Thank you all for your input. I harbor no ill will toward the school, instructor or students over this situation. I would have gladly contributed photos for their yearbook and will offer such for this year. I do however believe that the students need to learn from the situation and that I should be compensated ($30 check returned) for damages due. I still say I am more concerned that the images were easily obtained and the watermark so adeptly removed. I have contacted Zenfolio and am working with them to see how to correct the situation. I have a strong suspiscion that students aren't the only ones snagging pics from my site, unfortunately. Hard to teach a young adult right and wrong when the parents are doing illegal acts themselves.
HawksFan66 wrote:
Thank you all for your input. I harbor no ill will toward the school, instructor or students over this situation. I would have gladly contributed photos for their yearbook and will offer such for this year. I do however believe that the students need to learn from the situation and that I should be compensated ($30 check returned) for damages due. I still say I am more concerned that the images were easily obtained and the watermark so adeptly removed. I have contacted Zenfolio and am working with them to see how to correct the situation. I have a strong suspiscion that students aren't the only ones snagging pics from my site, unfortunately. Hard to teach a young adult right and wrong when the parents are doing illegal acts themselves....Show more →
I agree with others, this should be a teachable moment. It is one thing to "casually" download a photo and "reuse" it without permission, all together another to use a specialized tool (was it legally obtained?) and remove watermarks. Someone along the chain needs to understand accountability.
HawksFan66 wrote:
I'm more concerned over that fact that they were able to somehow do a screen capture and remove my watermark. How's that possible? I just don't think their PS skills are that good.
I don't see where you said that your watermark clearly indicates copyright or (c). If it did and they removed the copyright notice with the watermark, I would insist on damages to teach them a lesson - even if its $250.00.
We as photographers (those of us who earn a living in photography), must start using the protection we have been given by the copyright laws.
If we just forgive those who do these underhanded things, we are screwing ourselves. Yearbooks are a money making project - let the yearbook staff abide by the laws and moreover, respect photographers investment in the art.
The teacher that advises the students on the yearbook is inevitably the one who is chiefly responsible for the content IMO and I'm finding it hard to believe that he or she was unaware.
The other question that I have is regarding the printing company that actually prints the book. At our school, Lifetouch advises the advisees what is permissible and what isn't and a lays down some guidelines regarding how to avoid infringement. Our PTA puts together our yearbook and they receive advisement by Lifetouch about obtaining images through proper channels and how to layout the pages. They strongly advise that NO pictures be used other than the photos taken by Lifetouch and/or those taken directly by the PTA people in order to avoid situations like we have here.
