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This is a Cautionary Tale from one of the clubs in the L&CPU
Do photography clubs and societies pay adequate attention to vetting the images
submitted in to their competitions?
Here's an account of our recent experience that may give some clubs food for thought.
Like almost all other camera clubs in the L&CPU, Davyhulme Camera Club holds its own internal competitions throughout the year. Whilst it is in the club rules that any images submitted by members have to be their own work, in our club certainly, it is taken on trust that that is the case.
Can we be sure though? Evidently the answer to this is no!
We recently discovered that one of our members had been trawling the internet, downloading images and fraudulently submitting them in to our competitions as their own.
Aside from the betrayal of not only the trust that the club affords its members but also the trust of the whole photographic community, this obviously breaks copyright law, is illegal and leaves the fraudulent 'author' wide open to a copyright infringement claim.
What some may not realise however is that their actions could also have serious repercussions for the club too, particularly if, like us, you put your competition winning images on the club website. In such a situation, the club, albeit unknowingly, is also infringing copyright and consequently exposing itself to a legitimate claim.
When our member's fraudulent activity came to light we did two things. Firstly, we had to apologise to the organisers of a local multi-club battle and very rapidly change some of our entries in to it, and secondly, we had the forethought to try and remove all images submitted by said member from our website.
Unfortunately, we missed one hidden away in a blog post... but, and here's the warning, Alamy didn't!
Apparently, they routinely sweep the internet looking for instances of images belonging to their contributors and, when they find one, they check to see whether its use is appropriately licensed. Obviously, as we had no idea that the image had been stolen, we had no license and Alamy therefore, quite legitimately, opened a copyright infringement case against us - a case which could have cost the club £500.
Fortunately for us, after removing the image, explaining the situation to Alamy and, we think crucially, reaching out to the rightful author of the image, offering a sincere apology and explaining the situation to her as well, both parties agreed to drop the case against the club.
Thankfully they recognised that the club was almost as much a victim of the fraudulent activity as they'd been. With her knowledge and permission, Davyhulme Camera Club would therefore like to take this opportunity to say a public thank you to Tracey Whitefoot (https://www.whitefootphotography.com/), the actual author of the image in question, for her understanding and sympathy towards the club.
Additionally, we should also say congratulations for unknowingly winning our
2023 Landscape competition!
Alamy too should be commended for their part in discovering the unauthorised use of the image, advocating for their contributor, bringing the case in the first place and coping with the triangular communication between themselves, the author and ourselves. It was all dealt with very professionally and did offer some reassurance that, as a stock image company, they do actually represent their contributors effectively.
So where does this leave the club going forward?
First off, it goes without saying that the member is now an ex-member.
Secondly, in order to try and prevent a similar situation happening in the future,
the competitions secretary will now have a much more onerous job.
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