Photographers have it very difficult nowadays. Most people think the internet is a free self service area. Individuals and even companies download whatever they like and use it for their own purpose or business.
What can photographers do about it? Some decided to do nothing or they just ignore it while others decided to keep an eye on copyright infringements. The future will tell us what the better decision is.
And here they are, some of the most stolen images, which got reported hundreds of times, sometimes removed and even better produced income in form of compensation payments for copyright infringements.
The Most Stolen on Instagram
Instagram is very popular and thanks to the built-in filters everybody can very easily alter an image. Unfortunately a lot of users do not give credits and/or tag the photographers and therefore copyright infringements are also on the rise.
These images were made by me in Cologne on August 18, 2018. A few days later the model posted it with proper credits and got many likes. Some users reposted them with credits but some simply used the pictures for their own purposes like e.g. selling leggings or getting more followers. For Zuck it is normal to make money even with criminal activities (and of course fake news).
The lawyers had to take care of this and other commercial copyright infringement cases like the ones below.
More examples:
The Most Stolen in Twitter
Another social media network where you see many copyright infringing posts. There are almost never credits given e.g. to my Twitter account.
Tumblr = Copyright Horror
Tumblr is one of the worst sites when it comes to respect for artist and models. The picture below of Francesca Felucci in black leggings in a Marina in Sardinia is just one example. Usually they crop the photos so my signature is not visible anymore.
What can you do as a photographer?
There are several copyright service companies on the market which can help you taking care of your rights or in clear commercial cases you should use an IP lawyer.
Read more about Copyright Service Providers in my blog post below!
All rights reserved © Karl Louis
You must be logged in to post a comment.