What is My Picture Doing On Your Website?

We live in a click and save world. It is astonishingly easy to save a picture that you find on the internet onto your hard drive simply by right-clicking on your mouse and choosing "save". And that is the beginning of a minor nightmare for many owners of iconic images or important pictures.

For many businesses, the investment in good photography is essential. You need appetizing pictures of your entrees, beautiful pictures of your necklaces or sleek images of happy people enjoying your restaurant to entice customers. Many businesses turn to a professional photographer to get just the right look and then use those pictures universally in print ads, on the internet and at the point of sale to reach customers.
image: Tal Bright
But what happens when you see your photograph that you spent a great deal of money on being used to advertise someone else's entrees or jewelry or restaurant? Besides seeing red, you would wonder how they got their hands on it and what you can do about it. The first question isn't nearly as important as the second question.

When you find yourself staring at your photograph being used to promote someone else's business, the best thing to do is contact your intellectual property counsel with as much detail as possible about where you saw the picture being used. Copies of the use are particularly helpful. Also be able to answer questions such as how did you find it, where was it featured, who published it and was there any contact information. The more information you can provide on the front end, the easier it will be for your counsel to track down the person who is using the photograph.

What will your counsel do? I cannot speak for other firms, but our firm typically evaluates the issue and determines what kind of problems are present. If a picture was stolen, then it is probably a copyright infringement issue. If the logo for the entity is also there, then it can also present a trademark infringement or dilution issue. Once we have evaluated what types of issues are involved, then we determine the appropriate response.

Usually, our opening salvo is a cease and desist letter pointing out the problem and demanding immediate correction, normally removal of the picture and destruction of it. In some cases, the copying is so blatant and so malicious, that a cease and desist letter may not be useful and we determine that it would be better simply to file suit for infringement. Your intellectual property counsel will determine based upon their usual course and the facts at hand what course is best in your situation.

Once contact with the infringer is established, then it is useful to find out how the person got their hands on the picture in the first place. If they got it from someone else, for example an ad agency, there may be a need to go to the ad agency as well. Often times, the person may have gotten it simply by right-clicking on the picture on your website. Regardless of what they were thinking when they did this, it illustrates how easy it is for others to hijack the intellectual property of someone when it is not properly protected. The best way to do that is to disable the right-click feature for pictures. This will not deter all people who want to use your picture, but it will make it much less attractive to those seeking an opportunity.

When you pay a lot of money to have professional photographs taken for your business, there is not much that is more discouraging than to find someone else using them without having paid for them. The good news is that you can prevent this with a simple disabling of the right-click mechanism and you can help your counsel identify and go after the person who does manage to steal your pictures.