Can I take any legal actions against companies that are basically stealing my content, product photos and using them on their own website to sell the same products?
(Gaining an unfair advantage, as I've spent quite a lot of time taking those photos, editing them, uploading, naming, ALT text all that jazz).
Is there a legal way to go about it? Send them an invoice of 500€ / photo? Or request the removal of those images?
I can identify them as I have the original ones still and I can see some parts of my office in some of the reflections. 😅
Any ways to fight against it? Making photos impossible to download? (although they can be still screenshotted) Adding a logo across the image? (not a fan)
Stealing product photos – any possible legal action, is it worth it?
byu/EconomyShifter inEntrepreneur
Posted by EconomyShifter
6 Comments
Yes of course you can do something about, probably a cease or desist. But i think this question will be answered more in depth in r/askalawyer or r/photography
Yeah, you’ve got legal ground here. Copyright protects your product photos, so you can issue a DMCA takedown to the infringing sites. It’s the first step, and most companies will comply. If they ignore it, you could escalate with legal action, but that’ll cost time and money…. usually only worth it if they’re making serious cash off your work.
As for the invoice, it’s unlikely they’ll pay up just because you send it. Your best bet is to get the images removed first, then explore compensation if the issue persists. Watermarking or adding a logo can help prevent future theft, even if it’s not your favorite move.
Keep your expectations realistic though…. legal action is possible, but the goal should be to protect your work and stop them from using it again.
You can add watermarks to your products before posting them, if they use it with your watermark they will help you advertise 😂
You need to actually copyright the photos if you want copyright protections and the statutory penalties that come with it. If it’s a big business issue, you should talk to an intellectual property lawyer.
One thing you can try, see about emailing them that the image was stolen and that it takes a lot of time, effort, and even money to product these images. It can be a thing where the owner isn’t aware the photos were stolen, he has an employee that took a shortcut. If the owner seems friendly enough, maybe you can offer to let him still use the photo but with credit to you as the original owner. That way, you turn a shitty situation into something good where you both at least get something. You get more exposure and he gets to use that photo one time. Could be a potential for both of you to work together in the future?
I think if you already sent your request yourself and they still do not care, then you can go forward with what the others have said. My perspective is just seeing it as the owner not being aware and most likely they aren’t the type of want to steal anything. A company I used to work at was like that. There was one point they got some screen printing request that heavily went beyond breaking copyright if they did go forward with the order. Coworker made a proof file not knowing if the sales rep went through the research to see if this was allowed and our manager actually told him afterwards, this document shouldn’t even exist after he made the proof file. This was a toxic manager too so if even he is afraid of having this exist, imagine others as well.
Be prepared for lengthy & expensive fight if you decide to take up legal challenge.