::As(s)AnArtist::
In the era of 3 Idiots and Chetan Bhagat’s, peevee is too small a subject. In my honest opinion, for any artist, small or big, the major happiness lies in looking at his or her work being used, accomplished, commented, criticized but with a name tag, a simple copyright. Being in the advertising industry, i know the value of a copyright and a copyright violation.
Coming to the point, i always had a policy of sharing my images with any publication or media for FREE, only if they request me and if they can give me due credit. There are many instances, where i had bad time, when media prints images from my flickr account without my knowledge. In such situations, some friends figure out that its my image and keep a copy for me. The media which used my images without my permission, in the past includes Bangalore Mirror, Times of India and various other kannada papers and magazines.
But, I’m in a different situation since December 2009. I was chosen as the official photographer of TFN 2009 (Tour of Nilgiris 2009) through a contest. The traveler and photographer in me said quick yes for everything, including shoots planned pre-tour and post-tour. It was a great experience and an opportunity to be with so many big names in Bangalore for 8 days. Happiness is not the word. But, after day 1, when my pictures started are being published in papers without my name or a copyright, i was kinda pissed off and said what the hell. Day 2 is even bad, when DNA (one of the sponsors of TFN 09) wrote one of my images as file photo. I told myself that media works like that and will work like that forever. Then in media like Bangalore Mirror, Thejas and MyBangalore.com, my images were published without Photographers credit.
The latest addition to the list is a full page coverage on TFN 2009 in Ahmedabad Mirror, which published not 1 but 10 images without any photo credit. In my heart I felt happy that some of my images are on print, but, my head says, how will someone know that’s mine.
I had never sent any legal notice in the past, when someone used my images without permission, and will never send one. It’s a part of the game. All these wont stop me from shooting or uploading or sharing images.
Hoping for the best, As(S) an Artist.
Indian Media would never respect IP not copyrights. They don’t care. What they care is for rats race.
Nothing like these should stop you from clicking. Thats the spirit
You should find out what is up!
Since you won a contest and such, did you sign any documents with TFN? If so, do they now own the photos??
Y’never know! I worked with a university paper and once they use my photo they archive it for use at ANY time for the next 3434131231312314100000 years. Though they HAVE to credit me under or around the photo.
Hope it works out.
proud of you, however, these photos are great and print really well!
You gotta let them know that you are offended by this, dude. If a legal letter is the way to do it, then so be it. Writing about it in your blog will help you vent your frustration, but unless your blog is popular enough to be noticed by the culprits, they wouldn’t even know.
Write to them, probably the editor, and just let them know that it wasn’t fair. Being in the business, they should understand.
Cheers,
Arul Prasad.
I’m not even sure whether to congratulate you or say “I’m sorry to hear this happened” – Dude, the photographs are awesome! I went through the ‘published’ set of pictures on your Flickr gallery, and was glad to see that The Telegraph gave you credit for the images. Why can’t the our media give you credit? And the photo saying ‘File Photo’? That’s just disgusting!
I’m curious as to how AM got their hands on all the images – Images that weren’t even uploaded! Hope the culprits have enough guts to own up and say they’re sorry for what they’ve done!
People who write for media should start respecting amateur photographers and honor their work – how would they feel if we stole their stories without due credit to them?
What the heck…It is really awful to notice the big companies being reluctant to the copyright issue. Go ahead and sue them. Then only they’ll not violate the copy right in future.
Good to know about your pictures being published in media
But copyright issue 
It is quite surprising even leading media ignorning basic copyright. Anyway you are THE official photographer of the Tour of nilgiris. Your photos are always amazing