Imagine going into a meeting to pitch your commercial photography and seeing your photos on the wall in the reception and boardroom with the watermark “do not reproduce without consent” still on them, in the frame?!
I started Daily Photo Dose back in 2010, and since that time I have dealt with my fair share of copyright infringement cases. While I appreciate the fact people enjoy my work enough to want to use it, and there is still a lot of naivety about anything online being free, photography is my full time career, and the images I shoot in my spare time are still apart of my business. The use of my work without consent or licensing is simply theft.
Despite watermarking photographs, putting notices on the website, disabling right click save, educating the community, or googles blanket statement “Images may be subject to copyright”. 2017 had the most cases I’ve ever had to deal with. It was soul crushing and literally made me put down the camera and give up on sharing my work online for the remainder of the year.
I was dumbfounded when I realized sticking up for my photography reflects negatively on my business or me as an individual. Companies and individuals left negative reviews across my social media and I was completely discouraged in pursing many of the legal cases against giants in the community. Last years cases included accountants, several home builders, mortgage companies, and business educators/leaders.
In an attempt to not have my love of photography completely crushed by these infringement cases, I have outsourced all of my copyright issues to a company in the states that will allow me to remain completely hands off.