A few months ago, I wrote about tracking down stolen images with TinEye. That tip generated a lot of conversation about the ownership of original photography with level headed rebuttals from folks who understand that copyright protection begins the moment a work is set and that “copyright over a work immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work.” Read more about that here.
Yes, that’s an oversimplification and the law isn’t quite so cut and dry unless the work is registered with the government (still not 100%), but that would have been all the information needed to cover the uses outlined in that post.
When I wrote that first post, there were plenty of funny examples of my works finding their way into company’s and people’s commercial uses. I wasn’t trying to be mean spirited about the whole thing, it was more of a humorous take on unauthorized appropriation for small commercial endeavors… but what happens when it’s not a small or humorous commercial endeavor?
That was just the case when I woke up this past Sunday morning and during my normal morning routine, watched a heart wrenching video about Tainted Meat on the New York Times website. At the very beginning of the piece was this photo:
I immediately recognized it. I’d taken that photo of a garden gnome in an old lady’s front yard while in California last year… but I honestly couldn’t believe that the Times could have overlooked getting authorization of this photo I’d made available for personal use on mybestdesktops.com.
I so couldn’t believe it, that I didn’t even double-check the photo until the following day when I overlaid the Times crop over my original.
There was no question. That was my photograph in a New York Times video piece! I immediately, checked with my photographer, photo editor, illustrator friends and a copyright lawyer on the best course of action. Some were more official or threatening than others… but I thought the best thing would be to call the producer of the piece… this must have been an unfortunate oversight.
To make a long story short, dealing with the folks at the Times was a pleasure and action was taken swiftly to correct the problem. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the work they do and can completely understand how this sort of error could occur.
In the end, I got credited just below Pulitzer prize winning photographer Damon Winter… and the story has really gotten a big response that could turn into positive change in the meat industry.
I should remember to keep shooting… this could be going somewhere.
