Hello, I just found out that the bread proofer merchant "Cozy Bread" has stolen my photos without my consent. They did not inform me or ask for my permission to use them. They even added their own logo to the photos, pretending that they were the owners. I'm sure I am not the only victim of their deceitful behavior.
This type of unethical and unacceptable action should not be tolerated!!
by No_Nefariousness_364
6 Comments
This is so terrible and unprofessional of them.
Definitely won’t be buying their product any time soon. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do this all the time with the other reels on their instagram. You should post this to r/breadit and r/baking too
This sucks!! Your bread looks great though haha
You should check out r/LegalAdvice
How did they acquire the photos?
Many social media sites have an explicit terms of service the states you give them a permanent perpetual and transferrable usage license for any photos you upload. It’s shitty, but that is the way the modern world works.
Your first step is to figure out where you posted the photos and what rights you willingly gave up by posting there.
If you didn’t forfeit any rights when posting, and you know for certain no other entities have usage rights to the photos, and if you and that site both reside in the United States, then you have a copyright claim against them.
Although every US photographer has an implicit copyright over the images even if they aren’t officially registered with the US copyright office, the damages you can claim for unregistered images is far less than the damages you can claim for registered images. This basically makes the difference between having attorneys lining up to take the case vs you having to fund legal remedy out of your own pocket.
If you just want them to stop, then the first step would be to send them a formal cease and desist notice. You can do this much without needing an attorney. If they receive your cease and desist and continue to infringe, then the damages you can recover starts growing exponentially.
If you want damages, temper your expectations and start looking for low-stakes intellectual property attorneys.
If all you want is compensation, then you would send them a cease and desist (with a deadline for compliance) along with an offer to negotiate a price for a usage license that would allow them to continue using the images.
This is EXACTLY why I delete my own posts. Ridiculous how people act, now.
I am in a few photographer groups and this happens more often than you think. Even well known news papers steal pictures and hope the one who took them just ignores it or feels flattered.
Send them an invoice for the use of the picture. Just add a price and see how they react. F.e. 4x $500 fee for the commercial use of your pictures. Give them 10 days time to either remove them everywhere or pay the bill and add the correct copyright.
Most of the times they at least take the pictures down.