Another free seminar in Brighton, run by solicitor Scott Gair of Mayo Wynn Baxter (and member of www.copyrightaction.com)

‘Website Trading - E-Commerce and the Law’

Thursday 26th November 2009

"Join us at the Lighthouse, 28 Kensington Street, Brighton BN1 4AJ from 6.00pm till 8.00pm on Thursday 26th November for a lively and

As reported here and elsewhere, a UK removal company was recently sued by Getty Images for unauthorised use of a single image on its website. The company settled out of court, agreeing to pay Getty £1,951. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. The actual costs of this dispute are shockingly higher.

Out-law, the bulletin of IT & e-commerce solicitors Pinsent Masons LLP, reports that Getty has won a case for copyright infringement against removal company JA Coles. Coles admitted using a Getty photo 'Mother with daughter (6-8) looking at each other and smiling' on its website. Although Coles removed the image when approached for payment by Getty, they did not pay the fee. The Court ruling means they will now have to pay Getty's legal costs as well as £1,951.31 in damages.

What is significant about this case is that hundreds more may now follow. During 2005-2006 Getty (and Corbis) began invoicing alleged infringing users of their photographs for retrospective licenses. Many hundreds of UK web publishers have since received bills from Getty's UK lawyers,

From copyright lawyer, photographer and CopyrightAction member Scott Gair. Scott is a solicitor at Mayo Wynne Baxter.

PLEASE NOTE : Contact Scott Gair (details below) if you wish to attend NOT Copyright Action.

Media & Creative Industries Seminar

"An Introduction to Copyright for Photographers, Musicians, Writers, and the creative industries"

Mayo Wynne Baxter host free Copyright Law Seminar Join us at the Brighton Media Centre (Friese-Greene House, 15-17 Middle Street, Brighton BN1 1AL) from 5.30pm till 7.30pm on Wednesday 30th September for a lively and interactive seminar where solicitor Scott Gair will addressing the issues and challenges faced by creative professionals in their industries.

The latest move in the Guardian rights grab is that the NUJ in conjunction with the British Photographic Council has set up a petition site:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/GNMphotographers/index.html

All Editorial photographers who could possibly submit to the Guardian in the future, or who have done in the past are requested to sign.

The Guardian has written to contributors imposing revised terms:

Dear Contributor,
Re. Change to terms and conditions for commissioned photography
You will no doubt be aware that we, like every other media outlet in the UK, are experiencing very difficult trading conditions brought about by declining circulations and falling advertising revenues.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/PhotoCompetition/

We received the following private message from an anonymous guest at this site:

As someone who has spent years in the UK courts pursuing theft of my copyright I came across your site by accident while Googling - at last and thank God I thought. Then when I saw the last posts were so old I was upset to see that other creators don't want to name and shame. I give my agents months and months to pursue copyright infringers - and it would be nice to think that if all fails at least they could be named and shamed.

We can only agree. We try to flag up the problem publishers and contracts but can't catch them all. We don't know everything that's going on, nor is there the time to write up all of them on a part-time, no-pay basis. Of course it would be better and more useful if misbehaving publishers were invariably exposed.

We all know infringement and rights grabs are a way of life in UK. Why give them an easy time when you can alert future victims? If you have had bad experiences, please report them here. Just avoid libelling anyone it and keep it truthful and accurate.

You don't even have to register as a user here in order to post in the forums, you can whistle-blow anonymously by posting as a guest. Doing so just means your contribution is held in a moderation queue until an admin can check it. We have to do that in order to keep out the spammers. Registering avoids this delay. So please name and shame in the relevant forum and help make this site an invaluable resource for the self-defence of photographers.