This is nasty.
We will send mails to the EMail address of the Ad agency to let them know that what they have done is totally unprofessional. and they are not really "workaholics" in true sense.
 

I just cant believe that they just picked it from Google images...and deny knowing anything about copyrights...good that you kept them engaged...this should not be tolerated in any way.
 

bummer.. the least they could do was contact you.. publicizing it is a good move..
 

All i can say is that this is really sad, and google does say "Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright." This is more than enough for a case.
 

Simple, send a mail to all their customers. Their portfolio is on their site. Hopefully that should set things right!

Raj
 

This shouldn't be tolerated. Maybe as a community we should seek some legal advise, and once one guy is dragged to court, others may think twice before violating.

I organized my verbose thoughts in a seperate post .
 

I guess we should voice more on this issue & make the so called *Workaholiks* to realise the real meaning of Workaholic.
 

It is sad that people resort to such activities.

It is good that you voiced your protest against it.
Hope it would really make them more 'Ethical' along with being 'Workoholics'.
 

My thoughts Workaholiks: Are they really 'Creative' & 'Professional'?
 

I is criminal. I would suggest that you bring this up with some news paper. now i am actually sceptical to post my pics on the net. you were lucky to have realized/ found out that some one had used you pics.
 

Very unprofessional. I'm sure the negative publicity that your blog post brings them is not something they were looking forward to. So they better apologise and pay up!
 

This is very bad. We shud defly punish those guys!!!
 

This very very bad! Che how can they thnk of living on others effort. They shud feel thmselves ashamed!
 

Hi,

I know Workaholics and Tej professionally because they did do some work for Bangalore shutterbugs, a photo exhibition called "Perspectives". I am not too surprised when you talked about professionalism. That was my experience when we co-ordinated invitation cards for that event. It was a total hotchpotch creatively as well as deadline oriented. The cards were bad and came out just 2 days before the event.

I kind of went through with that, because they were a small organisation (entreprenuerial) and were struggling to meet ends meet. Being an entreprenuer myself, I kind of understood that and helped her to get things done on time (client helping supplier.. ever heard of that ?). But what you say now is shocking. Shocking cos, you wouldnt expect that from workaholics. In all fairness I found them decent hardworking but totally disorganised.

Surprising ? Maybe not. I realise that a little bit of desperation has pushed them to pinch images.

I think what they did was wrong and its totally unacceptable. My support is with you. We were planning a launch in the near future and I was thinking of calling tej. Maybe I will have to think about it some more.

vasu
 

I'm with you.
 

Thanks for the stupendous support that all of you have given me! I am sure this will go a long way in creating awareness about the hazards of posting material online and the chances of your data getting pilfered.

I am in the process of replying to all of you on an individual basis. However, given my office work, that can happen only when I am at home. So please bear with me for that.

Thanks once again!
 

Hi,

Just a small question. The moment you publish something on the web, you share it and the way the internet is structured, you let other people acess it.

So what exactly is the violation ? Is it the credit not being passed on to someone else ? Is it the commercial benifits not passed on to the originator ?

Is copyright extended to content (like articles words etc.) and what about thoughts ?

Quiet apart from this incident which I feel was wrong the way it had been played out, is it ownership of creative persuits atall can be copyrighted ?

Pinching photos from google is quiet a practice. I think almost every designer does it. If you copy a design of a furniture/apartment or copy someone else's design idea isnt it still your own creative output ?

Can that be denied ? Where are the boundries ?

Just an academic question. Quiet apart from this incident.

vasu
 

Hi,
First time here. First to appreciate u for ur nice picture. Next is ur approach. Ur approach was polite and thats why they didn't understand it. I am linking u in my blog too.
 

Go get them dude...serve them a letter from a lawyer.
 

Damn Parasites!
 

This is quite unproffesional from their side. And thanks for posting it. Its quite an eye-opener!
 

Hi,

being a designer i m also find some images from google and use for websites... but this case is also an eyeopner for me!

kunal chokshi
 

A Hall of Shame the way Kousik proposes sounds like a good idea.
 

I have been in advertising myself and I am an amateur photographer myself. I have had issues of people wanting to use my pics but this is scary. I think we should use photoshop or some such tool and always have some prominent watermark across which would make our work get the deserved recognition. I agree we may not need to make money out of our hobby / passion, but why should we say no if it is going to cover the costs we incur? Or at least give us the satisfaction of getting the recognition? And as a marketer, I have also 'bought' images from image sites and they don't cost anything less than 6-7 thousands. Please don't let them go scot free! I agree with Reflex. You should serve them a notice and get a stay on the ad being used by the client. The client will come running to pay the money or screw the shit of these ba@#$%^^%. And write to ad club Bangalore. They will be refused any assignment from then on. You can also write to AAAI which is a self regulated governing body for advertisers.
 

Wow!

This is really nasty!! Man i hope they give you your copyright back - I have been involved myself for my copyrights with a stupid company as well - its a misery isn't it?

Suyog

PS: You are the second Suyog, I have come to know... except me :)
 

take a look at their portfolio - it seems reasonable to assume that the rest of their images are stolen as well.

I am sure if someone took the time to do a few google image searches using keywords similar to what they have (e.g. break brick, karate chop, break hand; charlie chaplin; napolean; etc.) they would find the original, stolen photo and demonstrate a pattern of abuse.

Lazy dogs. Their site doesnt even work properly - try contacting them for an appointment.

Good luck with the fight. They should just apologise and get over this PR fiasco.
 

Good luck, hope this gets solved without much more hassle.
 

----- Original Message -----
From: tej
To: Suyog Gaidhani
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: Regd the payment for the Temple Bells photograph


hi
tej here your amount can be collected from our office on any working day you need to collect it as we require you to sign a voucher for the same as we have not recieved an invoice.
regds
tej

Hello everyone

I’m Tej here from Workaholiks, as the mail above says his cheque(dated the 3rd of December,2005) has been ready for a week now. He has sent us a reply to the mail saying he will not be able to pick it up and that we should make arrangement to have it delivered to him. Firstly when a client says a cheque is ready for us we still make arrangements to pick it up. If he was too busy to collect it he should have waited for us to make arrangements.

Secondly, the day he called us I offered to meet him wherever it was convenient for him. He said it was most convenient to drop into our office as he works close by. After this initial interaction he spoke with other people in my office several times before he came by, after 7:30 when everyone had left office. The second time he came to our office I met him and discussed the issue. I asked him if he could do some photography for us because I thought his work was good and told him the same. He even sent us some more images but it didn’t really fit what we were doing. Last week he sent a mail saying he wanted a date to pick up the cheque and I replied to it saying I would send it by courier. The cheque is ready and has still not been collected.

Thirdly however ironic this may sound I agree with all of you about protecting intellectual rights. The project Suyog is referring to was named Temple Chimes by us in an attempt to clearly position it. The new project right next door being done by another agency is called Temple Bells the ads came out about a week ago. The problem lies with everyone wanting " cheap and Best", every agency would love to be able to do a shoot with a professional photographer but tell the client this when we start and they will go to someone who is willing to do the job without the added cost.

As for Vasu's post ((client helping supplier.. ever heard of that ?). )!!!About us being unprofessional, I don’t understand how the professionalism of the agency can be based on a work done as a favour for one of the core members. The job he is referring to was not paid for and initially was only supposed to be a design, on which I spent my Saturdays and Sundays, spent money on travel, prints etc. It ended up being a favour taken too far when posters invites envelopes etc. also got added on and NOT just the design but also the production of all of them during a weekend.


I was asked if I could design a brochure and I did keep my end of the bargain. The person I was initially interacting with conveniently forgot to mention to anyone that this was not a job taken up by the agency I had no obligation to see any of the production through.
This is what I do for a living and I really don’t mind doing something for free for friends but I definitely do not appreciate a judgment about my agency being passed on it.

There are always 2 sides to a story and before people start making allegations and judgments it’s only fair to listen to both sides.

Thank you,

Tej
 

hey...this is atrocious...am a journalist from Mumbai and i reckon you go in for a legal action...its unfair and dont let them go scotfree...
by the way,got here from Kirub's blog..u have a good blog here.
cheers!!
 

Hi Tej,

It is nice to see your reply and wanting to defend you position. No one here
wants to stifle the other side of the story. However, as I have mentioned in
my reply to your email, there are quite a few holes in ths story that you have
recounted.

Let me again dissect the whole thing point by point:

The email that you have reproduced indeed is correct. But how come you forgot to mention this one that you sent me on the 25th of November.

"We are mailing a cheque of Rs.2000 by courier today."

Also, do you remember what you told me when we met? We will mail you the
cheque and so please give me your mailing address. Is'nt that correct? So
where is this new issue of invoice and vouchers coming up?

Thanks for at least acknowledging the fact that I sent you an email
expressing my inability to collect it. But you do not mention that I did give you three simple options to make it easy for both of us. Also, I follwed that mail with 3 more asking about the status. No replies till now. If you expect me to wait for you to make arrangements, I can do that only if I know that you are making arrangements, is'nt it. Did you call me or reply to that mail about that? This is the first
time I am hearing that. Let us face it, you were simply not bothered.

I agree with your version of how we met up. However, I have not spoken to anyone else in your office other than you and Subu. In fact,I do not even know anyone else at your place. I am sorry to again correct you w.r.t. the timing aspect. I came at exactly 6:30 as I had promised the first time and this after confirming with Subu before coming over. The
second time, you forget to mention the fact that no one was there in your
office when I came (again confirming the timing) and after 20 minutes when you dropped in, it almost looked like you were not expecting me at all.

Regarding the images for the other project of yours. Let me add the details. I said, I can only give you some images from my archives and if you like them, well you can use them. After I sent them (as promised) on Monday, there was no reply from your end for 2 days. On Wednesday, when I called up you
said as you have mentioned in your post. Then, I asked you to send me some
pictures that you already have for the project so that I can get an idea
about what you really want. You said that you would do it without fail by
that evening. Well, I am still waiting. Let us get this clear about you
thinking that my work is good and all that. You clearly said that you need
365 images for the project and you cannot afford Getty. So you felt that
you could extract some stuff from me at dirt cheap rates. I am not saying
that this is wrong, after all you are in a business. All I want is for you
to be clear about all the details and not skip the uncomfortable ones.

Regarding the cheque to be sent by courier, you are all confused there.
You first said that you will send the cheque by courier and then have
gone into this invoice stuff. I think you should read what you have typed
here. If you had written to me that you will send the cheque by courier,
then why are you waiting for it to be collected. Sounds kind of contradictory
to me.

It is good to hear that you appreciate intellectual rights though I am
surprised that I am not the only person to suffer at your firm's hands.
You must have got Shankar's mail for using his image without his permission
on your website. How do you explain that? I agree with your predicament
that there is a war out there in trying to make some money in advertising
but the issue for me was not that. All I expected was some acceptance of
the fact that I have been wronged and handling of this issue in the most
sensitive and professional manner. Please look into the whole matter and
ask yourself whether you have done that. I am sure you will find it difficult
to come up with a "Yes".

I was not part of BSB during the exhibition so it would not be fair of me
to comment on that. But all I can say is that from the private emails that I have recvd, everyone feels the same about it as Vasu does. I guess given my experience with your firm, I would tend to believe them.

As I said in the begginning, since I have nothing to hide or fear, I was
hoping that you would present your side of the story on my blog. Thanks
for doing that. Unfortunately, you have forgotten to add certain details.
I have filled them up for you.

Thanks!
Suyog
 

Tej,

Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:32 PM

I took the above date from the e-mail in your comment. Was this e-mail ever sent? It reads next year on it. Good job on faking that up! :-)

- Ganesh
 

Good luck Suyog. I know it'll be a bitter battle; that they claim innocent infringement and just pass you a fair licensing fee (and engage you in other project, to dilute it).

But the fact stands that your image was used without your prior permission. And I sincerely hope they'll think twice to do that again.
 

Really, this is a serious violation of all the three conditions of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License I wonder how cud they even do that? Now, I feel very unsafe about my own photoblog.

Hope ur fiasco get solved soon.
 

I shoot pics all over northwest, and I'd be actually proud if someone found my pics good enuf to to steal ;) :)

Ok now,
1) Do you plan to give some $$ back to the temple from which you created that image? You shot someone else's creation.

2) I'd be pissed if someone stole an image which I spend money on producing (like a client shoot with model fee, rental fee etc) - but you shot a public place - and though the angle is unique, anyone could have snapped up that pic (there is no time/place/person uniqueness, as in you didnt snap a moment - but rather an object which still remains in the same place today)

Also before pouncing on DRM and copyright issues - ask yourself if you have freeloaded on other's creative product ever before ? (VCDs?, torrents?, grey market stuff etc) If you didnt - then you have the right to righteous.

So, why dont u take up their offer of being a photog on hire, and cultivate a biz relationship with them.

If they made money off your work (as in the image being the center point of their sale) - they SHOULD give you a share. If not, they should at least credit you as photographer.

GL
ram
http://www.wizedot.com
 

mmm.... after reading more - it does look like a shady agency. Had they been professional they shd have settled it on day1 - not drag it along for months if they intended on paying 2000.
 

Hi Tej,

Firstly I want to apologise if there was any unintended slur on your/agency's name.

That said, I think, professionalism is a lifelong persuit. Its not a character assasination or judgement in any way. Most of us in business know sometimes we have to cut corners, work the shit out, to meet unrealistic deadlines or cost. But we still meet it, not only because its money, but also because there is a personal commitment to it.

I completely understand that being in the grindmill myself which is why I said and I quote, "In all fairness I found them decent and hardworking but disorganised".

But what we are looking here is a much serious allegation.

I narrated what I saw and seriously when someone commits for something it doesent matter at what price you commit for. Furthermore part of being professional is saying "NO" when you cant/dont-want-to do it.

One must realise that at the end of the day, money spent on that card printing activity could have gone to charity.

I have just one more thing to add. Donot always place value of your work by what money you get. That whole event was done not for anyone's personal benifit.

vasu
 

Just disjusting .... now if you click on the workaholic's website , you find it does not exist .... now they have realised the heat, the creatures has gone to the drain to hide :-/
 

How the hell can someone like them do it? Shocking!
 

Am really curious, how would you prove ownership here?
 

Just one simple word to all of you - Thanks!

It's great to see the spirit and enthusiasm that you all have displayed. I hope that we keep up this momentum and tackle this issue from the root.
 

Hello Suyog,
I am wondering what the Indian law has to say about such a case. Anybody with good knowledge about the law please reply.
And I'd suggest watermarking your images, to pave way to prevent future problems.Keep us updated on this....
BTW that's a pretty good pic.
LApstrE
 

Dear Suyong,

Your work is so beautiful, I love your eye for composition and detail. I am so sorry that people have not respected your work and dishonored you.

Which leads me to a question and a request.

I am part of a non-profit, international prayer group of women in 80 nations, and we're thinking of redoing our website.
Would you consider possibly allowing us to use your photograph Wash Away? Our group name is Lydia, and the name is taken from a lady named Lydia in the book of Acts who was at a river with other women.

I've been looking for a photograph of women by a river for quite some time.

Blessings!
Fawn Parish
 

Gladly. Let me know your email id and I can send across the image.
 

Dear Suyog,

Thank you! My email is
fawn@reignbridge.com

Blessings!
Fawn Parish
 

Eject

Set up

Performance page

734466 0

5/6


Switch off/on

Benny