wildfire across social media.
Typically, when a celebrity is called out for posting a photograph without permission, they lash out or deny any wrongdoing. It's so common we've almost come to expect it, which is why it's such a nice change of pace to hear that New Zealand Rugby star Sonny Bill Williams actually apologized to the photographer after having a photo pulled from Instagram for sharing it without permission.
No fewer than 5 different sources sent us the same article this morning from photographer Jason Weingart, in which the extreme weather photog accuses digital artist Brent Shavnore of willfully stealing his images, calling him a "thief, poser, coward, and a liar." Shavnore tells PetaPixel that the entire issue is a misunderstanding, and accuses Weingart of being "childish."
If you enjoy following Elon Musk on Twitter, be careful not to call him out on posting photographers' work without permission or credit. Multiple people just got blocked by the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur for doing just that.
Earlier this week, supermodel Gigi Hadid's lawyers successfully got a copyright case against her dismissed despite the fact that most people thought this was a clear cut case of infringement. The important question for photographers now is: how did her lawyers manage to pull this off?
Renowned photographer Nadav Kander was recently surprised to find one of his portraits used without permission on the cover of a magazine. When confronted with this, the magazine's explanation was that the image was purchased as a stock photo -- a stock photo of the copyrighted photo in an exhibition.
A District Judge in Manhattan has sided with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in a fair use case that will likely leave many photographers upset. The case surrounds a set of screen prints, silk-screen paintings and other artworks that Warhol created for Vanity Fair by altering a portrait by renowned photographer Lynn Goldsmith.
Famous model Gigi Hadid is being sued by a photo agency for posting a copyrighted photo of her on Instagram without permission. Hadid is now arguing that it was "fair use" because she contributed to the photo by smiling in it.
Photographers were just dealt a big legal blow this week after a Texas state appeals court ruled that the state can infringe upon copyright without risking punishment under the state's or federal government's "takings" clause.
Ariana Grande made headlines a couple of months ago for striking back at "greedy photographers" with a concert tour photo contract that demands full copyright to photos. Now the singer is being sued by a photographer for posting his photos of her without permission on Instagram.
Back in 2017, the CASE Act ("Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2017") was introduced to establish a copyright small claims system for pursuing infringements on a smaller scale in the US. That bill expired without being passed, new and revised CASE Act bills were just introduced in both the House and Senate this week to revive the effort.
Visual China Group, the "Getty Images of China" and owner of 500px, has sparked an outcry after it attempted to claim copyright to the first-ever black hole picture that became a worldwide sensation this week.
Flickr has just announced a new partnership with the image monitoring and legal-tech service Pixsy to create the world's first fully integrated end-to-end solution for combating photo theft.
Mercedes has filed lawsuits against four artists after they accused the car company of infringing upon their copyright by including graffiti murals in the backgrounds of car photos posted to Instagram.
Well-known New York City-based fashion photographer Dani Diamond was contacted by a fan in 2017 after the fan spotted one of Diamond's photos featured in a Lufthansa in-flight magazine ad promoting a "Bellevue Swiss Made" watch. Problem was, Diamond had never licensed his photos for any such use.
American music star Ariana Grande has sparked an outcry from photographers and media organizations with her new concert tour agreement. Reportedly a response to "greedy photographers" taking advantage of her in the past, the new contract requires that photographers hand over full copyright to their photos.
A federal court judge in Montana has sparked controversy among photographers after he ruled that the Republican National Committee (RNC) didn't infringe a photographer's copyright when it used her photo without permission on a political mailer.
Kodak launched an on-demand photography service called Kodakit back in January 2017 that aims to connect photographers to brands looking for photography. But there's something all photographers need to know about this "Uber of photography," as it's been called: it demands that you sign over the "entire copyright" to the photos you shoot.
In September 2018, the European Parliament voted in favor of the highly controversial EU Copyright Directive, which aims to "harmonize" copyright law across Europe. But critics argue the law could destroy the open Web, and now Google is showing an eye-opening look at what its search results could soon look like.
Photographer J Salmeron of Metal Blast sparked a huge outpouring of support from other photographers and creatives last week after he shared how he was blacklisted by the band Arch Enemy while trying to protect his copyright. Now the clothing business at the center of the controversy has closed up shop in response to all the "hate and threats" it has received.
Back in June I covered Fortarock, a fantastic metal festival in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I had the opportunity to shoot bands like Dragonforce, Watain, Týr, Alestorm and Arch Enemy, all of whom are not only really fun to photograph, but also extremely talented musicians.
Google is taking another big step in protecting photographers' copyright through the Google Images image search engine: it just added image rights metadata to the photo search results on Google Images.
A real estate photographer has filed a lawsuit against Zillow, accusing the popular online real estate database of using his photos without permission.
A Montana photographer has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Netflix, accusing the media juggernaut of using one of his storm photos without permission for the hit sci-fi show Stranger Things.
The European Parliament yesterday voted in favor of the highly controversial EU Copyright Directive, which is intended to bring EU copyright laws into the Internet age. Critics have called the directive "disastrous" and warned that it could fundamentally destroy the open Web.
A few days ago, I awoke to a text message from a friend who lives halfway around the world telling me that he had unexpectedly seen one of my images on a FOX News story. The image was from a photoshoot that I had done of Richard “Old Man” Harrison from the television show Pawn Stars, which airs on the History Channel. However, after looking it up and seeing what photo he was talking about, I was surprised. The photo I was met with wasn’t even one I remembered taking.