Monday, October 16, 2006

Gggrrrrr Metro

SITTING on the bus last Thursday I picked up a copy of the freesheet Metro when I noticed a very, very familiar photograph on the front page, my ducks pic.

Feeling blue
Robber duck

The pics related to a story 'where are our ducks now' which Daragh wrote on the Dublin Blog on Tuesday evening. Is this a coincidence? I think not.

Now I wasn't asked permission for my photograph's use and on page three there were other photographs credited to another photographer. So not only was my permission not sought and no money was agreed upon but you would be forgiven for thinking this other person had taken my pic.

I have been asked for permission to use my photographs in the past and have allowed it for no fee, particularly for not-for-profit organisations. This is completely different and not on, especially seeing as how I did not get any credit for a photograph they deemed strong and good enough for the front page. This is all the more annoying considering they already had photographs of the duck race.

Daragh talks about it on his site. So I will be invoicing Metro in the morning. For me this also puts to bed any journalist's argument that blogs are useless and no threat to the mainstream media. Maybe they aren't a threat, but blogs are not so useless if stories and photographs are taken from them. And it is at the very least a poor show if journalists do not name their source.

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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

YOU GO GIRL!!!!

Boliath said...

Go get 'em indeed, cheeky bastards!

Twenty Major said...

The very least you deserve is a front page apology and thousands of euros in compensation.

Unknown said...

Let us know how you get on... they may claim it was already in the public domain...

Boliath said...

It says All Rights Reserved on the Flickr pic, they've breached that - no?

Lorcy said...

fecking bastards! used to work for magazines, they hate payin' for foties, with writers they have to talk and neogiate, but once a pics taken they think it's their's, what they did to you is seriously taking the piss though

Anonymous said...

Who was the other photographer?? Might be nice to let that person know as well. But i agree it not on and you should go all the way.

Anonymous said...

That's very cheap and unprofessional. I've had my work ripped off a few times and it's not nice. Plus it generally takes a lot of effort to resolve it. Though once, when a girl in the Irish Post plagiarised an entire album review (mostly verbatim), I rang the journalist and paper's Editor in the UK. She claimed she had been using my review "for research purposes". The editor brushed the whole thing off and then offered me a job. I declined.

Keep us posted on this...

Twenty Major said...

Aye, it's happened to me a few times as well. Mostly by taboids and it's mostly impossible to do anything about it.

Cunts.

Simon said...

As twenty said cunts

dervla said...

Thats really crap. I hope you get a retrospective credit and payment. Doesn't take much to ask for permission or credit someone.

topgold said...

Follow up the invoice with phone calls to accounts and a solicitor's letter if you have a boilerplate. You may have to wait years for the money to trickle back to you, however.

Declan said...

Bastards, thats theft.

Anonymous said...

A very cheap thing to do and you should be compensated.

However, I hardly think someone robbing a story about ducks constitutes proof that blogs are now threat to the mainstream media.

It was a story about plastic ducks in a freesheet. A sheet that is read and discarded within 20mins.

You will also find the person who stole the story is a blogger himself which is ironic. On his homepage he actually has links to redmum.

So alas not a mainstream hack stealing from the blogosphere, but a blogger stealing from another and selling it on.

Red Mum said...

notablogger: The issue for me was the unrequested use of my photograph which looked like it was taken by another photographer.

We all know stories are passed around and in those cases it is polite to hat tip and people do. Is that a big deal, nah, taking pictures on the other hand is.

As I said my issue was with the use of my pic. And hopefully it is all resolved now.

I don't believe blogs are a threat to the mainstream media rather I think they compliment it (and in the case of the Dublin Riots surpassed it with the real time coverage) and if I gave the impression that I do, blame it on my annoyed rant following the discovery of my pic. But I do believe that the mainstream media's dismissal of blogs and bloggers is misguided.

Thanks to everyone who commented, it has been much appreciated.

Unknown said...

Irish owned real estate ready for crash in Portugal
News Type: Event — Thu Dec 27, 2007 6:59 AM EST
world-news
Irishinfo

Yesterday boxing day the owners of Oceanico developements in Portugal where summoned to appear before the local courts , concerning the close knit relationship with another irish held company Kendar Properties , it is believed by the relevant authorities that the Oceanico and kendar owners had set up a cartel of Price fixing and a very complex financial structure where several mortgages where given on the same piece of land , the owner of Kendar Properties has absconded bail and is actively being sought by the Irish authorities , the local courts have been given authorisation to investigate Oceanico developements in Portugal , given that the loans where granted by Irish banks , this is a very worrying situation for all the future buyers of real estate in Portugal given the size and nature of the fraud relating already to Kendar Properties .