Unauthroized use issue via a 3rd party who said was OK

[Andy Blackmore]

Hi all

new here and only dabble in photography occasionally, but I create artwork for teams etc. Recently, with the advent of my Spotter Guide series, a number of publications have used my art,,,,with my agreement. As with most of you guys, magazines and motorsport have a common denominator....very slow players. (I'm assuming art and photo would follow the same legal rules)

but this one is new for me.

A Grand Prix used my F1 cars for their Media guide earlier this year. It was a poor cut and paste job, you could see a little bit of the horizontal line my cars are located on, plus my deliberate mistake....The Bridgestone tyres have a small arrow on them denoting the direction of the tyre. I put mine on back to front.

So, 4 months on and the Grand Prix press office is still claiming it is not my work....It is 100% mine! Now, in the latest correspondence, they have admitted the artwork came from the media guide for an earlier Grand Prix....so now I have to chase that. They said they were unaware that they may not be licenced.

So, I assume I can still pursue the first GP Media office? They are still using unauthorized images, regardless of where they came from.

From experience, do you guys ever resolve these sort of issues? I'm in Canada, they are in Europe and Asia? Do you have to get lawyers involved (its not a huge amount)?

Any thoughts, advice, I'm a newbie with this, normally I deal with teams and with one exception of a team boss who is now in jail and when Reynard went pop, I've always got paid eventually (record was 9months though!)

Thanks in advance :) Forum looks great, going to be spending any hours here

[John Thawley]

Andy: I can tell you what I know... I'm not a lawyer.

However, they owe you. Plain and simple. Their ignorance to using intellectual property because "they didn't know" does NOT relieve them of legal or financial responsibility. It is THEIR responsibility to PROTECT themselves against the misuse of Copyrighted material. They should absolutely know better. (and they do)

My most recent experience was with an advertiser that claimed ... "no, no... we got the image from XYZ Racing... they said we could use it." Of course XYZ Racing doesn't hold the copyright... I do. XYZ (or any client for that matter) does not have the right to transfer the "use license" they paid for. All they paid for is "use." Period. And even though the advertiser provided me with an email showing XYZ said it was "ok".... it isn't. And it's the equivalent of the valet parking guy telling you it's ok to take that Mercedes.. it isn't and when the cops pull you over, they'd laugh at your claim. And take you to jail for grand theft auto. LOL

The advertiser paid. And, XYZ Racing got an earful from me...

You own the material... they used it.... they pay. And by the way, it's not just the "civil" matter of payment... you have the legal leverage of criminal charges. It's stealing.

[John Waugh]

The issue is really clear if you send a term sheet with every distribution of images.
It states among other things that XYZ does not have any transfer rights. Electronic, in print, by pony express or otherwise. FotoBiz has a very strong term sheet and a complete rights writer in their software.
If you are going to cover your bases never send anything out without a delivery document with clear use right and term sheet. Then go after both of them. ABC that got it from XYZ has no leg to stand on and they know it.
John

[Andy Blackmore]

thanks guys, as I thought.

Should be fun trying to get a contact for the press office at that particular race and then getting conpensation from different countries.

[Andy Blackmore]

Other than getting a lawyer involved i there much else I can do? Both press offices are ignoring my emails, wont respond to phone messages (havent got a real person) and snail mail letters.

any thoughts.

[Mike Ditz]

In reality you are probably out of luck seeing that there are 3 different parties on 3 continents involved. They probably figure what are you going to do to them beyond writing letters and billing them. I don't know if it's worth it to involve a lawyer (unless you have one in the family). I guess you could name names and post the offending material online to show other photographers who to avoid...

I would be surprised if the first guys knew the second guys were using their images to promote a different event, but then the second guys would try to cover their asses by saying the first guys said it was ok. Although I might be confused...

Do you imbed your info and T&C in your files before sending out? A term sheet is a good idea but will not stay with the images, also put a PDF of the term sheet on the disc or FTP upload...

[Andy Blackmore]

thanks Mike, Its actually graphic artwork, which contains a big T&C box in the bottom corner, but that didnt stop the two Grand Prix's...

Anyone, seems to be making a little progress, got to the stage of arguing the invoice....but its like pulling teeth.. failing that, like you say its not worth it financially :(