Copyright infringement by local government

The City of Fort Myers, Florida, took photographs from my website and made a slideshow video of them and put it on their website. They notified me, after the fact, through my Facebook page. I stupidly had omitted contact information on my website, an oversight that has been corrected.

I contacted the person, whose name is City Webmaster, through Facebook and told him he could use the video but he must give me proper photo credit. He added an overlay with my website address on each image.

Then I discovered that the video is on the City's Facebook page and on a city agency's website without my web address. My photos are being used as page banners on their website, and one is the background image of the city's Twitter site.

Tonight I sent City Webmaster a message saying that he must give proper photo credit using both my name and my web address on all the photos being used.

The thing is, it's great to have my photos prominently displayed by the City of Fort Myers, if viewers know whose photos they are. My guess is that the city would simply remove the photos rather than they a license. They're broke.

Photography is not my day job, but I'd would like to move in that direction. So I want them to keep the photos up there - the more the merrier. What a great promotion, but obviously it doesn't do me any good without credit.

I'm pretty sure that if I demanded they remove my photos they'd do it, but that's not what I want. And I suspect that I'm not in their budget if I were to demand that they buy a license. I'm blown away my local government's disregard of copyright. Any advice on how I should proceed?

Buck,

First off, City Webmaster may not be part of the city but a third party contracted to do the website. I would contact the city's communications department and deal with them directly.

Secondly, you are dealing with a thief. While I appreciate you believe the exposure may be good for you, it has been my experience people who get something for nothing don't respect you in the morning and will be happy to use your work for free elsewhere. Were I in your position, and I have been, I would ask for compensation from the City or request the photos be taken off the website.

I have not received compensation from anyone who has improperly used any of my images. They merely took them off and stole somebody else's work. In one instance the company complied with my request and then promptly put up another of my images they had scanned from a stock workbook.

I work for a local government and often provide my photos (with credit) for various presentations or web pages. It's a little upsetting to think that they would go and essentially steal your work like this without giving you proper credit - but in their defense, the people put in charge of this sort of thing, may not be experienced with what they are trying to do. Especially during summer, there are a lot of highschool and college aged kids working who may have been given a directive to find photos of the area and get them for the website - and they may not be versed in copyright. My suggestion (again, as someone who works in local government) is to go down to Town Hall, and speak with a department head (try calling in advance) who can help you directly. Once they realize the error, I'm sure they will be more than happy to comply with your requests. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt (though it is frustrating, as you'd think they would know better)

- Luke

I'd draw up a contract spelling out the uses that are permissible and those that aren't requirement such as contact info and © notice, and prohibitions about distribution with the proviso that all requests that come to them for access to or use of the photos or slide show could be redirected to you. No sense killing the goose, but you certainly want to keep it in a pen that you control.

I personally wouldnt want to deal with someone who showed me no respect in the first place. Id send them a bill, and if they didn pay, then a summons to appear in small claims. I bet they'd find the money to pay then, rather than pay for their defense in court!

If your work is good enough to promote the city then it is good enough to command payment from the city. Credit lines are not suitable payment if you are serious about your images - it just tells others where they can get free use of more of your stuff.

I bet their web site hosting isn't provided for free. I bet the person who wrote the copy for the web site didn't do it for free. Why should you be the only person providing free content?

Value your own work if you expect others to value it.

Well, I sent a couple of messages to City Webmaster, with no response. So today I called him. (He is a city employee) He got huffy and said he'd take all the photos down. There were about three dozen in a slide show at various locations, one photo featured prominently on the city's home page and a couple used as banners for sub-pages and as the background for the city's Twitter site. This evening, I think there is only one banner photo left, which he must have overlooked.

My website skills are rudimentary. I had a right click pop-up copyright warning on the images on my website, but obviously it was easily thwarted. I dislike copyright text across an image, but I'm considering adding that feature. I guess if you don't want your pictures to be stolen, don't put them on the internet.

Anyhow, thanks to all who offered advice.

I'm sorry it didn't work out better for you. It's pretty pathetic that a public servant treated you (and your work) this way. Again, coming from a local gov. employee, I would write a letter to the mayor, and CC all counsel members, the attorneys office and the IT dept. explaining your displeasure with the town for what they have done to you. If your letter is written properly, you will get a response (and more importantly, an apology) from those in charge, and the webmaster will get reprimanded and hopefully this sort of thing won't happen to you (or anyone else) again. If you choose this route, let me know how it works out for you.

- Luke

Hi Buck: I personally agree with those who have suggested that "City Webmaster" is not the person you should be communicating with. There is probably someone in a higher position of responsibility who really needs to know about this conduct. After all, the whole idea of the city website is to PROMOTE Fort Myers, isn't it? Aside from website aesthetics, appropriating someone's IP doesn't seem to be a positive part of the goal. And particularly dismaying to me as a manager would be the person getting "huffy" with one of the citizens from whom we just unlawfully appropriated property.

I understand your thought process. Photography is not my "day job" either (thank goodness, in my case). An there certainly is something to be said, in my view, for you letting them use your images in exchange for at least image credit. Maybe even a blurb about you and your photography services linked to the credit notation?

But I think it is important that you make clear to the city (not to "city webmaster") that they have acted unlawfully, that your images are your property and have value, and that their use must be compensated in some way.

There is (almost) always a way to make lemonade out of lemons. You may be able, with a respectful, but firm educational approach, to parley this into a working relationship with the city. I wouldn't necessarily let it end with the person you spoke with. Good luck

"There is (almost) always a way to make lemonade out of lemons. You may be able, with a respectful, but firm educational approach, to parley this into a working relationship with the city. I wouldn't necessarily let it end with the person you spoke with."


That's the foundation for my recommendation that you present them with a contract, Buck. It's an easy, constructive way to demonstrate how the "webmaster" erred while offering a useful way out for both you and the city.

I agree with Stan, send them a bill!

The path of least resistance here would be to make them include an explicit photo credit for you, and an admonishion and acknowledgement that there will be NO further use of the images without an express, written agreement with you.

Bottom line, what they did is a very bad thing, but it could do you substantial good to be looked at by visitors of their Web sites as the guy when it comes to images from your area.

Good luck!

Well, I finally got around to writing a letter to the City Manager. Followed Hank's advice and was very diplomatic. I asked for photo credit on the one photo they were still using as a page banner. I offered to let them use up to six photos with appropriate credit, for up to a year, free of charge.

I did not receive a reply to my letter, but the photo disappeared from the website a couple of days later.

So, maybe City Webmaster got the word about copyright infringement, or maybe the pictures that replaced mine were just stolen for some other poor schmuck.

That's disappointing to hear, Buck. It sure doesn't say good things about the City Manager, does it?