As an illustrator I was more acutely aware of the possibility of copyright infringement than I supposed I might need to be as a fledgling "fine artist." (I still prefer to call myself merely a "painter.") I assumed paintings were less likely to be appropriated and used illegally than more commercially applicable pieces. Turns out I was wrong. It is still wise register any image posted online with the US Copyright Office--the only vehicle that enables one to collect punitive damages for infringement.
Last night I learned about Google's new "Search by Image" tool. Imagine my surprise when the first file I dragged onto it--my Twin Towers at Sunset painting, done in 2007 from photos I took myself--came up not only on this blog, but in two places on a site called the Twin Towers Alliance. I have no idea how long the TTA has been using this image in their fund-raising efforts without my knowledge or consent--possibly for years.
Latest update: The images have been removed and a somewhat back-handed apology/explanation received --accompanied by the comment, "You certainly painted a lovely image, but you can’t take credit for the sky and the light and the Towers...
Yeah, right. What did I do other than copy what was right there for anyone to see? Here's the painting, and here's my closest reference photo. As you can see, they're exactly the same. Words fail me--at least any of the ones I would be comfortable saying here.
Nevertheless, I have deleted the rest of my original ranting post. The whole thing was an interesting first-hand experience of the effects of the widely-held misconception that anything that can be found on Google is available for for public use. My advice to register images stands, and from now I will be more diligent about doing so myself.
It is also fascinating to observe a controversial or ranting post generate several times the typical traffic.
2 So leave me a comment, or just say "hello" already:
As a New Yorker, the organization's mission upsets me to begin with. Re: copyright infringement, I've had several similar instances. When one blogger insisted on leaving my image up as a live link, even though it was a portrait, and a work still in progress, I changed the image in the link to one irrelevant to their topic, but depending where an image appears, this is not always possible.
Two suggestions I have subsequently received are these: if you report it to Google, they will de-index the site, and if you report them to their ISP hosts, they may dump the whole site.
Thanks, Mona! I did report it to Google yesterday. I'm also glad to know my suspicions about their rhetoric not being universally accepted are correct. It also occurred to me that there may be no way to verify their legitimacy or how their donations are being used.
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