Protecting images on Flickr

wippers

wippers

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Name
Gareth
Edit My Images
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As the title says really. How do I protect my images uploaded onto my Flickr pages? I've recently found a housing letting agency using my images without asking. They have credited me with a link to my Flickr account but I feel the images have been stolen so they as a company do not have to pay for stock local images to help let their properties.
I have always just set the copyright on all my Flickr images as the standard default one checking the box stating "none (all rights reserved)". Does this give anyone the right to use my images?
I don't actually know what this means. Can anyone simplify this and give me an idea on which setting I should use to prevent this happening again please.

Thanks
Gareth
 
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All rights reserved, means you wish to retain all rights, unless specifically negotiated/paid for. So - they've stolen the images. Simples.

If you put them on flickr All rights reserved, and found someone using them, gather hard copy evidence (screenshots or whatever), then bill them at commercial rates+ for the usage, stating they have 30 days to pay, 31st day when they haven't paid (which they won't) slap them into the small claims procedures and get your money + interest.

For future, I'd upload your shots at a max of 800px longest side, with a watermark and copyright notice clearly displayed.
 
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I've now printed off the 3 page website as evidence but have no idea how long they have been using the images. They are early images so I didn't know about resizing etc, and TBH not exactly great pictures.

One of the images is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gwhiston/4235040062/in/set-72157622660700517/

Have I set this correctly so I retain all the rights?

If so, how do I know how much to invoice for?
 
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Hi Gareth, to stop downloading of images (other than screen capture of course) go to your pics/your account/privacy & permissions & alter
"who can access your original image file" to "only you"
also alter "who can share your image files" to "only you" as well.
please note if you use Flikr as your imaging host this deterrant won't work as access to the original file has to be enabled.
look through the rest of the list & deside how private you want the account
NB doing the first 2 does not stop anyone seeing your pics as long as the public view box (green) on upload is ticked!. Hope this helps. Kind regards Graham.
 
charging guidelines

oh - and take their name off the posts you made mate, at least until you've got the bill typed out and sent to them - don't want to alert them with any web traffic that they can track, and remove the images...
 
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I've had a look at the charging guidelines before and it doesn't really cover pricing for single prints etc.
Would £20.00 per image be too high/low?
Should I just send an invoice even though I'm not a pro?
 
Hi Gareth,
Just had a quick look and it appears that they have been using them for a while as you can only assume (unless they prove otherwise) that they have been using the images since the "Jack's Cottage" page went live, which if you visit http://www.bullocksproperty.co.uk/Property_Pages/ it lists all of the pages on the site :) dont you love amateur website builders!
Part way down the list you will see "Jack's Cottage.htm" with a date by the side of it "23-Mar-2010 15:37".

Hope that helps, and I would charge the £20 that you mentioned per image, but I would invoice them £20 per week/month as an unlicenced image fee.

Good Luck
 
NUJ suggested rates for online use of images here.

It's broken down my size of image used and by period of time online - 1 month of online time for a single 400x300px image for commercial and business use is £110, so it could add up quite quickly!

It's not unheard of for 'toggers to charge double NUJ rates when dealing with unauthorised usage either... I know I did, and got away with it :lol:

Edit: small claims court maximum's £5,000 iirc, so it might be simpler to keep it below this sum ;)
 
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wippers said:
Would £20.00 per image be too high/low?
Should I just send an invoice even though I'm not a pro?
Click to expand...


Too low.

It's not relevant whether you're pro or not.

They have used your image for commercial purposes without your permission in direct contravention to the license outlined on Flickr.

Use the NUJ as a guideline, and invoice accordingly for 6 months unauthorised usage.
 
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I've sent a polite but firm email pointing out the use of my copyrighted images. I have entered into a discussion regarding payment as I may be able to offer future work with the company so want to keep it amicable if possible.
If they don't play ball, then I'll send an invoice with a 30 day payment term and see what happens. Failing that, it's off to the small claims court.
 
I have now just looked at my stats on Flickr for yesterday and noticed I have had 728 views of one of the images in question. I would normally only expect a fraction of that. Any ideas what may have happened? This is before I had noticed the image had been stolen.
 
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when uploading to flickr or any album reduce the size and quality. this will deter most poeple , or the safeest way is no to put them into flickr.

for every way there is to stop images being stolen there are 3 ways to steal them.

Cheers Steve.
 
facebook has loads of my pics with "stolen from kipax.com" right accross the middle...
 
That's Facebook users tbh, doesn't surprise me... Mine was a online camera shop, using my images as their image hosting, so I wasn't best pleased! Best bit was it was a good week before anyone noticed - probably when the invoice landed on the desk :lol:
 
I have agreed a small fee for the use of my images and decided to take the matter no further. There may be additional work so have kept things amicable. He may think twice now before using copyrighted images in future. Lesson learned and no harm done.
 
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