One of my biggest pet peeves is when people use an artist’s work, and don’t credit them. I do photography as a hobby, and on the side for pay. One of my photos from the 2008 Republican National Convention, shows a police line. It’s one of my more iconic photos of the 2008 RNC. The image is below:
It’s a photo that Sony and a few other smaller publications have used. While I’m not a huge supporter of our stringent IP law, I don’t like my work being used on websites that gain ad revenue without permission. So I was surprised when a coworker sent me a link to an image of a Voltaire quote:
Looks familiar, right? Cropped the photo, poorly took the streetlight out, some crappy filter, and threw some text on it. I did a reverse image search, and it was on about 500 pages. All of which didn’t cite me, of course. I disregarded the social media posts, but there were plenty of blogs that definitely were gaining ad profits. I also try not to be a asshole about my work, so I didn’t just jump to DMCA takedown notices. Just sent emails stating that I was the copyright owner, and they were using my photo outside of its allowed usage in the license. Along with a request to either cite me or take the photo down. Most times it has been received well.
TL;DR If you aren’t going to pay and/or ask to use someone’s photo, don’t be a dick and at least cite who’s work it is.
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