Zoom-in Online

It happens to almost every photographer: Someone "borrows" a photo of yours and uses it without permission. Most of the time, it's average Joe and Jane, who happen to find your shot on Flickr and it fits the blogpost they were working on. Sometimes it's worse, and your photo is used for commercial purposes. Either way, it's very annoying.

When I discover my image in use, I generally start by contacting either the person who used it or, if the image was used on internet forum or similar, the host. I ask them to please remove the photo, and often hint that if they'd only asked in advance, we could have figured something out. This usually works.

When my shot is being used commercially, I send the guilty party an invoice along with a note, asking that they remove my image immediately or pay up. I use market prices to determine the amount. Last time it happened, a Seattle based newspaper had "borrowed" a photo of mine from Flickr, and I sent a $200 bill to the photo editor, along with a link to the Flickr page, pointing out the very clear copyright notice there. They had no choice but to pay me, and they did so without question.

Luckily, I have yet to experience downright uncooperative responses. I got the advice of sending out invoices to commercial image abusers from someone with legal knowledge, but anything beyond that, I would definitely take straight to a copyright lawyer. If you can find one that specializes in internet rights management, you are off to a good start. I have one of those standing by for when I need him - and eventually, I'm sure I will.

In the meantime, let me recommend TinEye, an online service that lets you see where any image is used on the interwebz. I've found a few uses that way — mostly completely legal uses of my stock imagery, which is always fun, and it comes with a nifty little plugin for your browser. So, go check out TinEye and see what you might find for yourself.

Photo credit: PeskyMonkey

Rasmus Rasmussen is on loan from iStockphoto, where he is part of the image inspection team.