BURN BLACK Blog

Photography copyright…

A few things have been annoying me as of late. The main thing however has been the unauthorised use of some of my photos.  When I first gotten into taking live music photography it was essentially a quick way to add a) another skill to my C.V. b) a way to add something different to my portfolio and c) a good way to get into gigs for free (which is always a plus). Over the last year and a half I've had opportunities to shoot quite a few local and not so local bands and it's been a lot of fun and something I can see myself doing for some time.

Whenever I've taken photos I've always let the bands/acts/promoters use my photos for their website or their MySpace or promo posters for gigs etc. but only on the condition no money is involved and that full credit must be given to me since I essentially own the photos.  That's all I've ever asked for.

Seems that even this is too much to ask for now and which is a real shame.  I've had a burlesque lady ask for permission to use the photos only for me to give her it (with the above in mind) and for her to not keep her end of the bargain.   I've emailed her a few times in the past asking for her to either give me credit or remove the photos and I've been completely ignored.

Also a few months ago one of my favorite gig photos was published in a magazine which in itself is pretty cool. However I only found this out by chance and when I emailed the magazine in question politely asking for a copy of the magazine just for keepsake/bragging/portfolio purposes I was again completely ignored. It's the first time a photo of mine has been published in a national music magazine so it's obviously a pretty big deal to me.  I'm not asking to be paid or anything, all I want is credit where it's due (they trimmed my watermark off the photo) and a copy of said magazine.  It's not Evisorax's fault either as they told the magazine that they had to give me credit for use of the photo but...  I've emailed said magazine twice in total now and I'm still being ignored.  I have no idea why because at the end of the day if they asked for permission to use it beforehand I would have emailed them a 300dpi jpeg without a watermark on it.

The only reason this has made it to my blog however is that it's now happened again.  A local zine took some of my photos from a Wodensthrone gig (that happened over a year ago) to go with a gig review of the band that happened a month ago.  The ironic thing is, is that the photos they've used feature an ex band member who hasn't been in Wodensthrone for at least a year and in true form I've had no credit given to me or been asked permession if my photos can be used again.  It's getting to the point where I'm going to have to start getting signed contracts from people, a lot of which are my friends, etc. before I let them use the photos I've taken of them or what not.  I'm *this* close to going on the war path and sending invoices to all of the offenders demanding payment as well. It's obviously not something I want to do.  I'd much rather sort things out amicably but when people are essential stealing from me or taking the credit for my work then yes it does make me angry.  To be honest it kinda ruins the whole photography experience for me.  When I first started taking gig photos it was a kinda milestone/goal of mine to see one of my photos in a national music magazine and now that all of this has happened its been a bit of an anti-climax.

People really should read this which is posted on a friends MySpace.