Whose photo?
Photographer Kęstučius Žilioniis often has to face cases where authorship is not indicated when using his photos.
“If it’s a commercial project, sometimes it’s an option not to write the author’s name. If it is agreed, then everything is fine, but if not, you need to write the name. “Unfortunately, some photographers really don’t specify often,” K. Žilionis shared his experience.
Photographers of news agencies also see such violations. Here, as BNS photojournalist Paulius Peleckis tells us, often photos are “taken from news portals and it is not clear where and for what purposes they are used” without permission. Not only readers but also politicians sometimes behave like this.
“He just takes and posts those photos on his social media. in networks. Often, the authorship of the photo is given with an error or not at all”, P. Peleckis mentioned.
At the beginning of his career, he reacted sensitively to such copyright infringements. When he noticed that someone was using his photos without permission, and even without giving credit, he always wrote to such persons and drew attention to it.
However, as the years went by and the number of photos increased significantly, it became difficult to notice all such cases, and there would not be enough time to fight them all.
“What can I do?” Ask to delete photo? That person can block me and that’s it. I will not fight against these windmills, and it is impossible for me to see all the cases,” admitted the photojournalist.
Breaks agreements
Failure to indicate authorship is not the only violation that K. Žilionius has to face. As he said, there are still cases where customers break the usage agreement. At the beginning, it is agreed how many photos are needed, how long and where, in what media they will be used, this is also indicated in the contracts, because the price also depends on this. But after the expiration of the terms of use of photos, few come back and declare that they want to extend the time, to agree on an appropriate reward for this.
“If any client comes back and negotiates a deadline, you want to sincerely applaud him, because this is just one of many. Others simply continue to use the photos, ignoring the agreements,” said the interviewee.
There were more unpleasant experiences during my career.
“I always do this – I send all the photos so that the client can choose the ones he wants, but I also give my suggestion as a professional, which should be used depending on the situation. Then the client has to select an agreed amount of photos from all of them and I retouch them.
But it has happened that instead of a few photos, the client used more, although they were sent only for selection, and instead of spreading only on social media. in the networks, they went to the streets like the press. We didn’t talk about it, not even by e-mail. it was not written about in the letters or messages,” the interlocutor recalled the case.
Unfortunately, many such situations end only with an apology or even being ignored. Why? According to the photographer, this is due to entrenched bad practice.
“If they have done this before and got away with it, then they decide that they will get away with it again.” And the liability that comes with breaking the rules is so minimal that many don’t even pay attention. If a lot of time and budget should be burned due to such violations, I think the situation would definitely change,” said K. Žilionis.
“Since I had to work in the markets of other countries, I saw that it is different there. Many applicants immediately told me how many photos they needed, where and for how long they would use them, and I was left with only creative solutions. Here in Lithuania, it seems that some people are hearing about copyright for the first time, although I think it’s a lie. But abroad, there is really longer practice, more work in this field, there it is understood that if he commits a violation, it will cost him a lot of time and money. Lithuania does not think like that yet,” he added.
Not an easy job
According to Mr. Pelecki, changes should also take place from the other side – by educating people about copyright, and not just by pointing a finger at every violator.
“Everyone looks at paintings with respect, but not so much at photography. And if the photo is still on the Internet, then it seems to some that you can freely take it and use it, without worrying about anything. But it is not so. It needs to be talked about and explained to people about copyright.
After all, a few years ago it was completely normal for many to download movies from illegal websites, and now Lithuanians have already found legal channels and learned to listen to music legally. People are already thinking about the copyrights of these creators, but about photography – it seems that nothing is clear to anyone yet. People don’t even think that they should at least ask the author if it is possible to use his photo, nobody wastes time on that,” P. Peleckis said.
Another way is to show that the work of photographers is not easy and must be worthy of respect, because, as P. Peleckis observes, many people think that it is just pressing the camera button. Although the work of photojournalists is often physically and psychologically tiring.
“You must always be on time and at the right place, quickly understand the situation, know many different topics, know about politics, sports, and the world of entertainment, constantly follow current events. You must recognize the most important people and faces of the country in order to know what to photograph. All opinion makers and politicians must know this, and when new faces enter politics after the Seimas elections, they must quickly remember them.
When people will understand that this work is not just about pressing a button, that it is really not easy and worthy of respect, then they will not want to steal the authors of the photos,” said the photojournalist.
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