Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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What do I do if a newspaper posted my photo and didn’t credit me? (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by HardcoreSuperstar@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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I openeded Facebook earlier to an article from my town’s local newspaper with at least 5 of my photos from a local music festival included in the article without any credit. I gave the band permission to use my photos however they would like, as long as I’m given credit. They used my photos to promote a show they’re doing, in the newspaper, and they told the newspaper who I was. But then the newspaper printed off copies without crediting me there, nor online and I’m not sure what to do. I tried to contact them and they said I could “leave a message” and they never got back to me. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do.

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[–] Ctmanx@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It would be great if they credited you, but in situations like that, it often doesn’t happen. You gave them rights, they transferred rights to the paper. Everyone involved is acting in good faith. It may have passed through 4 or 5 people between you and being published. That’s a lot of chances for someone to miss the credit. Most likely the metadata is intact, but you could easily have someone handling it who doesn’t know to look there.

If you give people pics for promotion this will happen again. You can either not do it or be happy that like your pics and hope that they remember you when they need to hire someone or when someone asks them about the photog who did those great pics.

[–] nye1387@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

This is a bad analysis. OP gave the band rights, but if the band let the paper use the photo without a credit, then the band transferred a right that it didn't have.

[–] driftingphotog@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

It's bad analysis but also most likely outcome. I've been through this a bunch of times, and I was way more buttoned up about rights management than OP. Unless you're going to actually file a lawsuit, the most likely outcome is that they will feel bad and take them down and stop responding.

The above is likely what happened. Yes, they transferred a right they didn't have. But most people are pretty ignorant. Especially with small market local stuff.

I've done the fight, I've sent C&Ds, I've sent demand letters. My financial outcome from that is negative. Unless this is a major outlet it's not worth it. And even then, FOX basically told me to fuck off because they have more lawyers.

If I were OP, I would try to flip this into a positive and educate the paper and try to say "hey, going forward if you'd like this type of coverage I'll happily freelance for you. My rates are ____."

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