But my point on this post is, these guys putting photos on their website JUST to sue people for a picture of a tomato. They don’t do it for passion, they do photograph for money. And it’s sad, especially because nobody is doing anything against it.

Now, a second guy comes along and wants to make a site about animals. But he doesn’t take photos – that’s too much work and not well paid enough. He just collects thousands of images from the internet and thousands of snippets of text and makes his site that way. Sometimes he makes a comment like “look at this, this sucks” and sometimes he makes one saying “look at this, cool!”, but other than the website, he invests little time in creating content. That’s because he’s got a real job or full-time occupation, or perhaps he’s a student.

If his site gets big enough hardly anyone will see the original photographer’s site. and the photographer will lose ad revenue and clients because of that. And other people all around the world will copy the image of the fish they see, because now the watermark has been removed and they think if one person can do it why shouldn’t they.

This is the real world. I’m a photographer, I have a website, people love it, they see things they would never have seen otherwise. Millions visit it. I can barely pay my rent but I’m doing what I love. People copy my photos because they want to make some money from advertising. They also print them in magazines in countries where they think I won’t see them. Those publishers drive nice cars and have good pensions. I don’t see the justice in that.

Suing for copyrighted photos is usually the last resort, a huge waste of time for the photographer, and in most cases would be very expensive for the photographer who generally knows very little about legal matters i.e. he would not receive anything or not cover his legal expenses.

I have the problem that a magazine in Germany has published my photos with telling me and it’s a complete nightmare for me trying to work out what to do. If I do nothing it’s like leaving the front door to your house open and letting people walk away with your property. But on €20 K a year the idea of hiring a lawyer terrifies me because of the legal fees.