Today, I discovered that Metro United Way’s photos had been used – without permission or even credit – on the website UnCoached.com [ed. link removed]. The content of the post was unflattering toward Gary Brackett and the Indianapolis Colts (the photo was of Gary/Colts) and mentioned Metro United Way in the periphery.
I chose to act on behalf of the organization, and left the following comment, which is, at time of writing, awaiting moderation:
Hello UnCoached & Natty-
We support Gary and the Colts and applaud their efforts to bring attention to local communities and nonprofit organizations. Personally, I believe that just because one of our photographers caught Gary at an unexpected moment doesn’t mean he wished not to be there.
Also- I wish to bring it to your attention you that you have used Metro United Way’s content, to which we own and reserve full rights, without our permission and without giving any kind of credit. These photos were taken by staff of Metro United Way and are the sole property of Metro United Way. In the future, contact us to get our permission before using any of our photos, videos, writing or any other content. Your adherence to copyright law is appreciated!
Thanks!
- Erin McMahon
What do you think? How’d I do? Would you have acted? How might you have acted differently?
August 21, 2008 at 3:21 am
In this case, I think you did about the best thing that you could. Since you really aren’t the copyright holder, there isn’t much more that you can do beyond bring attention to the issue and trust the other person to handle it.
Hopefully this will have a happy ending.
One more thing to consider is not linking to the site using the images. Search engines interpret links as “votes” and that might help the site trump the original creators in the results. Unlikely, but it has happened before.
Best of luck with this!
August 21, 2008 at 7:34 am
Thanks @Jonathan for your vote of support and this advice! Hadn’t thought about that!