Photo theft by The Sunday Times
I was shocked and extremely disappointed to find one of my flickr photos on the online edition of the Sunday Times this morning (Sunday 18 May 2008). The photo on flickr is marked as 'All rights reserved' and unlike some naive user, a publishing house such as Wijeya Newspapers should have some understanding and respect for intellectual property. Under these circumstances where I was never contacted, I never gave consent nor have they credited me and they have even done a crappy job at post processing, this amounts to robbery of intellectual property. I am curious to find out if this appears in the print edition as well since they boast that they are 'Sri Lanka's largest selling independent English language Sunday newspaper'.
The offending article titled "Beneath the lanterns: A closer look at the true meaning of Vesak by Madhushala Senaratne and Himal Kotelawala" is here:
[Full size image]
My original photos is:
They even use a cropped version on the main homepage as shown here:
[Full size image]
as well as the 'Mirror' page as shown here:
[Full size image]
It is extremely sad that people do this so blatantly and with impunity. My photo is the first hit on flickr when searching for 'Vesak' and maybe they regularly source (steal) photos off flickr to fill in their pages. I am further saddened by the fact that The Sunday Times and Dailymirror are regularly read by me and I had a certain degree of respect towards these publications but now thats all lost.
The original photo was taken by me at the 'Sri Lanka Buddhist Vihara in Canberra (Australia)' on Vesak day 2007. These lanterns were the smaller 'pataw kudu' of a larger rotating lantern we built in 2005. Its ironic that this article is about the merits of vesak and they use a stolen photo to illustrate it. Extremely disappointed indeed.
Anybody out there who is familiar with intellectual property laws in Sri Lanka?
Edit1: Found out that this photo covers a third of a page (page 7) in the print edition of the 'Mirror magazine' supplement of the Sunday Times of Sunday 18 May 2008.
Print edition:
Edit2:I just found out (Wednesday 21 May) that they are using the same image for the banner of the 'order online' page selling all print publications produced by Wijeya Newspapers.
[Full size image]
Through this site, they sell print editions all over the world. They also have a rate card with pricing. For example, a 1 year print edition subscription for The Sunday Times to a US address is US$249.
What earlier started out as a case of an editor browsing the net looking to find a photo to illustrate an article have turned out to be a full scale corporate theft where they blatantly use my photo without consent and payment for a clearly commercial purpose.
Edit3:As of Friday 23 May, the photo had been removed from the main article page on the online edition. The banner on the 'order online' page and the smaller versions on the main homepage of the Sunday Times and the Mirror magazine online editions remain.
Edit4:As of Sunday 25 May, the smaller sized photos from the main page and the mirror page of the online edition has been removed. The banner on the 'order online' page of Wijeya Newspapers still remains.
Edit5:As of Tuesday 27 May, the banner on the 'order online' page of Wijeya Newspapers has been replaced by a different image.
The offending article titled "Beneath the lanterns: A closer look at the true meaning of Vesak by Madhushala Senaratne and Himal Kotelawala" is here:
[Full size image]
My original photos is:
They even use a cropped version on the main homepage as shown here:
[Full size image]
as well as the 'Mirror' page as shown here:
[Full size image]
It is extremely sad that people do this so blatantly and with impunity. My photo is the first hit on flickr when searching for 'Vesak' and maybe they regularly source (steal) photos off flickr to fill in their pages. I am further saddened by the fact that The Sunday Times and Dailymirror are regularly read by me and I had a certain degree of respect towards these publications but now thats all lost.
The original photo was taken by me at the 'Sri Lanka Buddhist Vihara in Canberra (Australia)' on Vesak day 2007. These lanterns were the smaller 'pataw kudu' of a larger rotating lantern we built in 2005. Its ironic that this article is about the merits of vesak and they use a stolen photo to illustrate it. Extremely disappointed indeed.
Anybody out there who is familiar with intellectual property laws in Sri Lanka?
Edit1: Found out that this photo covers a third of a page (page 7) in the print edition of the 'Mirror magazine' supplement of the Sunday Times of Sunday 18 May 2008.
Print edition:
Edit2:I just found out (Wednesday 21 May) that they are using the same image for the banner of the 'order online' page selling all print publications produced by Wijeya Newspapers.
[Full size image]
Through this site, they sell print editions all over the world. They also have a rate card with pricing. For example, a 1 year print edition subscription for The Sunday Times to a US address is US$249.
What earlier started out as a case of an editor browsing the net looking to find a photo to illustrate an article have turned out to be a full scale corporate theft where they blatantly use my photo without consent and payment for a clearly commercial purpose.
Edit3:As of Friday 23 May, the photo had been removed from the main article page on the online edition. The banner on the 'order online' page and the smaller versions on the main homepage of the Sunday Times and the Mirror magazine online editions remain.
Edit4:As of Sunday 25 May, the smaller sized photos from the main page and the mirror page of the online edition has been removed. The banner on the 'order online' page of Wijeya Newspapers still remains.
Edit5:As of Tuesday 27 May, the banner on the 'order online' page of Wijeya Newspapers has been replaced by a different image.
Labels: Copyright violation, Flickr, Mirror magazine, photo theft, Photos, Ranjit Sujiva Wijewardene, Robbery, Singha Migara Ratnatunge, Stolen, Stolen photos, Sunday Times, Theft, Theives, Wijeya Newspapers
posted by Navinda at 6:13 AM
![[Full size image]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2396/2501166798_708be0ef40_o.jpg){kind=link}
![[Full size image]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2123/2519037509_e9406d3ccb_o.jpg){kind=link}
![[Full size image]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2284/2519038627_e3d204f96d_o.jpg){kind=link}
![[Full size image]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2368/2511292992_d89bd3a766_o.jpg){kind=link}
17 Comments:
This is common for the Sunday Times and Island. Recently The Sunday Times posted a copyrighted image from the Indian Premier League Cricket tournament. Each picture from the IPL is available watermark free for $99 however they posted the image with copyright watermark and all!
I will pass this link to the management of Wijaya News Paper on wed.
Immediately write a letter protesting use of your products without your consent and also state the information about the original photo, under which license where taken etc.
First part of IP case is to establish that you have followed your due diligence. Even your post can act as a part of evidence. Then find a lawyer.
Thanks for the info. Will follow up. Got to know from the authors of the article that they had nothing to do with the photos. They only wrote the content and sent it to the Sunday Times. The photo sourcing, layout etc was done by the Newspaper editors.
unbelievable. They have probably stealing images from others all the time but no one has bothered to complain or take action.
One good lawsuit should remedy the situation very quickly. they will start thinking twice before stealing IP again.
sorry to hear about this... in our glorious land you shall find people who do these kind of things!! such retards!!!!!
hope u get it cleared soon...:)
You should complain to the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka. I think they take action on things like this, and take care of the legal stuff too.
Not surprised. Many moons ago, I worked with an ad agency looking to put together a radio spot and some print ads. They played back a couple of soundbites and a 30sec spot which clearly incorporated the works of some relatively well known artists. I asked if they will secured rights - they laughed, and said something to the effect of "This is Sri Lanka". With such a mentality, I'm really not surprised that your pic got ganked...
Keep us posted. Good luck.
- LankanFunkin
YOU CAN GET PAID FOR THIS? ASK THEM TO PAY YOU....Dil
same thing happpened to me when my pic from flickr was used by a US news group and had credited Reusters. I immediately called them/emailed them and complained and the next day they had corrected it....
call, email and complain, somehow! this sucks! don't let them get away with it, it's completely absurd! want a number? email me and i'll send it across! sigh!
Thanks for the support everyone. I am still awaiting a reply for my e-mails. Nothing up to now.
As of Friday 23 May, my photo had been removed from the main article on the online edition. However, the smaller versions of my photo still remains in the main page and 'Mirror' page of the online edition. Still no reply to my e-mails.
I have passed this on to the Editor of the Daily Mirror. Suggest you also contact the PCC - http://www.pccsl.lk/ - if you feel strongly about it.
this is such a negative image on the sunday times. how come all the newspaper editors in this country have lost it. i say you take legal action against them. there is no such thing as a mistake in taking a picture off the internet and printing it out for the whole country to see. as a large newspaper firm they should not do it in the first place!
Thank you all for your support. Please see the original post for an update on the situation as I added a number of edits and screen captures.
You should demand payment.
There is one thing you can do to prevent this photo theft in the future, you can watermark your photos before posting them online, and provide a link or address where people can contact you if they wish to PURCHASE the photo without the watermark.
Post a Comment
<< Home