123rf
A cautionary tale
Well, this has been a week I certainly don’t wish to repeat. More like fiction than reality. So take warning, all you bloggers out there who use images to spice up your posts. All may not be as it seems.
There was I, on Monday morning, happily typesetting Over My Dead Body, when an emailed letter arrived from a certain distributor of images. No ordinary letter, but a request – no, more of a demand with a hint of menace – for £1,537.50. Why? What for? For the use of one photo used last year on my blog … without a licence, they claimed.
And no, it wasn’t a scam. Apparently I’m one of thousands being similarly intimidated.
Now, as a writer I do understand the importance of respecting others’ creativity, but the reality is that, eleven months later, I have no recollection of exactly where I found the image in question. And I wasn’t aware that even those pictures which seem OK to use can infringe other people’s copyright further back in the chain.
Happily DJ and my publisher (whose address appears on my website although he has nothing to do with my blog, so is wholly innocent of this heinous crime) remained calm in the crisis, and by the end of the day we had researched the matter and discovered that the company in question have been pursuing large numbers of individuals and small businesses with ferocity and disproportionate demands for some time; even sending in debt collectors where people have chosen to ignore the matter. All very nasty stuff.
Some legal eagles have been so incensed by their tactics that they’ve set up websites to offer advice to victims, and it was to one of them that I turned. Within 24 hours the case was in the hands of a solicitor; within 36 hours a robust lawyerly letter had been dispatched. I do not need to live in dread of another terrifying communication; all future correspondence (if any) goes to the solicitor. Phew.
Makes me doubly appreciative of the normally gentle ways of other photo distributors. Fotolia and 123rf spring to mind. Very reasonable costs too. Or Shutterstock from whom I recently bought the image for my forthcoming book cover. A licence for a book is understandably more pricey than when the image is for a blog, but they send me weekly pictures to download free of charge too.
Then, in all the stress, desperately trying to keep other work moving, I managed to delete important material from my computer … but I won’t bore you with the sorry saga of many many hours wasted.
Sufficient to say it’s been quite an experience, but my heart rate has now settled. Sleeping patterns aren’t back to normal yet but my mind is quiet enough to return to typesetting and writing and preparing presentations as usual.
And in fairness the week hasn’t been all bad. I’ve also received i) a lovely endorsement of the new book; ii) another invitation to speak about my writing, and iii) encouraging communications from three new-to-me readers of my novels. Thank you all; you’ve no idea how much I needed those positive reinforcements this week.