What To Do When Your Image Is Stolen or Misused ??

My photo being misused on phone case. What should I do?

What happen if you found out someone misused your photo? Do you take an action or you just leave it?? I guess this is the question that many people would have asked especially in Malaysia. Most people choose to ignore as they not sure what they can do with it. If it is on Facebook when someone impersonate you, you can report the profile. But what if your picture has been printed on a product instead?? Sometimes you can see your photos suddenly appear on the website without any credit and sometimes they are making money using it. Above photo is not the only case...

[Sponsored Ads below]

My photo was misused and printed on the mug as well

Currently two of my friends noticed my photos at this Printing Shop in AEON, Cheras Selatan. So not only my photos were printed as phone case, it was printed on a mug too. I know the shop owner definitely grabbed the photo from my blog/through Google Search but that doesn't means they are allow to use any of these photos without owner's permission.

I believe most of the photos on the phone case and mug are being misused too. So if any of you saw yourself or know the owner of this shop, please kindly ask them to take it down or I guess lawyer letter could be the next move.

My #TCSelfie with Twin Towers was initially misused on 8Share website

Right before this, a few friends saw my photos on 8Share and tagged me if I was aware of this. Of course not! 8Share initially used this photo since it fits client's need but used it without my consent. What I did is to contact their customer service (which had a long waiting time) and trying to ask if anyone know the right person who did this through my FB posting. My friends advised me to ask for payment since it was used in advertising and they are making money with it. Client might have paid a lum sum amount of money for this so called "stock photo" and I as a photo owner didn't get paid for it if nobody noticed it.

I received a call from 8Share and they initially want to offer just a small amount of money to buy my "stock photo".  I discussed with them for a better price and with a condition to include my watermark on the photo. So in the end I got a better price and the photo was updated with watermark. Actually if this happened to you you can definitely hire a lawyer to sue for compensation. But I prefer to keep things small and just solve the issue directly with them personally.

So what I am trying to say is, if you found your photo being used on website like 8Share for commercialize usage without your permission, you can definitely ask for compensation/payment for it.

Thanks Vicky and Feeq who informed me on the misused photo at AEON, you guys are awesome friends! Now my question is, what happen when your photos are misused by having it printed on a phone case or mug?? Other than paying a visit to the shop and surprise the owner by holding the mug/phone case, I have no idea what I should do with it.

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I found this helpful post for you guys especially photographer friends, you will have an idea on what you can do when you found your photo stolen and stranger use it to generate revenue or join contest:

• What To Do When Your Image Is Stolen Online

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If you are interested in using my images for commercial/advertising usage, email me and I am sure we can come up to an agreement without all these drama/hassle. Cheers!

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