Image Copyright

PLEASE NOTE: this work is a draft and will be added to and/or amended as time permits. Do not take it as a substitute for proper legal advice. What is offered here is no more than personal opinion. Links to other Websites contained within the article have no connection to me and their content and opinions are their own. I bear no responsibility for any action you may choose to take as a result of acting on any opinion contained within.

In the 21st Century, publishing images online has never been easier. Using a Website (such as this) to upload photos, or taking photos on a mobile phone (cell phone) and uploading to social media, can be done in seconds. Content on the Internet continues to increase at a logarithmic rate and the appetite for imagery to accompany that content increases similarly. Sadly, the awareness of the general public regarding ownership of content is lacking and abuse of copyright continues daily.

Image Protection

In the early days of the Internet, when most people online were far less 'tech-savvy', it was fairly easy to protect images with a simple line or two of Javascript aiding the prevention of image theft. A basic watermark (such as I still use on all images displayed on this website) was also common as a visual reminder of copyright ownership. These days, such techniques are for the most part ineffective. Asserting copyright by inclusion of information within image files in the form of International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) tags is vitally important. It asserts copyright and is easily traceable. Completing IPTC fields is a standard task among professional photographers in order to communicate information regarding the image to end users. That information includes copyright ownership. It is unfortunate, therefore, that many software systems and processes remove that information as a matter of course, despite this being contrary to the standard itself. Even more ironic is the fact that many news publishers engage in this act of IPTC fields alteration or removal.

A point to note is that copyright in images in the UK (and many other countries) is inherent a creative work from the moment that work is created: no further action is necessary to claim ownership of an image. You have created that image and you own the copyright. However, in the USA, it is extremely useful to assert your copyright by registering your images with the United States Copyright Office. USCO has an online system eCO, where, for a fee, images may be uploaded and copyright asserted, In the event of copyright infringement in the USA, this registration enables US attorneys to claim potentially significant damages in your interest. It may be that without registration, many legal firms will not even be interested in pursuing the case.

Education

Ignorance of the law is, of course, never a defence, but may be understandable in the case of an individual who may not understand the restrictions on usage of online content. There is much confusion regarding this among the general public and the situation is not helped by the profusion of Websites which claim to offer 'free' image downloads, when often they are just holding pages for advertising and tracking cookies, while the actual content and images are often far from free and have, in fact, just been stolen by these criminals. This can result in innocent abuses on social media or blogs, where someone will commonly just copy and paste a photo into their timeline or post in order to illustrate a point, believing that they have obtained the photo perfectly legally. The problem is then compounded by the ability (and encouragement of platform users to actively 'share' content, disseminating the issue.

When that individual has had the law regarding copyright explained to them, then hopefully they will apologise, remove the content and not make the mistake again. Otherwise - where the copyright has been infringed on social media for example - then they may have the content forcibly removed by the business concerned. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) enables copyright owners to report copyright abusers and issue Takedown notices to guilty parties (see links to common DMCA reporting tools at the end of this article).

Flagrant Copyright Infringement

Use of such images by businesses, however, is another matter. Managers and owners have a legal responsibility to ensure that they are aware of, and adhere to, the laws regarding Intellectual Property and Copyright. When they don't comply with the law or blatantly and flagrantly abuse the law, then the copyright owner, having discovered the abuse, must act.

In such cases, there are various options open to photographic copyright owners to enforce copyright and obtain fair recompense for use of their images.

There are many software solutions and businesses who may employ the services of international legal representatives to take on what can be a complex and lengthy process on your behalf. For a percentage of the resulting settlement (often ~50%), they will handle all communications and - if necessary - legal action on your behalf. I have used various of these services with varied results. Most of these service providers offer a free option, with all offering a monthly subscription. Results will vary according to a number of issues, and quality and reliability will vary over time. Do a search and see what users have to say.

DISCLAIMER: I have no connection with any of the services listed other than possibly having used their services at some time. Do your own research and use at your own risk. Remember that by using their services, you are entering into a legally binding contract with them: read the small print and make your own decisions. I am making no recommendation or otherwise at all.

Common Copyright Infringement Service Providers

• ImageRights International
• Pixsy
• Copytrack

Media Ethics

Online news outlets are not unknown to plagarise from each other. In 2017, the Irish Independent newspaper sued Leo Sherlock, owner of the online news outlet TheLiberal.ie

They won the case and Leo Sherlock apologised and agreed to pay damages to Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Ltd for breaches of copyright. He apparently used photos from the Irish Independent and articles from other sources.

D.I.Y.

If you are happy to proceed with the process yourself, then the first step is to contact the individual or business directly. Find an email address for the business and send an initial, polite email seeking further information about how/where/when they sourced the image. This information will then guide you in how to proceed. Their initial response may well tell you a lot about their character and how easy or challenging the whole process is likely to be. You will probably best be advised to keep the communications written, as this will ensure that everything is clear between you at all times and you will also retain a record of all that was said should you have to go to law.

How you then choose to progress the case is really between you and them, but you should be issuing an invoice for use of your photograph. This is likely to be beyond a regular license fee for the usage as your copyright has been infringed. You should take into account how the image has been used, for how long, who has used it and in what context. Has the image been altered in any way: have the IPTC or EXIF fields been tampered with or removed completely or has a copyright notice been removed using image editing software, for example?

There is a range of guidance on the Internet: a recommended article on the process being on EPUK (Editorial Photographers United Kingdom and Ireland).

Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court (IPEC)

If the infringer ultimately refuses to settle a reasonable licence fee, then in the UK it is now a relatively straightforward process to take the infringer to court. The Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court (IPEC) offer services to settle intellectual property disputes, including copyright. Official guidance including all necessary links and fees: Take a case to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court.

Unofficial guidance - again, this is very helpful, but use at your own risk.

The Intellectual Property Lawyers' Association (IPLA) may be useful (list of members). Lawyers who may be happy to take on your case Pro bono or signpost you to other groups or organisations to help can be found on IP Pro Bono.

Taking a case to the EU

Note that most of the information contained within this article relate to the 'home' nations of the UK - specifically England & Wales. While the UK remains a member of the EU, matters may be advanced, if necessary, to the European Courts via the European e-Justice Portal (Beta).

Common DMCA Takedown Pages

Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison

The prison was opened to the public for the first time, allowing artists and performers a space to interpret the works of its most famous inmate Oscar Wilde, who was Incarcerated in solitary confinement for much of his time in the gaol. While there, he wrote De Profundis, a letter to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas and upon his release his last work The Ballad of Reading Gaol, was produced.

Throughout the prison, new works by artists such as Nan Goldin, Marlene Dumas, and Steve McQueen were installed. Those fortunate enough to get tickets were able to listen to Wilde’s De Profundis performed live in the former prison chapel each Sunday throughout the exhibition by readers including Neil Bartlett, Ralph Fiennes, Kathryn Hunter, Ragnar Kjartansson, Maxine Peake, Lemn Sissay, Patti Smith, Colm Tóibín, and Ben Whishaw

Throughout, visitors were able to roam the prison corridors and cells and view other exhibits on display.

Roald Dahl Day

There's no doubt, when all's said and done,

It Is Truly Swizzfigglingly Flushbunkingly Gloriumptious

On 13th September 2016, it's the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roald Dahl, one of the greatest ever authors of children's literature.

Born in South Wales of Norwegian parentage, Dahl spent the final 36 years of his life in the village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, England.

What better way to celebrate then, than to visit the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in his former home? I'm happy to say that I finally gave in to pleas from my children to spend a Sunday morning there recently. OK, to be honest, I've wanted to go there for such a long time myself! They say that the museum is aimed at 6 to 12 year olds - clearly propsposterous.

The museum exterior is beautifully decorated with a lovely graphic of the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) on the wall...

...and inside there is plenty to explore and do with many interactive installations. There is also free storytelling at weekends and during the Buckinghamshire school holidays.

The gift shop is not terrifically cheap, but there is something for all to take away and the museum's dedication to charitable giving - following on from the charities set up by Dahl himself - makes the temptation to come away with a little something, difficult to resist. They are to be applauded in that they don't sell any confectionery (sweets, chocolate, candy) in the gift shop, something that would have been so easy to take advantage of, given such a captive and ready young clientèle!

Of course, even the parents are likely to be ready for a coffee and a slice of 'Bogtrotters Cake' after an hour or so in the museum. So a quick visit to Café Twit is not to be missed. No Snozzcumbers here! #Dahlicious and Gloriumptious!

In short, the museum comes highly recommended. A walk through the village to notable spots including his grave in St Peter and St Paul's Church (a leaflet is available from the museum) is a very pleasant way to round off the day and remember this marvellous man.

Oh, and the BFG movie is terrific, too. Both Mark Rylance as the BFG and Ruby Barnhill as Sophie is Phizz-Whizzing!

For more ideas on how to celebrate use the hashtag #RoaldDahl100 on social media or visit the Museum pages at the official Roald Dahl Website.

Capturing the Essence of Summer

Often we see beautiful views when travelling at speed in our vehicles. As someone who loves to capture scenes with a camera, a fleeting glimpse of a passing gorgeous landscape with the most the perfect lighting is frustrating to say the least. Sometimes the lighting is so momentary or so unique that you just know that it unlikely to be repeated in exactly the same way in the same location again. Frustrating enough to know that you are stuck behind the wheel on a motorway or fast road and unable to photograph it, even worse when you can't even stop to enjoy it.

When you know an area, however, you become familiar with the seasons, the climate and the position of the sun at certain times of year. You are also able to pre-visit or scout out a site to size up the likely best positions and times of day/year to be there. In a country such as the U.K., we are fortunate enough to be blessed with changing seasons which afford us many varied opportunities to capture the beauty of nature as it changes the landscape throughout the year, and certain slices of British life lend themselves to become icons of certain seasons.  We all have our own interpretations of what these might be.

Pulling out of winter, certain flowers are most representative of spring and early summer for me.  Particularly snowdrops, daffodils, snakes head fritillaries, bluebells and poppies which as they commence their blooming cycle commonly take us from February through to June in the south of England.

Iconic views of late summer and the early suggestion that autumn is not that far away have always been - for me - the changes wrought upon the landscape by man.  Fields being stripped of hay and tied up in bales has long been a sign that summer is slowly coming to an end.  Formerly only tied in rectangular bales, which used to be man-handled, these gradually got larger and many British farms and farmers now commonly use the far larger round bales.

Capturing the harvesting of theses bales has been something which I have yet to achieve.  The perfect blue-sky day with a tractor trundling across dry fields in late summer kicking up dust in its wake is something which I have only seen from the car or when I have been somewhere without the camera.  Happened the other day, in fact.  I was so annoyed with myself for missing this yet again, that I determined that I must at least get back to the location the following day to get some images of the harvested bales.

Of course, if there's one thing that you absolutely can't rely upon in the U.K., it's the weather!  Sometimes this can play to your advantage, but often it seems to do its best to frustrate your efforts.  I turned up at the location - a tricky spot on a main road - only to have the sun disappear on me just as I arrived.  I had allowed myself plenty of time before sunset in order to size up the sort of images I wanted and would be able to capture, but the clouds rolled in thick and fast and despite hanging around for a couple of hours, the sun just peeked through the clouds for about 90 seconds in all that time.  I'd also decided that the parking spot I'd chosen wasn't the most safe of locations from which to venture out on foot!

I rattled off a few shots of which the above is fairly typical.  While giving a nice idea of the field and the bales, the texture of the stubble and compressing the bales together using a longer focal-length lens, the image just doesn't capture summer at all for me.  Despite some post-processing work in Lightroom, the sky remains fairly bland and boring, there are limited shadows (of course) and the colours just cannot punch through with the natural brightness that reminds us of a summer's day.

So, I had to go back and as soon as possible before either the British weather conspired against me  - or the farmer decided to remove them from the fields or (even worse) wrap them in some unsightly black plastic!

The forecast for the next few days remained good, so the next day I returned with an idea of what I wanted to do, a better day with a glorious sky and a setting sun, and a far safer parking place!

Having sold images as editorial stock for some time now, I can't help but think in terms of what a client might be looking for in an image, as well as what I want to capture as an attractive landscape or pictorial photo.  So I'll always shoot some variety to account for different types of usage and while I will often crop tight in camera to get the image I want, I'll also retake the same image with some space left to crop for the client's purposes or with a decent amount of copy space for a magazine cover, for example.

A general view of the field (below) gives an idea of the quantity of bales in the field.  Shooting against the sun allows us to concentrate more on the actual scene rather than any particular attractiveness it may have.  Crop volume for size of field; stubble left; contours of field; the fact that it's clearly a recent harvest etc., all be can be interpreted from the image. (f9 @ 1/60s)

Turning round 90° and getting a low viewpoint on a slight rise enabled me to isolate an individual bale against that lovely late sky.  Far more pictorial in nature, this image.  Careful framing allowed me to include two other bales in the distance for a nice balance. f6.3 @ 1/100s at a wide angle removed tight focus from a lot of the background while allowing the stubble on the plane of the bale to add some nice foreground texture.

20 minutes later and the sun is getting low enough to give some lovely long shadows, so let's take advantage of that!  I flipped around another 90° and crouched down to keep on eye-level with the bale and now pointed the camera slightly upwards to fill 2/3rds of the frame with that lovely deep blue copy space! Again allowing the bale to dissect the horizon, lets it stand out as the obvious subject.  Keep the full shadow in frame this time and shoot almost flat-on for a bit more of a starkly graphic result. Keep the aperture open again at f5.6 @ 1/500s to focus on the front of the bale itself and that much more contrasty stubble caused by the low sun and long shadows.

Denmark

While in Denmark recently, I had the opportunity to see and admire some of the countries extraordinary architecture. Residential properties such as 'The Wave' in the town of Vejle or 'The Iceberg' in Aarhus (both in Jutland) are not only visibly stunning, but architecturally inventive and socially and environmentally sustainable at the same time.

Along with Pafos in Cyprus, Aarhus (Århus) is designated as the European Capital of Culture for 2017. The town is particularly attractive from a photographic viewpoint with many interesting architectural and cultural sites which make interesting subjects; the City Hall and the cathedral being notable historical landmarks alongside modern residential buildings such as Isbjerget (The Iceberg) and public buildings such as the new city library, Aarhus Kommunes Hovedbibliotek in the Dokk1 building on the harbour front.

2017 would be an excellent time to visit Aarhus and explore the many other attractions of the country as a whole.

View the Denmark album.

Welcome

I have been creating photos since 1979 using film, slide and digital media. I sell images for publication and as wall art.

Please do contact me via this site or checkout my Twitter feed: @dc_photographs if you are interested in purchasing prints or canvases, or if you wish to commission me for a project. Images are also available to license: contact me with details for an estimate.

I hope that you enjoy your visit and take as much pleasure in viewing the photos as I have done in taking them.

Please note: this site only displays watermarked, low resolution images, all of which are copyrighted by law. Abuse of this will result in legal action being taken.