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R E D J U M PS U I T APPAR ATU S COPYR I G H T V I OL ATI ON
Edit 21st April
Red Jumpsuit have publicly apologised to me on twitter and have agreed to pay my invoice. I’d like to say thank you to the thousands of
people around the world for supporting me in this matter, I think this is a big win for not only me, but all photographers around the world.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Previous blog post starts here:
I was recently scrolling through my Facebook feed and came across a familiar image, one of mine from a show in November 2013.
This happens every now and then, and usually it’s accompanied with something along the lines of “Thanks Rohan Anderson for the photo!”,
and generally I’m ok with it, I’d prefer permission to be asked, but the fact that they’ve looked for the photographer to credit makes it a
little more ok for me.
This image, posted by the band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, was taken at UTS Glasshouse in Sydney on the 14th of November 2013, and was
not credited, all that accompanied the image was “Shredder”.
This hit a nerve for me, they’ve used an image of mine without permission and without credit, on top of this, the image was cropped, had a
filter added (presumably from Instagram) and the quality was severely reduced. Here’s the original (notice the watermark that has been
cropped out).
I did a bit of digging and found an email for Red Jumpsuits management and sent them the following email:
“Hello,
I’m just contacting you today about a violation of copyright to do with one of my images, this is my
original: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rohan3au/10939150575/
The official Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Facebook posted one of my images without permission or credit and was
cropped and edited. This is the photo in question: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?
fbid=690622494309165&set=pb.107159332655487.-2207520000.1396505956.&type=3&theater
I’m a practicing photographer and I don’t shoot to just have acts steal the images for use wherever they please, I
shot this show for a Sydney media publication. If you would like to use the image, you will need to discuss a
payment with me beforehand.
Please remove the image immediately or you are welcome to keep it up if a payment is discussed.
If you do not comply. I will be seeking legal advice.
Regards,
Regards,
Rohan Anderson
On top of this email, a few friends and myself commented on the image stating the copyright of the image didn’t belong to them. After the
email and multiple comments (which were quickly deleted), my name was added to the image after 5 hours.
I had multiple issues with this:
- I had requested the image be removed, not credit added
- The image was not the original and was posted in less than reasonable quality
- The credit was not a link to the original or anything of the sort
- My name was added 5 hours after the original post, hours past the time where the image the most impact to its audience.
I decided to send another email requesting the image be removed, the following email was sent:
“Hello,
I’ve noticed you added my name to the photo. That’s not the issue.
My issue is that my image has been posted without my consent, cropped and edited in low quality. I demand that
it be taken down as this is a breach of copyright.
I have spoken to my lawyer and I am well within my legal rights, and I will not hesitate to take legal action.
Thank you.
Regards,
Rohan Anderson
After not hearing back from either of my emails, I wanted to ensure they did receive them, so I sent a quick message to their facebook page
and the response was the most unexpected and unprofessional response I’ve ever received, especially from a band as large as them:
Shortly after, I received a very unexpected response from their management email:
“You have no legal claim as the photo is credited and is not posted for a monetary gain and features our likeness
and image not yours. Also you have just got your self banned from any festival or show we ever play again in that
region for life! Congrats!
Sent from my iPhone”
Many things shocked me about this response, usually I receive an email saying something along the lines of “Sorry! We weren’t sure of the
original owner, we’ve taken it down for you.”. The fact that they decided to “ban” me from any future shows simply for standing up for my
intellectual property absolutely stuns me.
I was also very surprised at their lack of understanding of intellectual property laws, there are multiple things wrong with their response:
- Just because a photo is credited, doesn’t mean you’re allowed to use it. Do you think magazines are allowed to steal photos and credit the
images without any legal implications?
- The image was posted for monetary gain, what do you think a facebook page for a band is for? Advertisement and press.
- Just because an image features someones likeness, doesn’t mean they’re allowed to use it as advertisement. Permission needs to be given.
I sent the following response back:
“Hey Guys,
Thanks for getting back to me.
Just because the photo is credited to me, it doesn’t mean that you have the rights to use it. If any website or
publication posts the photo, they require permission from the copyright owner, in this case, it’s me.
In regards to monetary gain, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Facebook page is there purely for the purpose of
marketing and advertisement for the band, therefore any image posted can be considered advertising; if Coca
Cola posts an image of their bottle on Facebook, that’s advertising, why isn’t an image of a band member just
advertising for the band?
I’d like to turn the tables here, if Red Jumpsuit had their music illegally posted online, whether that be on
youtube or anything, I’m sure you would be ensuring it is removed as that is music piracy, this is absolutely no
different.
At the end of the day, if you enjoyed my image enough to post it, you should request permission, in most cases I
would usually say yes, no questions asked or money requested.
I also believe in future, you should attempt to act a little more professionally; sending an emoticon and “lol” in a
Facebook message is not an appropriate response to being informed you have broken the law.
I will give you 24 hours to remove the image and apologise via response to this email or you will be hearing from
my lawyer. I advise you seek advice from a lawyer before dismissing this as you are in the wrong.
Regards,
Rohan Anderson”
Once again, I received an extremely unprofessional and downright offensive email in response:
“We welcome the “lawyer” and his response. As for the lol it was funny, life is funny. If you want to take it any
other way that’s fine with us. As for the “tables turning” remark our music is everywhere illegally and we let it go
like all other “professionals” try it out sometime. Most unknown photographers are happy to have world wide
known bands use their photos and consider it an honor, you are clearly an example of the opposite.
Don’t send anymore threats or you’ll be hearing from our Lawyer!
Have a nice day
Sent from my iPhone”
The absolutely outrageous notion that I should “consider it an honor” that they posted my image shocked me the most. That is possibly the
single most stuck-up response I’ve ever received, get over yourselves. At this stage, it’s becoming more clear that I’m not talking to a band
manager, most managers would be more professional and cautious as to what they say. I’ll admit, the last line of the email made me chuckle,
I’m sorry Red Jumpsuit, but you can’t sue somebody for threatening to sue you. I am yet to hear from their lawyer, I would welcome that
phone call, purely so I can ask the question “Has your client told you what they’ve done? Can you please explain to them why they are so
clearly in the wrong”.
I sent the following response:
“I’ve booked a meeting with my lawyer next week. You’ll be hearing from them shortly after.
Don’t consider it a threat, consider it an opportunity to remove the image before things get expensive and
complicated for you.
Most people would go straight to a lawyer, I’m sorry you didn’t take the opportunity to remove the image and
avoid this situation.
Rohan Anderson”
I also sent a quick email to their Australian tour manager to see if they could be of any help, I was met with a much more reasonable and
extremely polite and professional response, I don’t feel it’s appropriate the post this response, but it was very apologetic and they contacted
Red Jumpsuit for me to have the image removed.
The image was finally removed, after 48 hours live on facebook. If the image was removed as soon as I’d asked, that would be the end of it.
The fact that Red Jumpsuit were so abusive, rude and unprofessional meant I was going to seek financial compensation for the image, I then
sent the following final email to them:
“Hey Guys,
I notice that the image has been removed from Facebook and Instagram, but the use of the image must still be
paid for for the following reasons:
- The image copyright belongs to me and Red Jumpsuit did not have the permission or legal rights to post this
image, the use of the image for 24 hours to an audience of approximately 1.4 million people must be paid for.
- The image was edited (filtered and quality reduced), which also breaches copyright use of the image
- The edited image then had my name attached to it 5 hours after posting (after I requested it to be removed),
which I believe may have damaged my reputation as a photographer.
I have attached the invoice to this email. The invoice must be paid within 30 days.
Please note that paying for this image does not give you permission to use it again, this cost is purely for the
previous use. If you would like to use the image further, we will need to discuss a further payment.
I am well within my rights to seek legal advice in regards to this, but I am giving you the opportunity to pay my
invoice and avoid legal action.
If you do not pay the invoice within 30 days, I will continue with legal action against Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Management.
Regards,
Rohan Anderson
I don’t want to go into the amount that the invoice was for, but I will say that it wasn’t an unreasonable amount and was a similar figure
listed on the Getty images pricing structure guide.
I received a final response directly from their management:
“This conversation is officially terminated and you have been flagged as abusive. You will be hearing from our
attorney shortly. Any e mails received from here on will be deleted. Do not attempt to respond unless via legal
council.
Sent from my iPhone”
POS T DE TAI L S
POS T TAG S
POS T CATE G OR I E S
I never heard from their lawyer and it seems they have a warped sense of what is abusive.
IPosted:
figuredApril
this would
be the last response I got from them
until I spoke
my lawyer, but I got one more surprise
late one night. They looked
20, 2014
apparatus,
band,to
concert,
Blog posts
up and found out who I photographed their show forcopyright,
and sent the
editor
the
following
email
bagging
me
out
(I
think
need a lesson on the
image, jumpsuit,
By:
Rohan
use of
quotation marks):
lawyer, live, music, photograph,
photography, red, theft, violation
” Howdy, this is The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. We recently granted you (blanked out) show access and gave guest
list spots to film/photo and review our Aussie tour with the assumption we would be able to post those pics
SYDNEY,
AUSTRALIA.
and/or reviews because that is industry standard. We were later approached by “Rohan” with
absurd
demands
and threats of all nature which is quite strange and annoying. We just wanted to let you know the image he is
If you are
looking
for the
photographer
Rohan
portraying on your company is a bad one and we hope you will help resolve this matter
ASAP
seeing
how
you
Anderson from Victoria, Australia; he can be
placed him “Rohan” at our show to begin with. Thanks for your time.
found here: www.rohananderson.com.au
Sent from my iPhone”
Previous
Post detailed email from them after more detail was requested from the media outlet:
And a more
“Apparently one of our members posted a pic from the Sidney show that he took for you guys with our
permission. That pic was posted on our FB and didn’t have a “thumbnail” so he (Rohan) reached out and
demanded we pull it or he would sue us ect. We posted his name with credit within hours to the photo as soon as
we knew who he was in good faith then he demanded we pull it anyway saying he is going to sue us again ect ect.
We thought that was silly so we pulled it out of good will(again) and he now persists to threaten us with legal
action to which he has no right or claim in doing so as well as demanding an outlandish fee for said photo even
though it was pulled. If we didn’t grant photo access to begin with no photos would have been taken so this
All images
© Rohan Anderson
Photography
2014
matter is pretty small to us however this
guy “Rohan”
has really
gone out
of his way to insult and harass us via e
mail. I can not share those e mails because if this goes any further they will be subject to possible litigation. I
realize he may not work for you directly and just wanted you to know that when this is all said and done he won’t
be shooting many bands in the near future. Word travels fast in the rock business and we have a lot of friends
because we try to avoid conflict when possible but “Rohan” is the absolute most disrespectful photographer we
have ever had the unpleasure of dealing with. Thanks for the quick response, any help would be appreciated.
Sent from my iPhone”
After being CC’d in the email response back to Red Jumpsuit from the media outlet, I read the correspondence between them and quickly
emailed the editor to clear the air, and included all of the emails sent back and forward. The response from the absolutely lovely editor at
the media outlet in question responded to me with the following:
“Hi Rohan,
Thanks for sending the email correspondence through.
As I suspected, you have been entirely professional against a barrage of unprofessional and juvenile behaviour
from the band.