Once bad boys of rock and roll Motley Crüe are in hot water with the photo community. Two famed rock photographers are suing the band for using their iconic images of the band all over merchandise sold during the Motley Crüe farewell tour last year without permission or payment.
Wedding photographer Jasmine Star is probably still recovering from the first slew of plagiarism accusations leveled against her in 2013; however, it seems the saga is entering Episode II. The folks at Stop Stealing Photos are accusing Jasmine of another transgression.
Photographer Carol M. Highsmith rocked the copyright world this week when it was revealed she was suing Getty Images for a whopping $1 Billion over what she called "gross misuse" of 18,755 of her photographs documenting America. Today, Getty finally replied publicly to these charges.
Renowned photographer Carol M. Highsmith is reportedly suing Getty Images for $1 billion, claiming that the stock photo company committed copyright infringement through the "gross misuse" of 18,755 of her photographs documenting America.
For better or worse, copyright law hasn't changed much in the United States even as technology has made it far easier for people to steal or "appropriate" your work. But a new service called Blockai thinks it can help by using something called the bitcoin blockchain.
If you simply want something, do you just take it? In the world of photography, content is stolen everyday and used without permission. It's too easy, and I'm sick of it.
A photo posted by mykie (@mykie_) on Apr 28, 2016 at 2:58am PDT
Snapchat's selfie filters have turned into something of a phenomenon—whether you want to become a koala or puke a rainbow, they have you covered. But the popular ephemeral photo sharing and messaging app is in a spot of trouble over those filters this week.
If you've bought any photos from the "Spaghetti" or "Apples" photo agencies through Facebook lately, watch out. Getty Images is after you. The photo agency is suing a man who allegedly sold thousands of stolen "Spaghetti" (an alias for Getty) images through a Facebook group.
Professional Photographers of America, the world's largest pro photography non-profit trade group, is launching a big lobbying campaign in order to see the creation of a copyright small claims system in the United States, something that's "vital to your photography business," PPA says.
Detroit-born rapper Danny Brown recently caused a ruckus when he posted an image taken in Melbourne by Michelle Grace Hunder to Instagram without permission. The photo had been taken at a music festival for Howl & Echoes, a Sydney-based online music site.
I've been wrestling with this for a while now. I wasn't going to write a post like this but things have reached a certain point where I don't feel I can take anything on any further, so for now a little social media post will have to suffice in lieu of actual justice.
When photographer Steve Arklay discovered his photo on someone else's Instagram account, posted without credit or permission, he didn't send a takedown request. Instead, he started a dialogue with the photo thief, trying to buy a print of his own photograph.
Highly controversial Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is in the news a lot, but today he's making photography news. "The Donald" is being sued by two photographers who claim he has used their iconic image of a bald eagle on campaign materials for sale on the Trump website without asking permission or appropriately licensing the image.
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!