Interesting turn of events for us this week, we actually found a web site using one of our images without permission on both their web site and downloadable brochure, they had inquired about using the image in February and we had replied that we were happy to let them use it under a commercial agreement and we had heard nothing further. Imagine my annoyance to find the image being used without our permission.
We contacted them and asked for the image to be removed, which they did. We then contacted them and proposed a commercial arrangement to use the image, they responded with “This particular photo was not showing our products In the best way, there were what we call ‘hotspots’ visible in the picture, nothing to do with the quality of the photography but with the positioning of the lights”
So, the image is good enough to use on promotional brochures and the web site to promote the product, but not good enough to pay for the right to use the image.
The image can be reprocessed to fix the issue of hot spots, the photo was never taken to be used as a promo shot.
So there in lies the hypocrisy of this marketing department. I’d be happy to hear form others who may have been in this position. The alternative I have is to place a watermark on each image we upload to stop the unauthorised use of images on this site, that’s a thought I may look into.