{"id":4855,"date":"2015-01-21T21:05:39","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T21:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=4855"},"modified":"2015-01-21T21:05:39","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T21:05:39","slug":"breach-of-copyright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=4855","title":{"rendered":"Breach of Copyright"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You may have seen this picture recently, as it has appeared over 80 times on the web, many in the last week, at times clearly with a Demotix<\/em> watermark – indicating it is unlicensed. A few of the instances were probably taken from my own web site, with my discreet watermark cropped off the bottom.<\/p>\n

I took this picture in London in July 2011, at a protest organised by Anjem Choudry, apparently MI5’s favourite Muslim honeypot, Muslim Extremists March For Sharia Zones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the context from my web site:<\/p>\n

Around 70 men from Muslims Against Crusades marched from Leyton to Walthamstow calling for the setting up of Sharia Controlled Zones in the UK which ‘Islamic rules’ would be enforced by Muslims.<\/em><\/p>\n

and the caption on Demotix is:<\/p>\n

“Muslim man holds up ‘Sharia Controlled Zone’ poster at protest calling for Britain\u2019s first Islamic Emirate” <\/em><\/p>\n

and on my own web site: ‘<\/p>\n

The controversial ‘Sharia Controlled Zone’ poster that has gone up in several East London boroughs’<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve not looked at all of the uses made of it on the web, but those I have seem to be using the image as evidence of ‘no go areas’ in the UK, which clearly it was not. Most also seem to be Islamophobic in tone, some rather rabidly so.<\/p>\n

It may be that a few of those sites have licensed the image from Demotix (or Corbis etc) and I will in a few months time get a few pounds for my work – the fees Demotix charge for web use are derisory. I’ll look through the sites and decide if there are any that might be worth chasing up for payment, though I doubt it as few seem to be\u00a0UK based.<\/p>\n

I may also report it to Demotix, but I doubt they will be of any help, and the time I would have to spend on chasing up all these instances would be enormous. Its vital\u00a0that we have copyright laws, and sometimes photographers can benefit from them (as I’ve done on a few occasions) but much of the time they only benefit the large multinational agencies who have the time and resources to pursue infringers around the world.
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