Iloilo Government Website Infringes on Copyright – Uses Photos without Permission
January 28, 2009 by admin
Here is Story #3 of the Copyright Violations I caught during the recent Dinagyang Festival 2009
I wasnt too hot on going after the Iloilo Government website but If the government didnt understand what copyright is how can we be protected? And like the 2 newspapers in Iloilo there is no gray area.. its either you infringed on someones rights or you didnt.. and in this case it is clear as day. The best Tourism Event in the Philippines has also become the Country’s best place to get violated by copyright infringement.
Here is Iloilo.gov.ph Website
You would think that the government would be a government of the people, by the people, for the people.. protecting the pe0ple and their rights.. right? but maybe the government also needs to be enlightened that photographers are people too and that they have basic rights just like any other person on the street.
Both photos on the top of the image are from my gallery. The girls dancing with the Sto Nino and the guy looking forward on the upper right hand of ilonggos celebrate the Dinagyang Festival. The girls dancing are on the main photo.net.ph festival page but i have temporarily taken down the main gallery since loads for the past few days have been intense due to traffic from the earlier posts about The News Today violates Photographers Copyright and The Visayan Daily Headlines Violates Copyright of Photographer
Is it that hard to Credit the Photographer or ask permission? Watermarks are placed to let you know who owns the photo… and you should respect that basic right. Use of Photo would have been ok if they asked permission or even credited the owner since it
is used to promote the Dinagyang Festival but erasing or masking the watermark is a totally different ballgame, there is malice to conceal the truth.
Article Title: Dinagyang Festival 2009
| Written by Melinda C. Defensor | |
| Thursday, 22 January 2009 |
I have been shooting the Dinagyang Festival since 2007 and trying to promote Tourism thru Photography, I spend my own money, time and effort to travel around the country to take photos and show them for other to see the beauty of the Philippines and in this case, the energy and intensity of Dinagyang Festival… and why I have come back every year since I discovered and was moved by the Festival…. and this is how I am rewarded? The News Today, The Visayan Daily
headlines and the Iloilo government website used my photos without permission and not even crediting me for my photos… not even a link back to my gallery…. What to do now?
How do you teach people that are supposed to protect you and your rights if they themselves are guilty of violating these same rights?
that wide angle shot at the bottom is mine….
tsk tsk tsk…
[...] http://www.photo.net.ph/blogalicious/2009/01/28/iloilo-government-website-infringes-on-copyright-use... [...]
[...] Copyright Violation 3 [...]
I hope the Dept of Tourism helps us on this. They are the ones who benefit from this a lot.
[...] http://www.photo.net.ph/blogalicious/2009/01/28/iloilo-government-website-infringes-on-copyright-use... [...]
I am writing to you in behalf of the personnel who unwittingly infringe the copyright of the photographs posted in our Website. We apoligize for the incident and know that it was not intentional nor malicious in our part in taking away the labels in your photos, This was only due to the nature and design of the Dinagyang promotional material spefically made for the website. As you may have notice, this was use in a collage wherein the various photos were crop to fit the design we envisioned in creating. We respect all rights of the individuals especially in photos we use in our website (such as those of Typhoon Frank). We are neophytes in the world of photojournalism and its intricacies, It was an oversight in our part and for this we humbly apologize.
Send them all a bill, along with an official/legalese sounding letter saying that, should they decline to pay you’ll take the matter to court.
Web Administrator of the Iloilo.gov.ph
you leave an apology yet you dont let me know who you are? instead of writing me a formal apology letter you just leave me a comment.. Is that how you see copyright? once you take photo out you are off the hook?
Anton Sheker
Anton,
That was a bit half-hearted on their part, if they really respected the rights of the photos they’d have acknowledged your photos right then and there on their website. Sure puts a lot of “faith” in our government. :-/
Ken
[...] Violator #3 is none other than Iloilo City’s government website! Details can be found here >> http://www.photo.net.ph/blogalicious/2009/01/28/iloilo-government-website-infringes-on-copyright-use... [...]
Snap! I am sure there will be more cases like this. The IPO has mission statements to prevent these things and yet city government themselves are committing the violation.
I also have photos stolen and published by a city government here in Ilocos Norte. I still can’t get them to explain to me why they stole my photos and no one apologized yet! I think I should take this to court. Is there any chance your lawyer is coming to Laoag City one of these days?
in that case, you should also put a watermark in your pic “dinagyang, held with budget provided by the city and the provincial government” … did u ever thought that without the city and the provincial government, u hv no dinagyang to capture in ur camera??? u can include the sponsors in ur watermark
alistair, what if u will be asked also to pay so that u can take photos during the dinagyang? what will u feel?
I am also concerned about copyrights because I work in the field of publishing. A university press included two of my published short stories in their anthology books without informing me at all–I just discovered it when I stumbled on one of their anthology books at a National Bookstore branch. So different from what a textbook publishing firm did. The textbook author sent me (c/o the magazine where the story was published) a request-for-permission letter. That’s the right thing, and that’s professionalism.
In your case, it’s the Ilo-Ilo government. While you do owe them something because of the festival itself which they sponsored–so that you were able to take photos of it–they should have informed you that they’re going to use it as promotional material.
I’ve worked with graphic artists, and I think graphic artists are the ones to be blamed first in such instances.
All graphic artists should know that every photo they download from the Internet is COPYRIGHTED. It’s free if the site says so; otherwise, it’s not. And ALWAYS, they SHOULD ASK FOR PERMISSION to copy any photograph or literary work or article or any work of art, etc., esp. if they’re intended for commercial purposes. One more thing, they MUST ACKNOWLEDGE their source in the material they’re producing–i.e., the photographer’s name and the website where it was taken from.
So many people are ignorant of copyright issues, and some of those who are aware of them just don’t know how to be fair. =(
“We are neophytes in the world of photojournalism and its intricacies, It was an oversight in our part and for this we humbly apologize.” – Lame excuse but works well. Nakaka touch
@ilonggo “did u ever thought that without the city and the provincial government, u hv no dinagyang to capture in ur camera??? u can include the sponsors in ur watermark” – next time i have second thoughts when we spent time taking picture of our plaza here. municipal government will take fee from us. no plaza, no picture.
Well, it is such an educational thing to view the article especially i am an amateur photographer and just now been uploading some of my work in the web with watermarks on it.
But upon reading your article and the comments here, I am having a second thought in uploading more of my photos in the net since copyrights issue is rampant in the whole country.
I think there should be an organization that would handle all the copyright issue and I also hope that more artist would be educated in their copyright’s right.
Anyway, I would like to know if did u get some formal written apologies and financial settlement from both the iloilo city government and the panay news!?
i’d like to apologize in behalf of “ilonggo’s” remarks. i’d like to correct the bad impression that his comments may have made of the entire ilonggos.
but i’d like just to note that stealing one’s piece of work,art or intellect has been rampant nowadays because schools/universities/colleges tolerate them. they sometimes even encourage their students to just copy this and that’s that paper so they can comply with the course requirement. in the end, students learn not the value of hardwork but the “easy way out/glory” they get from copying. (very macchiavelian indeed.) as a result we have professionals who do not even know how to acknowledge their sources, more so inform the authors.
also some feature writers in panay news directly copies and pastes paragraphs and lines from their internet sources. you’ll know because paragraphs are disjointed and varies in tones. so they don’t just steal photographs, they steal practically everything!
goes to show that the editors of these dailies don’t even read their own features.
(btw, were these issues already resolved?)