Image courtesy of BBC News and Nell Mackenzie
Toronto. Today, people are uploading their photographs in droves. Sadly, while this offers a far wider audience over the internet, it exposes the excellent and unusual to easier copyright violation.
The BBC News via a column written on the 18th of September by Nell Mackenzie titled, ” ‘They used my picture and I should’ve got paid for it’ ” tells the cautionary tale of Sean Heavey who one evening found one of his storm shots used in a Netflix video.
So as a precaution, realize your work can be easily “borrowed” and reused commercially if it’s uploaded to the internet these days. Back when low resolution prints or books were copied, it wasn’t worth the time and effort to duplicate the material. Generally, as copying falls in cost and increases in quality, copyright violation grows too. Just think of all the fraud or nuisance phone calls you get now that long distance is so cheap for you to call friends and family far away.
Since we (PHSC) are an educational not for profit group, we do occasionally use an image from the ‘net, but we always try to give credit to the organization or photographer. Thanks to my friend Russ Forfar for sharing this piece of BBC News with me.
