copyright violation and the indian treepie

It was sarah who spotted the bird’s picture in the magazine first. We were at the pune railway station seeing off our mom who came to visit us, and we bought this magazine for her to read. Before she boarded the train, sarah skimmed through the pages and one of the images in it looked very much familiar! The indian treepie with its pose and the papaya tree it is perching on, rang a bell! After all, sarah had even made a painting out of this photograph. The magazine had cropped and published the photograph without credits/consent from us.

The photograph which appeared on the magazine:

copyright violation of photograph of the indian treepie bird

The efforts put into each article and photograph in this website is large. Photographs of birds and other fauna takes a lot of patience and time, and expensive equipments. When a commercial publisher cribs this work and publishes it without consent or credits, it is outrageous. Many of these publishers can easily assign their own photographers to capture original photographs. They could at least buy/request these photographs for their use. Instead, they simply do a google image search, crop off the embedded credits, and publish the images as if they owned it. This is followed by a copyright statement on their publication saying that each and every dot on it is copyrighted and any violation is punishable.

Original photograph of the bird, the Indian Treepie, which appeared in the following articles on our website:
birds of kerala and the indian treepie

indian treepie

Fortunately, the editorial board of this particular magazine was understanding, and were ready to acknowledge their omissions, and put up a corrigendum in the forthcoming issue. We were not willing to settle for that, and demanded a compensation. The magazine carries a price, and so does each and every content included. Since the editorial board was rational, they agreed on a proposed amount.

compensation for copyright violation

The Indian copyright act includes intelligent property rights (IPR) too, and a copyright violation can be penalized for INR 50,000 ~ 200,000. There had been several incidents where original images from our website were published without credits/consent. A similar incident is listed below in the “Related Posts”.

Proverbial note: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” 😀

28 Responses

  1. Alok says:

    Hi
    Can I get a copy of Letter that you wrote to the Editor of that Magazine, recently one of my picture from Flickr has been copied by a National News Magazine based in New Delhi, I do not know about Copyright Laws that is why I am requesting you to send me a copy of that letter.

    Thanks

    Alok

  2. rocksea says:

    bindu, kanak, beej:

    🙂 thanks for the support and encouragement.

  3. Beej says:

    This made for heartening reading. Glad that you followed up and got compensation for your photograph. Copyright violation must not be accepted lightly.

  4. sandeep says:

    its pathetic that people keep doing such things. my last bad experience was somebody flicking my pics from mukurthi and publishing it in article about meesapulimala! beat that now!

  5. You got more than you got from malayala manorama. Is this your only source of income? Why dont you run ads on your blog? 🙂

    • rocksea says:

      Is there anything wrong with photography as a source of income? I have spent a lot on it, so I better earn from it too.

      The reason behind this website is not to earn an income. As mentioned in the top-right box, it is for “educational, environmental & entertainment purposes”.

  6. Your photos are so famous that every one uses them! 🙂 Good pictures man, which camera do you use?

  7. Kanak says:

    Hi Rocksea, I’m glad they included the corrigendum and gave you the compensation. This is a lesson for all of us! BTW, your picture is superb!

    Thanks for your visit!! Now I’ll drop by regularly. So you must be settled now…it’ll be great to see your informative posts and fabulous photos…again!

  8. namitha says:

    dear roxy
    roxy,i’m feeling really overwhelmed.it seems,i have always prided that ur my friend but it seems i dont know many things about u.first of all,ur interests in photography was evident from ur marriage photos.creativity and originality was obvious.but publishing on google images,then copyrights….pursuing whats really urs….u have that chill….completely covering all those who come across u.thank u for taking my attention to enterily different categories while on net.
    namitha.

  9. RESTLESS says:

    And, do check my blog, u got a mention 🙂

  10. RESTLESS says:

    Wow Rocksea! You really pursued it so well, that they had to give the compensation! Firstly I’m glad that ur pic got published… and secondly, u got ur due and recognition.

    All of us have a lesson to learn from you.

    Btw, good to know that u r working in a scientific organisation 🙂

    tc

    • rocksea says:

      🙂 Each work of art is like giving birth to a child. If somebody robs your child and claim it is theirs and use it to make money? We will go after them!

  11. bindu says:

    Way to go, Roxy!
    It is as if ethics and honesty are getting extinct

  12. Good on you mate! I firmly believe these guys ought to be taught such lessons the hard way. Copyright laws are considered a joke by many publications and media folks. Even our leading print media are no different.

    One of my friends who is an avid plane-spotter had his photos plagiarized by a leading fortnightly magazine a couple of years back. When he approached the magazine all he received as raw verbal abuse! He then took the right way to approach things and volia! The nice guys came out of the blue and did the buttering but he fetched deserving value for his work.

    Can’t understand how unethical and arrogant these big publishers are. Even I take care to mention the sources for the images I use for my blog, which is obviously a zero-earning initiative. hmmm. small shock treatments like this would do a world of good.

    • rocksea says:

      It is encouraging to find similar copyright issues being pursued. Hopefully, on the long run these publishers will realize that they can’t go on plagiarizing everything available on the www.

  13. Anwin says:

    Good to hear that you managed to get compensation for the plagiarized photos. A lot of people in India (fellow bloggers) have been plagiarized by leading and not so leading newspapers and magazines. And they still haven’t got anything for their photos.

    • rocksea says:

      Some publishers are hard on the authors, and rarely respond. However, if you seriously pursue the matter, I guess there would be positive outcomes.

  14. Thomas V says:

    Well done Roxy for pursuing the issue and inisisting on monetary compensation. Stealing images and publishing is nothing but daylight robbery!

    • rocksea says:

      Tom Vattoos, long time! Yes, most of the authors do not pursue the issue or are not aware of the intellectual property rights.

      I used to go through your web pages while you were in UK. Have you settled back in India? It is great going through your nature filled pages 🙂

  15. Nithya says:

    Oh its really sad that they flicked the pic and published but good that they atleast bothered to respond and pay you for the pic.

    I had a similar experience where a leading magazine here took the pic of my Pongal celebration and posted it on their cover page cropping the watermark. I wrote to them many times but they dint reply back at all. 🙁

    • rocksea says:

      Nithya, I checked your web pages, you have a wonderful collection! Your cookery photographs are professional! Do you use reflectors/lighting when you take photos of those delicacies? I used to go through your arts-crafts pages, but I am seeing your cooker pages for the first time.

      It is sad that they used your photograph on the “cover page” without your consent or credits. If they didn’t reply, you should have filed a case against them. It is your hardwork, you should pursue it.

      • Nithya says:

        Thanks a lot for your comments on my photography 🙂 I do use simple thermocol reflector at times for pics that I take with white background. Otherwise I really don’t use them. I generally take pics under good lighting in my balcony.

        After seeing this post. I’m planning to write back to them for the last time and then go for filing a case. Thanks for encouraging me to do so 🙂

        • rocksea says:

          Sure do Nithya, your photographs are worth it! Add on the fact that they have published it on the cover page…!! It means even the publishers valued it over any other images. Do let us know of any developments.

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