Stolen Photo on Ebay

[mattcbf600]

Happened to me a couple of times - but then I'm not a pro and don't make any money from my photos so it doesn't really bother me.

Having said that a few months ago there was a large fire in Hatfield and I happened to be on scene with my decent camera and took quite a few decent shots - shots I later discovered in building magazines!

I release all my photos under a creative commons licence on flickr - so people are free to take my photos and use them for personal use - their websites and such - but if they use them publicly they must credit me and the can not make any money from them.

When I contacted the publishing companies involved I pointed out that my photos had been taken from flickr, that the licence requirements were clearly attached to my photos (see - hatfield fire 004 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!) and that I was sending them an invoice at the current NUJ rate for use of the images. They paid up within the week.

I really wouldn't recommend putting up any shots that you don't want people to use online without protection - from my point of view I don't see the point in holding onto the rights unless you actually make your living from them - and I'd rather use a licence which tells people what they can do with my photos rather than what they can't.