Copyright Theft White Moose Cafe Affects Us All- A photographer creates a piece of copyrighted work the moment the shutter is pressed. That one statement grants me the rights to use my imagery how I want to.  I can sell it, I can licence it for commercial use, I can licence it for personal use, I can give the copyright away if I choose.  The main image above this text - created by me - the copyright lies with me. It is enshrined in UK law, Irish law, EU Law, US law, in fact, every country in the world has pretty much the same laws.  Some choose to ignore enforcement (China being a notable one here) The photographs I take belong to me.  Not to anyone else.  I value my work and I value the price it takes me to create that work, and therein lies the reson about this blog. The White Moose Cafe in Dublin used an image on it's Facebook Business Page (No - Im not going to link to the site). It was of a baby breast feeding.  The owners / manager of the cafe used the image to promote the cafe, so a commercial use of the photograph has to be assumed. What they didn't do is check where the photograph came from originally, who owned it, what licence rights were granted to it or even attempt to contact the owner of the photograph (i.e. the person who took it in the first place) to ask for permission to use it.  As it was on Google (and a few other web sites notably the Huffington Post) they thought it was fair game. WRONG. The cafe is in Ireland so Irish law applies. A simple search on copyright law would have brought a lot of websites that explain it very simply: 585,000 articles returned by Google in 0.49 seconds, some of the top links are below

Photographers’ Rights

Copyright

Copyright Law in Ireland-A Quick and Easy Guide to Copyright Law

Copyright Theft White Moose Cafe

I've written about photographers being able to use Google to carry out a reverse image search previous (Clik this link - Photographers are cashing in on the illegal use of their images) The technology has been out there for a couple of years now.  Indeed websites are set up with the sole purpose of indexing images and checking to see who owns them.  Pixys.com being one of those. (I'm a member of that). PetaPixel picked it up - click here So why does it affect us all? Because in it's purest simplest terms it's theft.  The cafe owner / management would scream and have a fit (and has done!) if people order, eat and leave without paying.  They have posted CCTV of people doing that online - and good for them Theft is theft, regardless.  However, the cafe owner / management think that a photograph is different.  A photograph belongs to everybody because it's on Google. So let's take the food analogy here with a cafe business:

• White Moose Cafe management hire a chef to cook food = cost to the business
• White Moose Cafe management provides tools for chef = cost to the business
• White Moose Cafe buys food = cost to the business
• White Moose Cafe prepares food = cost to the business
• Waiting staff deliver food - cost to the business
• Waiting for staff clear empty plates - cost to the business
• Kitchen staff wash empty plates = cost to the business

Now apply that to a photography business:

• Photographer buys camera & lens & battery & memory card = cost to the business
• Photographer buys computer and software to edit the photograph = cost to the business
• Photographer spends time editing photograph = cost to the business
• Photographer spends time sending photograph to various stock agencies to sell via different licencing arrangements = cost to the business

I could go on into more detail but I'm sure you get the message.  Both businesses have costs to pay. By using a photograph taken from the web without permission White Moose Cafe stole it.  Just the same as if I had walked into the cafe, ordered, eaten and did a runner without paying.  The fact a photograph is a digital item over sausage, egg and chips being physical items are irrelevant.  That's the law.  In fact, bugger the law, that's how I was brought up!

Copyright Theft White Moose Cafe

What made the situation even worse was the response from the cafe owner / management.  Ridicule of the copyright owner, and then trolling by the thousands of fans of the cafe.  I must admit to being a follower and I've even given a 5* star review of the cafe.  The owner / management have their finger on the pulse of humour, the Zeitgeist if you will. However by the copyright theft White Moose Cafe just lost the moral high ground, they then descended into the playground with the childish and naive comments.   What is worse is the comments from ill-informed people who don't seem to have any idea of copyright laws!  (Probably the same people downloading Game of Thrones illegally - as it's not a physical thing it's not breaking the law...right?) What IS good is the number of people who have attempted to point out the error of the owner / management ways.  Many of them are photographers themselves, many of them, like me, like the humour and banter on the page. But theft is theft, whether it's a digital file or sausage and eggs or the crown jewels.

Educating Photographers

It's not hard to figure out why this situation happened.  The number of times I see on supposedly professional websites and in Facebook groups stuff like" "All day photography with all your images copyright free" And this is from people charging £1k, £2k etc.  They should know better, they should have the business and commercial acumen to know better. (Blatant plug - see my Wedding Photography Workshop if you are in the UK and want a wedding photography workshop that hits the business side as much as the photography side.) When the copyright owners themselves do not know the law it's a statement to the rest of the world to take their images!  GET REAL PHOTOGRAPHERS!!!>

Educating Others

You put a price on your work.  And you charge that price.  It could be a box of Jaffa Cakes (click here my non-UK readers), a bottle of wine etc.  Anything but charge for it. If you are doing this full time and it's paying your mortgage then you owe it yourself and your family to charge for it.  The simple truth is that people do not value something that is free.  (Exposure won't put food in your babies mouth by the way). Yes - I do discounts, I do deals, I do offers etc.  But people pay for my work pure and simple.

Note to my clients (and anyone else thiking of using my photographs) reading this

I'm pretty open about people using my images as long as they are not used for commercial purposes.  So don't give them to any other wedding suppliers without asking me first.  I use the Google reverse search tool one a month on a lot of my images.  I send out letters to business owners asking where they got the images from.  It's embarrassing for them and me.  So just ask me before sending them out.  They don't belong to you - you get a licence for personal use! Other people who want to use any of my photographs - ask for and wait to get permission. [/av_textblock] [av_textblock size='' font_color='' color='' av_uid='av-24qslfl']

Copyright Theft White Moose Cafe

I posted this comment, along with several others defending the photographer and her stance. I fully expect to bullied, harassed, swore at, called name etc.  And not just by Paulie the owner / manager but by the other people following the page.  The other people who think this is funny. "It's not funny any more. That is the whole point that Paulie & friends are failing to get. And that is a real shame. Using social media to draw attention to the fact a photograph was used without permission, a girl was ridiculed when asking for her legal rights to be upheld. I used to think the page was humour, funny and on point. I don't anymore. I can't condone theft, bullying and harassment. I can't condone a business using social media to bully and harass. I can't condone where it will lead to. What would happen, Paulie, if she turned up in your restaurant and asked for compensation, backed up by the legal rights she has (and let's be 100% here. She has legal rights in this despite what you or anyone else thinks about anything she has put on social media). Would you bully and harass her? Would you use physical force against her? Would you assault her? Get your "friends" in the cafe to do the same? It's easy on a keyboard folks to be and strong and spout off about violence etc. Not so easy in real life. So let me leave you with this thought: It' just a photograph you ripped off sure. BUT let's go one stage further: It's just a music track, who cares It's just a video game, they make shed loads of money It's just a movie, they can afford it It's just a few hundred dollars, he's rich and won't miss it It's just a car, they have insurance. No one lost anything It's just 20 minutes of fun, it's just sex She said no, but she really meant yes! It's just rape. It's what? Ok to rape? It's just a life? It's ok to kill? Where do YOU draw the line?" less than 30 seconds later I got a response.  This is a lady who lives and works in the UK - Anita Willis Lewis. An intelligent young lady.  Has several friends working in the NHS, at Cranfield University, friends who are nursery nurses, shop managers, friends working at Skoda, VW, Audi.  In short a typical English female.  Yet she seems to condone theft. Two minutes later I got the typical response from the cafe owner / manager