When I started taking photography a little more seriously last year I started posting images online to Flickr where I could build a portfolio and promote my work. Unfortunately, using the site comes at a cost. Countless individuals scour the popular website to find images they use without permission on blog posts, products and in print, that make revenue and leave photographers empty handed.

It should be noted that Flickr users can offer their photos for use under the guise of a Creative Commons license, allowing for greater usage flexibility across the web in exchange for promotion, but I choose to mark my work as copyright protected. I’ve been selling images occasionally and feel I deserve compensation.

Since I’ve been placing my work on the web I’ve discovered at least a dozen incidents where bloggers and major companies have used my photos without permission (there are probably more I’m not aware of).  Sometimes they credit the source and other times they don’t. Either way it’s a clear violation of my copyright and I immediately demand its removal by contacting editors or bloggers. I’ll also use tools like Twitter and Facebook to shame them into submission.

Most of the time editors and companies apologize and quickly remove the photo. I use to be satisfied with this response, but not any longer. I’m tired of fighting people who either don’t understand copyright or don’t give a damn. Now I’m demanding compensation and threatening legal action.

The latest copyright abuser is the website NovatoPatch.com, which is a local community news source run by the parent company AOL. They operate hundreds of hyper local news sites staffed with amateur and professional writers to serve under served communities. The site generates revenue through advertising.

On September 30 NovatoPatch.com authors Brent Ainsworth of Novato and Christian Kallen of Healdsburg published Homebrewers Tests Skills at America’s Top Beer Festival. Google Alerts notified me via RSS feed that my name appeared on the website so I checked the page. I found my photo of homebrewer Alan Atha featured in the photo section. The authors gave me credit and cited Flickr as the source.

As you can see the photo also appeared on their Facebook page, where it still resides.

While it’s nice that they appreciated my photo enough to use it, they did not ask for permission, which violates my copyright protection. Apparently one of the authors did not see this “© Brian Stechschulte” underneath my photo or didn’t care. Mr. Ainsworth claims to have been a journalist since 1987, which leads me to believe he should know something about copyright protection and ethics (UPDATE BELOW: Author apologized).

After noticing the violation I took two screens shots of the page andI immediately notified Patch.com of the DMCA violation. I also flagged the photo on NovatoPatch.com as being inappropriate and tweeted about the incident including @PatchTweet and @NovatoPatch in the message so they would be aware of the incident. In addition, I requested $50 as compensation and threatened to pursue legal action.

Within an hour the photo was removed from the website and I received notification from Patch.com support. The email didn’t include an apology nor did it acknowledge my request for financial compensation. I also did not hear from Brent Ainsworth or Christian Kallen via Twitter or email.

Therefore I decided to contact Robert Gale who runs the website Companies That Steal My Photos. He’s also become frustrated with businesses that abuse copyright protection and has gone on the offensive. I became aware of the project a few months ago and vowed I would use it if need be. His website is in it’s infancy, but has the potential to influence companies based on the results he’s managed to get so far. He posted my story the other day and I notified Patch.com of its existence and that it won’t be removed until compensation is received.

I’m hoping this post also plays a role in publicly shaming Patch.com into acknowledging my demand. At the least, this web page will appear in search results for Patch.com, casting doubt over their ethics, competence and business sense so future partners and employees know who they’re dealing with.

UPDATES (Apology accepted, but still unresolved)

(Oct. 5) The author of the story finally acknowledged my demand in the comments section of the Novato Patch article, where I’ve been complaining loudly. Thankfully, new comments  also appear on the homepage. Nice website design! Unfortunately his response over e-mail contained no apology and he deferred the matter to the Patch legal time. The fight goes on.

(Oct. 6) I added the Novato Patch Facebook post about their article showing my photo, which is still on their fan page. Not that I need any more evidence.

(Oct. 17) The author of the article Brent Ainsworth called and profusely apologized for using the photograph. According to him, he simply didn’t see the copyright symbol on the Flickr page. Apparently, upper management at Patch.com recently sent an email to all their editors stating they could use Flickr images under certain conditions. Ainsworth said their criteria was crystal clear and he simply dropped the ball in this instance, which happened to be the first time he used anything on Flickr. Also, it should be noted that the folks at Patch.com did not allow him to apologize to me until now for whatever reason. Unfortunately, compensation for the photograph’s usage was not offered, so although I accept his apology and he seems like a nice guy caught between Patch.com management and their legal team, this blog post will remain online.