Happy new year everyone. Sorry for the long over due post. Here’s a quick catch up on things, and then… I am happy to announce Daily Photo Dose will now be back online!
Over the holidays I had been speaking with a lawyer that specializes in copyright law, and I was happy to hear that photographers own copyright to all their photographs, and they are copyright protected regardless of where they are on display. Unfortunately, lawyers are expensive, and unless the damages are over $1000+, it’s really not worth your time to lose money on proving a point to someone that disrespects your work.
To the individual that most recently stole my work. I was incredibly disheartened to see my work stolen and used on your business card, and even more shocked throughout this whole ordeal that you never once offered an apology. I feel an honest apology goes a long way, and I would have been happy to say keep the photo, the business cards, and pay a small fee for its continued use… but instead your threats that I had no legal claim against you, and that you are a retired lawyer… really made me want to go out of pocket to prove how wrong you were. After you realized the photograph was in fact the same, and that I did own copyright to my images, you accused me of not taking the proper steps to protect my work, and that I am to blame for people becoming “innocent infringers”. Honestly, beyond watermarking all my images, copyright being embedded into each .jpg file, placing copyright information on every page, posting about the issue several times, and Google image search warning “images may be subject to copyright” I’m not sure what else you had in mind. In the end, I appreciate that you had enough respect to mail me all of your business cards with my photograph on it. You had enough courage to admit you were wrong, and forfeit the business cards, and I thank you for that. I hope that you respect I never once released your name, or business name throughout this ordeal, that the issue has always been about copyright protection for photographers, and not about a community tying one individual to the stake for stealing my work.
Finally, to the community, family, friends, other photographers… thank you for your support through this. You offered words of encouragement, advice, words of disgust, or anger, some of you offered to help pay legal fees should I pursue damages, (thank you chris). My fiancee even overheard people talking about the issue downtown when viewing my work at Nicholai. It is so unbelievable how much people cared, and I don’t know how to thank you enough, or repay you for your support.
So moving into 2013, I will continue to offer up my perspective, and love for this city I call home.
Thanks Lethbridge!