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Can I put an image from Flickr on my website?

Photograph 'stolen' from Flickr and used on a website. What should I do?

  • This might sound petty, but I was disappointed to come across one of my photographs being used on a Florida flying school's website yesterday. This image, along with countless others, was on Flickr and my account settings meant that downloading/saving it was not possible, so the school has obviously used the 'print screen' function to get it. Fortunately, the image was cropped a lot, and so, I can prove that the image is mine. I understand that individuals might find copyright confusing, and so, I would understand if I saw an image of mine appearing on a personal website or blog, but I am not happy that a business has stolen my work. I have contacted the school using the image and given them two options; (1) remove the image or (2) include my name as the photographer if they wish to continue using it. Can anybody suggest some other steps that can be taken to ensure that I get what I want? Thanks in advance!

  • Answer:

    First you must realize that banks do not recognize "photo credit" as legal tender. Send them a bill for the usage! DO NOT GIVE YOUR PHOTOS away for free. I charge 3x my normal rate for un authorized usage (stolen). You can also get the photos registered through the library of Congress within 90 days of "publication" which has just happened. With that in hand you can sue them for up to $150,000 and have them cover you legal fees. It's a huge club and can bring the biggest to there knees. You can also contact the company hosting there site and require them to take the site down because they are using copyrighted material illegally. They will probably claim their webmaster did it. So they are not responsible. That is BS. The copyright laws clearly state in italics (emphasized) the it is the licensee that is required to obtain a license in writing. If you walked out of Best Buy with a plasma TV, they would throw your butt in jail ... don't let them steal your stuff. good luck!

Michael K at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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I think you're being more than reasonable about this. Give them a few days to comply. If they don't then the next step is to issue a takedown notice, there's some examples available online. Sent it to the company and to the company hosting their website.

Jeroen Wijnands

You should also have done option 3. Send them an invoice, with a percentage increase for illegal use initially, for the usage of the image. If they do not respond then send a take down notice. if they do not respond to that send a note to the ISP. If they do not respond to any of that send them a letter from your solicitor stating that you are taking legal action for copyright infringement. Ignore fivetoze totally. He/she is a fool if that is how he/she thinks after supposedly 40 years behind the lens.

It's not petty, someone stole your work and is making money (indeirectly) off of it. I wouldn;t have a huge problem with someone using one of my pics as they desktop background but as part as a design on a comercial website? Send them a frindly letter explaining that you have a problem. If they don;t act, send a registered letter. If they still don't act, hire a lawyer.

Eric Lefebvre

Applepocalypse - obviously its in breach of the 'linkback' in Flickr T's& C's as the image has been tampered with. fivetoze is talking bollox - even if an image has been cropped/tampered a reverse image search engine like TinEye will usually find it. Putting your image on the web does not sign over all your rights to it. The fact that you'd have the original with the EXIF data would prove ownership. The advice given to issue a DCMA takedown notice & bill for use is good. If you don't want renumeration then at least get a credit. For info, there is a Photographers Rights group on Flickr for just this very thing on there you'll find info on sample NOI's takedown notice & how to get the ISP of the offender; http://www.flickr.com/groups/nomorefreephotos/

deep blue2

40yrs behind a lens, 20yrs teaching - what an idiot that dreamer is........... me i would have my lawyer call them and demand immediate removal of the image and payment, dependinmg on their attitude you could always call in the heavies

dont call me betty

In the Flickr terms and conditions it states that you can choose to allow poeple who buy royalties from Yahoo to use your pictures in blogs as long as they link it back to your Flickr page, Just change "who can blog my stuff" setting in your account settings. No one stole anything, you just didn't read the terms and conditions.

Applepocalypse

er, im sorry, but how can you PROVE its actually your iimage. your image, by your own words was larger, it incorporated more detail, and information, the viewed image is a crop. therefore its been changed, and all the exif data stripped away. im sorry to say this, but more fool you for putting such high quality images on what is a public site without placing a watermark on it...if you were Microsoft suing IBM over cocpyright, thats acceptable, but unless youre a registered company, and have a pile of money you want to give to lawyers, i'd bite the bullet, and call it a lesson well learned. Don't do it again. i do work, the customer pays their fee... 20 minutes later them images are fired around the world on facebook... over which i have absolutely no control whatsoever. and simply locking your image is pathetically naieve' my 15yr old can copy anything.. two keystrokes.. regrdless of how its protected. its the age we live in im afraid...

fivetoze

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