Image of mine used in newspaper. Is this allowed?

very

A friend of mine was featured in an article in a UK newspaper.

For the article, a picture of the person was used in the newspaper and online. The picture was from their Facebook page, though I took the picture.

I was wondering, do have any comeback here? Can I ask to be credited, receive payment, or what?

Also, it was 3 months ago that the article was published if it makes any difference.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks.

johnmcdnl

Sharing Your Content and Information

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:
For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

facebook can do what they want with your pictures basically... you let them when you agreed to the terms of service.... you gave away your copyright and claim to money by putting them on facebook....

that's my understanding of it anyways but maybe someone else can correct me if I'm wrong...


basically facebook and photographers don't get on as a general rule of thumb

very

Yeah, that seems to be the general consensus when asking.

I'll give it a bash anyway and send them a letter. Can't do any harm.

mdebets

johnmcdnl wrote: »

facebook can do what they want with your pictures basically... you let them when you agreed to the terms of service.... you gave away your copyright and claim to money by putting them on facebook....

That's not quite true. Facebook can sell your photos (or give them away), but people can't just grab pictures of Facebook. They have to get permission from the photographer or Facebook.

To the OP.
Did you talk to the person you gave the picture for their Facebook page? They might have given it to the paper. Which rights did you give them?

very

mdebets wrote: »

That's not quite true. Facebook can sell your photos (or give them away), but people can't just grab pictures of Facebook. They have to get permission from the photographer or Facebook.

To the OP.
Did you talk to the person you gave the picture for their Facebook page? They might have given it to the paper. Which rights did you give them?

Well I didn't give them any rights as such, I just let them upload it to their profile. And no, they were never asked if the image could be used.

PCPhoto

send them an invoice for X amount..... if they pay it - well and good, if they dont, chat with a solicitor and see if you could possibly sue for breach of copyright.

blackbox

An image of mine was used in a local newspaper recently without permission or payment. The picture had been posted on a website (my own, for a club), so I'm guessing that's where it was grabbed from.

Does anyone know the going rate that I should be asking them for? - the picture was on the front cover.

kfish2oo2

very wrote: »

Well I didn't give them any rights as such, I just let them upload it to their profile. And no, they were never asked if the image could be used.

By allowing that person to upload it to their profile, Facebook will consider the copyright his. Regardless, Facebook reserves all rights as pointed out before. You don't have a case from a legal standpoint. You could still send them an invoice and see what they say - most likely they bought it indirectly from Facebook.

blackbox

Hi kfish2oo2.

In my case it had nothing to do with facebook and there is no question about copyright ownership.

Do you know the going rate for a front page photo for the leading article on a local newspaper?

Thanks

colblimp

blackbox wrote: »

Hi kfish2oo2.

In my case it had nothing to do with facebook and there is no question about copyright ownership.

Do you know the going rate for a front page photo for the leading article on a local newspaper?

Thanks

PC Photo is the man for that, but I'd send an invoice for €500.

PCPhoto

blackbox wrote: »

An image of mine was used in a local newspaper recently without permission or payment. The picture had been posted on a website (my own, for a club), so I'm guessing that's where it was grabbed from.

Does anyone know the going rate that I should be asking them for? - the picture was on the front cover.

with a local paper you'll be lucky to get €25 - but send them an invoice - but be prepared to be ignored.... try giving them a call and see how much they pay for freelance images

blackbox

Thanks PCphoto.

I rang them and they said they had "no budget". They were willing to print an acknowledgement in the next edition.

I think I'll try asking them for 100 and see what happens.

Ballyman

blackbox wrote: »

Thanks PCphoto.

I rang them and they said they had "no budget". They were willing to print an acknowledgement in the next edition.

I think I'll try asking them for 100 and see what happens.

You won't get 100 so no point asking for it, as PCPhoto says you'll be luck to get €25 off them.

Ring them and TELL them they used your image and ask where should you send the invoice.

Seriously, an acknowledgement???? Talk about taking the piss. No agency or professional freelancer in Ireland would accept that and that paper know that too and they would get paid. Keep at them.

They have standard rates that they pay freelancers for images. If it's only €10 it doesn't matter, it's the principle that matters and they know full well that if they use something then they have to pay for it so tell them to shove their acknowledgement and get your money.

EyeBlinks

blackbox wrote: »

Thanks PCphoto.

I rang them and they said they had "no budget". They were willing to print an acknowledgement in the next edition.

I think I'll try asking them for 100 and see what happens.

Tell them to take it out of their legal budget

blackbox

I asked them for EUR50 and the good(ish) news is that they've agreed to pay me EUR25.

I'll let you know if the money actually turns up.

PCPhoto

its something isn't it !!

Well done (Fingers crossed the cheque comes) - I'm waiting for cheques for invoices I sent to 3 different papers (last September).... 2 of them have said they are processing it..the other one has not responded.

and these are National newspapers.

(it does normally take 4-6weeks to get paid from a National paper ... but try telling that to my bank manager or any of the bills that I owe ...overdraft limit is fast approaching)

blackbox

Good News!

Money transferred to my account last week (even if it wasn't very much, I'm glad I pursued it).

MiskyBoyy

blackbox wrote: »

Good News!

Money transferred to my account last week (even if it wasn't very much, I'm glad I pursued it).

Nice one, any money for your work is good!

smash

I guess it's better than nothing, but €25? b@stards!

Carter P Fly

Hmm,

So lemme get this straight,

I take a photo and give a copy to my friend. My friend puts this photo on facebook without thinking about it and then someone pays facebook to use the photo I took. I never agreed to let my friend upload the photo and never handed over copyright. The first tiem I find out its even been on facbook is when I see it in a newspaper.

The assumption that the person that uploads a photo is the copyright owner and the fact that its in the T&C's cant be enough to sell an image without asking checking beforhand??? can it?

PCPhoto

Carter P Fly wrote: »

Hmm,

So lemme get this straight,

I take a photo and give a copy to my friend. My friend puts this photo on facebook without thinking about it and then someone pays facebook to use the photo I took. I never agreed to let my friend upload the photo and never handed over copyright. The first tiem I find out its even been on facbook is when I see it in a newspaper.

The assumption that the person that uploads a photo is the copyright owner and the fact that its in the T&C's cant be enough to sell an image without asking checking beforhand??? can it?

this is the point when you need to report the image to facebook - telling them that the image is your copyright, the image is usually removed at this point.

in your scenario did you mention to your friend that the image is for him and not to be uploaded online to Facebook or some similar site, I was at a wedding recently where the happy couple asked everyone not to upload images to any online sites.

soccerc

Happened to me recently too.

Not only did they reproduce in hard copy newspaper but used a number of different sized versions on their website.

Sent them a nice invoice for their unauthorised use as per my published ratecard

Carter P Fly

PCPhoto wrote: »

this is the point when you need to report the image to facebook - telling them that the image is your copyright, the image is usually removed at this point.

in your scenario did you mention to your friend that the image is for him and not to be uploaded online to Facebook or some similar site, I was at a wedding recently where the happy couple asked everyone not to upload images to any online sites.

I think the point is if you give someone a photo they are very likley to post it on facebook or similar and its generally xconsidered anal to tell them not to. Facebook assuming it owns ccopyright for anything posted is shaky at Best.

The wedding issue is a compleyly different.matter. the bride and groom have no copyrights to guests photos as far as I know.

PCPhoto

it may be considered anal but if you dont want an image you took appearing on facebook you have to inform the person you give the image to..... facebook didnt upload it, the person you gave it to did - so your problem is with that person and not with facebook.

which is why facebook have the report image button - so that if someone puts up an image which is copyright of another person, it can be flagged and removed.

anal or not - if you dont want an image you took on facebook you need to tell the person you give the image to.

facebook dont assume they own the copyright - its part of the terms and conditions - if you upload an image to facebook you give them the right to use it .... read the terms and conditions of what you agreed to (assuming you have a facebook account yourself)

smash

That's probably a grey area as far as law goes. If someone uploads your photo to facebook, then facebook own the copyright, yet you never gave permission for that person to upload it so technically the copyright can not be passed on to facebook as the uploader never owned the copyright in the first place.

pete4130

ANOTHER one of these threads.....

They should be made a sticky thread.

smash

pete4130 wrote: »

ANOTHER one of these threads.....

They should be made a sticky thread.

It's an old thread.

PCPhoto

Pete is referring to Facebook copyright of images thread (of which there are plenty)

what people dont seem to understand is that if you give an image to someone you are allowing them to use it whatever way they want - UNLESS you tell them otherwise (and probably have them sign a contract) ..... if you find this image used elsewhere your blame is not with facebook or the publication which used "your" image.

MrPudding

Carter P Fly wrote: »

Facebook assuming it owns ccopyright for anything posted is shaky at Best.

They don't technically assume copyright. You have explicity given it to them by agreeing to the terms and conditions. The only thing they might be accused of assuming is that the copyright ownership was yours to give, though that may well me covered in the T&Cs as well. I think the only assumption likely being made is by the facebook users and the assumption is they don't need to read the T&Cs.

Carter P Fly wrote: »

The wedding issue is a compleyly different.matter. the bride and groom have no copyrights to guests photos as far as I know.

They may not own the copyright, but they have other rights, like the right to privacy. If you are unsure about this speak to Hello! magazine, they learned the hard way.

smash wrote: »

That's probably a grey area as far as law goes. If someone uploads your photo to facebook, then facebook own the copyright, yet you never gave permission for that person to upload it so technically the copyright can not be passed on to facebook as the uploader never owned the copyright in the first place.

I think that sums it up nicely. Either facebook assume the uploader owns the copyright or they have a term in the T&Cs that says you should only upload material you have the copyright for and by accepting the T&Cs you pass the copyright to them. If you own it then great, if you don't then they can't. I presume this is why they remove images when someone complains of a breach.

EDIT: Sums it up niceley apart form the grey area bit. I don't think it is a grey area at all.

MrP

tricky D

Facebook do not take ownership of the copyright. Here's the terms:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

They do take usage rights but not copyright. Licencing is not the same as taking copyright.