copyrightinfringement

My name is Aram Pan, and I'm a photographer documenting North Korea through 360° panoramas, photos and videos. I’d like to share with everyone my experience with what I call “copyright infringement abuse.”

Basically, I feel that the YouTube copyright reporting system is seriously flawed. Here's what happened to me...

A photographer has launched a copyright infringement lawsuit against Twitter, claiming that the social media company failed to remove a photo of hers that was posted without permission, and even after she sent multiple DMCA takedown requests to have the posts deleted.

Artist Richard Prince sparked huge controversy last year by taking Instagram photos without permission, making extremely small edits to them, and then selling them as fine art for up to $100,000 each.

Now, one of the outraged photographers who had his photo used by Prince is suing the artist for copyright infringement.

The following is my account of the most infuriating, frustrating and insulting photo usage theft I’ve dealt with. After attempting to resolve it with letters, phone calls and lawyers, I’ve decided the most beneficial thing I can do is lay out my experience in a cautionary tale and let people know how this company feels about photography.

Rapper T.I. is being criticized by photographers after using a photo without permission on advertising for a party and then getting into an online dispute about the infringement.

Photographers, be warned: if you share a photo online with a Creative Commons license that allows for commercial usage, you need to be okay with if that actually happens. A photographer named Art Dragulis just learned that lesson by losing a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Taking a quick snapshot of your meal at restaurants has become a widespread pre-meal ritual in recent years. People often like to keep a memento of the food they eat, and perhaps share that image with others online as well.

But if you're a foodie blogger and/or photographer in Germany, you might want to think twice the next time you pull out your camera: your simple photo could constitute copyright infringement.

Earlier this year, artist Richard Prince sparked a huge controversy by taking people's Instagram photos, making very small changes to them, and selling the prints as fine art for $100,000 a pop. Now there's a new website that's following in Prince's footsteps, on a larger scale but with smaller prices.

It's a service called Sellfie, which scours Instagram for the hashtag #selfie and then sells the photos as single-edition, high-quality prints for $150 -- all without the photographer's permission.

California-based photographer Jeff Werner has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the popular website ViralNova for publishing (and profiting from) his photos without his permission.

A federal court has dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against Nike by photographer Jacobus Rentmeester, who claimed that the sports juggernaut had ripped off his 1984 photo of Michael Jordan for its own photo and its iconic Jumpman logo.

Artist Richard Prince is notorious in the art world for taking other people's work, "appropriating" them as his own with various changes, and then selling them for large amounts of dough. His latest endeavor is once again raising eyebrows: Prince is selling other people's Instagram photos for up to $100,000 each.

Update: The company has responded to our request for comment and fixed the issue. See full update at the bottom.

Dick Smith is a leading tech retailer in both New Zealand and Australia, but as an anonymous reader showed us this morning, they might have goofed up in a big way in a recent ad they posted on their Dick Smith NZ Facebook page.

As you can see from the screenshot above, they seem to have 'appropriated' an iStock image as the background... without even taking the time to remove the watermark.

A recently-released product by Microsoft that allows content creators to embed digital images on their websites is being called a “massive infringement” of copyright images in a lawsuit filed by Getty Images against the computer giant.

First it was Ludacris, who decided to convey the impression that he was on a beach by stealing and posting a photographer's beautiful sunset photo on his Instagram account. Now, it seems famed rapper Shawn "Diddy” Combs is following in his copyright infringement footsteps.

In its updated 1,222-page "Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition" released yesterday, the US Copyright Office took the side of Wikimedia in their argument with nature photographer David Slater when the office wrote that they cannot register works by monkeys.

Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

This hour and fifteen minute-long presentation is one of the most detailed and useful videos on copyright law for photographers that we've run across. Put together by B&H in New York, they asked the The Copyright Zone guys, photographer Jack Reznicki and lawyer Ed Greenberg, to tell viewers and attendees "everything you wanted to know about copyright but were afraid to ask."

We're big fans of anybody who helps to stop gear theft, and so naturally, we've always been big fans of the free service Lenstag. Initially unproven, the service made its first recovery a couple of months ago, and as its database of registered gear expands, it can only get better.

But Lenstag isn't just resting on its laurels and waiting for that moment to come, content with what it has achieved. No, the service is branching out with an awesome new feature that will help you keep track of unauthorized use of your images as well!

In a copyright battle truly worthy of the David and Goliath designation, it seems that Walmart and its founding family, the Waltons, have filed a lawsuit against the widow of a photographer who ran a small Arkansas studio called Bob's Studio of Photography.

One would think that those in the photography and music industries would act as allies -- both industries, after all, are built upon the hard work or artists and storytellers who have spent years honing their craft.

However, all too often, they wind up butting heads as was the case with the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus story two days ago and, now, with this Facebook rant from a major band's tour manager.

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus has responded to the copyright controversy we told you about earlier today... sort of. We didn't receive a response directly from them, but because of the massive amount of attention the story has gotten both here and on Reddit, the band posted an interesting response to their Facebook.

In the beginning of April, Sydney-based photographer Rohan Anderson found himself embroiled in a nasty back-and-forth with the band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus over a photo of his they had used without credit or permission.

Often, when you let someone know they've infringed on your copyright, you get an apology and an offer to make things right. This is not what happened to Anderson.

Well this is awkward... We're all for people advocating for copyright law and making sure that people at least understand that it's bad to steal other people's intellectual property, but if you're going to do it, you might want to follow your own rules.

Case in point: Anti-piracy group The Business Software Alliance was called out this weekend for allegedly using a stolen photo in an anti-piracy ad that encouraged people to turn in unlicensed software users.

Buckle up, because this is a copyright battle that has hit rock bottom and started digging with gusto. How much gusto? Lets just say that the he-said-she-said nature of this ferocious back-and-forth between a photographer and a magazine that used her photo without permission makes the whole Color Run debacle look tame.

Update: The Color Run has responded to our request for comment. Read their side of the story at the bottom.

Update #2: It seems The Color Run and Maxwell Jackson have reached an agreement. You can read the full update at the bottom.

A young Florida college student photographer is receiving an outpouring of support from the photo community over what may turn out to be one of the more ridiculous copyright lawsuits we've ever run across -- a suit in which the Color Run (you know, "The Best, the Biggest...The Happiest 5K on the Planet") is allegedly suing HIM over a photo of his that they used.

As it turns out, we all might have some skin in the Daniel Morel vs. AFP/Getty Images copyright game; and we're not just talking about emotional investment here, there are serious precedents being set.

Dear Photography Thieves,

I’ve always known you were out there, even in the days of film. In a photography world filled with negatives and prints, you crept quietly in the shadows and, let’s face it, it was harder then, wasn’t it? But now, with the digital age and that glorious thing called social media, it’s so much easier. It’s really a boom time for you. It’s like you hit pay dirt. And, after reading a month’s worth of Photo Stealer’s entries, all I can say is: You. Must. Be. Exhausted.

Purloining somebody else's photos to promote your photography business has become depressingly common lately, but occasionally a new cretin comes forward to push the practice to a new level of sadness.

Getty Images and Agence France Presse are avid protectors of their own copyright privileges. But when the chaussure is on the other foot?

Haitian photographer Daniel Morel continues to find out that it's a whole different ball game, as the agencies try to evade the $1.22 million penalty levied against them for stealing eight of Morel's images of the aftermath of his country's devastating 2010 earthquake.

(Private Video -- Use password "stolen")

Often there's a fine line between inspiration and theft. But watching side-by-side comparisons of wedding workshops conducted by videographers Adam Forgione and Rob Adams, it's hard not to conclude there's wholesale plagiarism going on.

It's always nice when we stumble across a copyright case that doesn't lead to wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, rare as that might be. So when we ran across the news that a photographer pulled in $1.6 million in a copyright lawsuit, we just had to share it.

When it comes to images, Pinterest is a bit of a copyright nightmare. It's not unusual for people to pin photos without any information or attribution, which inevitably leads to others using or sharing the photo without permission.

Still, you have to give the company credit, it's trying to "wake up" so to speak. In addition to a deal struck up with Flickr last year, Pinterest has just announced a new arrangement with GettyImages, in which Pinterest will pay Getty so that images from the service might be given proper MetaData.

Last Friday, WPPI Director Jason Groupp announced that Jasmine Star and Doug Gordon withdrew from next year’s conference in light of all the controversy surrounding allegations of plagiarism.

I advocated for this move with many others who saw their transgressions as a violation of trust that affected the entire industry. The outcome seemed proportional to the infraction, and I saw no reason to urge further action. I have no vitriol against either Jasmine or Doug, I just think we all have to own up to our mistakes, pay the piper, and move on.

Prestigious agency Magnum Photos says it is about to roll out a paid membership system in hopes of turning illegal downloaders into paying customers. The move comes a little more than a year after the agency did away with watermarks on its main site, reasoning that they did little to discourage determined downloaders.

It's one thing to swipe a photo and slap it on your website, and quite another to enter that stolen image into a high-profile photo contest passed off as your own work.

That is exactly what Mark Joseph Solis, a graduate student at the University of the Philippines, is discovering as he becomes a subject of international ridicule for winning several thousand dollars worth of prizes with a purloined portrait.

Earlier this month, the Syfy channel -- which is owned by NBC Universal -- debuted a new show called Heroes of Cosplay. The show pits nine big-time cosplayers against one another as they try to make a name for themselves in this world of fantasy costume play.

It's a big show on a popular network that is backed by an even bigger company, so you can imagine how surprised photographer Bryan Humphrey was when he saw that the show has used his photos of some of these cosplayers without so much as asking permission or even notifying him -- and forget about payment.

So you think you have a good reason or excuse to use a photo you found on the Internet without asking the photographer who took it? Let’s see if it can stand the test.

UK lighting manufacturer Rotolight recently earned itself a good bit of bad press when the company allegedly used a DMCA notice to get an unfavorable video review taken down by Vimeo, sparking free speech outrage within the photographic community.