Did you know that it's illegal to pinch photos, clip-art, text, video and audio from the internet without permission - or licence payment? Did you also know that giving proper credit is not a substitute for getting permission to use copyrighted material and will not exempt you from prosecution for infringement?
Contrary to popular belief, the fact that material is posted on the World Wide Web does NOT mean it is in the "public domain" or otherwise free to be taken, copied or used by others.
Why this bee in my bonnet you may well ask. Well, here's the story . . .
In July 2009 I designed and created a website for a client and took a series of photos (and video) of her luxury guest house for inclusion on her new site.
In February 2010 I received a call from her PR agency telling me to email them all the photos I'd taken that were on my client's website along with any others I may have left off. During the course of our conversation, it transpired that my photography work was required for a Third Party although who they were and what my photos would be used for they refused to say, explaining that was 'client confidentiality'.
I therefore explained that since I had taken the photos I also owned the copyright and that not only did I have a right to know where my photos would be used, I would also be charging a usage fee prior to releasing them. Their phone call was subsequently followed up by an email requesting the photos again, so my return email reiterated what I had said to them over the phone.
Then everything fell strangely silent until, lo and behold two weeks later . . .
. . . I discovered that, regardless of my instructions, they had 'lifted' my photos and used them in two holiday property rental websites - without so much as a credit or link to my agency. Stunned at their (non) business ethics I sent them an invoice for the illegal use of my photography work. I also contacted the two websites in question to alert them to this copyright infringement.
Long story short - regardless of repeated requests for the usage fee and drawing their attention to their obvious copyright misdemeanour, I never received any payment from the PR Agency. Worse still, after all this they had the audacity to claim to be "honourable people". My photos were eventually removed from the two websites concerned and the PR Agency inserted their own.
This little episode turned out to be perfect timing as it occurred while I was putting together my How To Use Images On Your Website Guide and compelled me to draw my readers' attention to the thorny issue of copyright.
The internet is not a "Free For All" where you can just hop around copying stuff because you think no one's going to be any the wiser. Think again. Some people don't realize how small the internet is. In fact, there is a theory (put forward by the psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s) that everyone is connected to each other through, at most, six degrees of separation.
When I create a website for a client which is to include text, audio, video, clip-art, illustrations and/or photography - and which was not created by the #1 Ladies Website Agency or Barkers Sarl - I always ask my clients where they are getting their content from. I also make sure they provide me with a copy of the legal permissions/licence payment they have obtained for the use of said material on their future website.
By doing this I obey internet code of conduct and copyright rules and, more importantly, protect my clients from any legal fallout and damages - while also protecting them from unscrupulous PR Agencies and other internet users from lifting their work.
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