Daily Photo Dose

A new building being built in the China Town block of Lethbridge, Alberta. Here’s the last photos I shot at this site. HERE.

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!

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to make a quick post and explain why Daily Photo Dose hasn’t seen any recent updates, and will not be updated until sometime in the new year. Through out the last year I have unfortunately had my work stolen many times off this blog. Daily Photo Dose has never really been about making huge profits shooting landscapes, but rather sharing my perspective on my home town. When a photo is purchased as a print or digital download, it’s extra income to cover gas for driving around, or a coffee on those minus 26 mornings.

The most recent theft was kind of the final straw for me. A photo was stolen not for personal use, but to promote a commercial business. Which is why in the new year I will be researching heavily into copyright law, and will be meeting with a lawyer to confirm if it’s legal or not for people to steal photos for personal use, or worse, commercial use without any credit, or compensation to the photographer. Until that time, I will unfortunately not be posting any new photos.

To the business accused of theft, I sent a cease and desist letter for copyright infringement, and an invoice for what I would charge a commercial client to use my photo in print. The response that followed was discouraging: “Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.  I would submit to you that when you (or anyone for that matter) post downloadable images on a public domain which are not blocked from use by the general public then really you have no legal claim. Images which are copyright protected would not be for public use. Although this picture appears to be similar to the links you sent me, this obviously needs further investigation. As a retired lawyer, I will look into the issue and get back to you at my earliest convenience.”

All my images that are posted online are watermarked, encrypted with my copyright information, and the blog they are posted on has a copyright notice at the bottom of every page. In addition to that, below each image are links to purchase the photo in various formats or downloads. Canada also just reformed the copyright act, you can read more about that here.

There has been a huge amount of support from friends, family, fans, followers, other local photographers, and strangers when posting about this issue earlier on facebook! Another local photographer even offered to help pay for any legal fees! I wanted to thank you all for your support, and let you all know I can’t being to explain how much I appreciate your comments, feedback, and emails! Happy Holidays everyone, and I hope to sort this out and start posting again in the new year.

– Jaime Vedres Photography. Daily Photo Dose. | jaime.vedres@gmail.com

Stolen photo on the left, my original photo on the right.

Here we go again. Photo taken at 3:13pm on Highway 509, shooting south east.

Yesterday I stumbled across a poster for an event in Lethbridge last night. The photo used in the poster looked incredibly similar to one of my shots, so I saved it, and layered it over my original photo. Sure enough, it was my photograph.

I’ve contacted the person responsible for stealing my photo, with no response as of today. I wanted to make it clear to this person that stealing my photography is theft. I shoot photos for a living, and when people like this steal my work, It’s pretty hard to make a living. Currently a cease and desist letter has been sent to the party responsible for the theft, also a DMCA notice (for copyright infringement) has been submitted through facebook where the image was originally posted, I’m currently awaiting a response from both parties.

If you support local artists, and photographers, please leave a comment below, and I would be happy to forward them to the person stealing my work.

Thanks Everyone.