It has come to my attention recently that a client has been reproducing our images without permission. I apologise in advance, but I am going to have a rare little rant. Please feel free to stop reading or hit delete, I won’t be offended!
Our prices for digital images are very reasonably priced within the market, and with some products we actually give the low resolution images away as a gift, so this illegal downloading does upset me somewhat. Aside from the legal implications, we can’t guarantee the quality of printing from anyone other than our own recommended suppliers and one of our images on the wall of a clients house, printed badly because it has been downloaded illegally and reproduced ‘on the cheap’, does nothing for our reputation with a potential new client who might have been looking for a professional photographer.
I just wanted to post a little reminder about copyright. This is taken from the UK Government’s Intellectual Property Website.
“When someone infringes copyright, there are various courses of action which could be taken by the individual or organisation which owns the copyright. The user of the image may be asked to purchase a licence, and a commercial arrangement might be reached after which no further action is taken. However, legal action might be taken by bringing a claim in court which could result in having to go to court for a hearing.
Court cases can be expensive, as they may result in the user of the image paying the cost to use the photo, legal costs of themselves and the copyright owner and possibly other financial compensation for copyright infringement. This could amount to more than the cost of a licence to use the image. Further, the user of the infringing copy could also be asked to take down the image from websites as well, for example.
Deliberate infringement of copyright on a commercial scale may also lead to a criminal prosecution.
Even in situations where people may think their copyright infringement will not be detected, they run the risk of being discovered and consequently being pursued through the courts.”
Ocean Eyes Photography retain the Copyright to all our images and if you download them from the internet then you will be infringing copyright. Should you wish to reproduce the images yourself, then both low and high resolution digital files are available for purchase and they all come with a licence for you to reproduce the images legally in whichever format you like.
Thank you for listening. x
Ocean Eyes Photography 