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RED JU MPSU IT APPARATU S COPYRIGHT VIOLATION

Edit 21st AprilRed Jumpsuit have publicly apologised to me on twitter and have agreed to pay myinvoice. I’d like to say thank you to the thousands of people around the world forsupporting me in this matter, I think this is a big win for not only me, but allphotographers around the world.

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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 alongthe lines of “Thanks Rohan Anderson for the photo!”, and generally I’m ok with it, I’dprefer permission to be asked, but the fact that they’ve looked for the photographer tocredit makes it a little more ok for me.

This image, posted by the band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, was taken at UTS Glasshousein Sydney on the 14th of November 2013, and was not credited, all that accompaniedthe image was “Shredder”.

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This hit a nerve for me, they’ve used an image of mine without permission and withoutcredit, on top of this, the image was cropped, had a filter added (presumably fromInstagram) and the quality was severely reduced. Here’s the original (notice thewatermark that has been cropped out).

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I did a bit of digging and found an email for Red Jumpsuits management and sent themthe following email:

“Hello,I’m just contacting you today about a violation of copyright to dowith one of my images, this is myoriginal: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rohan3au/10939150575/The official Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Facebook posted one of myimages without permission or credit and was cropped and edited.This is the photo inquestion: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=690622494309165&set=pb.107159332655487.­2207520000.1396505956.&type=3&theaterI’m a practicing photographer and I don’t shoot to just have actssteal the images for use wherever they please, I shot this show for aSydney media publication. If you would like to use the image, youwill need to discuss a payment with me beforehand.Please remove the image immediately or you are welcome to keep itup if a payment is discussed.If you do not comply. I will be seeking legal advice.

Regards,Rohan Anderson

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Rohan Anderson

On top of this email, a few friends and myself commented on the image stating thecopyright 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 theimage the most impact to its audience.

I decided to send another email requesting the image be removed, the following emailwas 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 asthis is a breach of copyright.I have spoken to my lawyer and I am well within my legal rights, andI 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 receivethem, so I sent a quick message to their facebook page and the response was the mostunexpected and unprofessional response I’ve ever received, especially from a band aslarge as them:

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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 postedfor a monetary gain and features our likeness and image not yours.Also you have just got your self banned from any festival or show weever play again in that region for life! Congrats!Sent from my iPhone”

Many things shocked me about this response, usually I receive an email sayingsomething along the lines of “Sorry! We weren’t sure of the original owner, we’ve takenit down for you.”. The fact that they decided to “ban” me from any future shows simplyfor 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 thinkmagazines are allowed to steal photos and credit the images without any legalimplications?­ The image was posted for monetary gain, what do you think a facebook page for aband is for? Advertisement and press.­ Just because an image features someones likeness, doesn’t mean they’re allowed touse 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 youhave the rights to use it. If any website or publication posts thephoto, they require permission from the copyright owner, in thiscase, it’s me.

In regards to monetary gain, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Facebookpage is there purely for the purpose of marketing and advertisement

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page is there purely for the purpose of marketing and advertisementfor the band, therefore any image posted can be consideredadvertising; if Coca Cola posts an image of their bottle on Facebook,that’s advertising, why isn’t an image of a band member justadvertising for the band?I’d like to turn the tables here, if Red Jumpsuit had their musicillegally posted online, whether that be on youtube or anything, I’msure you would be ensuring it is removed as that is music piracy, thisis absolutely no different.At the end of the day, if you enjoyed my image enough to post it, youshould request permission, in most cases I would usually say yes, noquestions asked or money requested.I also believe in future, you should attempt to act a little moreprofessionally; sending an emoticon and “lol” in a Facebook messageis not an appropriate response to being informed you have brokenthe law.I will give you 24 hours to remove the image and apologise viaresponse to this email or you will be hearing from my lawyer. Iadvise you seek advice from a lawyer before dismissing this as youare in the wrong.Regards,Rohan Anderson”

Once again, I received an extremely unprofessional and downright offensive email inresponse:

“We welcome the “lawyer” and his response. As for the lol it wasfunny, life is funny. If you want to take it any other way that’s finewith us. As for the “tables turning” remark our music is everywhereillegally and we let it go like all other “professionals” try it outsometime. Most unknown photographers are happy to have world wide known bands use their photos and consider it an honor, youare 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 postedmy image shocked me the most. That is possibly the single most stuck­up response I’veever received, get over yourselves. At this stage, it’s becoming more clear that I’m nottalking to a band manager, most managers would be more professional and cautious asto what they say. I’ll admit, the last line of the email made me chuckle, I’m sorry RedJumpsuit, but you can’t sue somebody for threatening to sue you. I am yet to hear fromtheir lawyer, I would welcome that phone call, purely so I can ask the question “Hasyour client told you what they’ve done? Can you please explain to them why they are soclearly in the wrong”.

I sent the following response:

“I’ve booked a meeting with my lawyer next week. You’ll be hearingfrom them shortly after.Don’t consider it a threat, consider it an opportunity to remove theimage before things get expensive and complicated for you.Most people would go straight to a lawyer, I’m sorry you didn’t takethe 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 anyhelp, 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 apologeticand they contacted Red Jumpsuit for me to have the image removed.

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The image was finally removed, after 48 hours live on facebook. If the image wasremoved as soon as I’d asked, that would be the end of it. The fact that Red Jumpsuitwere so abusive, rude and unprofessional meant I was going to seek financialcompensation for the image, I then sent the following final email to them:

“Hey Guys,I notice that the image has been removed from Facebook andInstagram, but the use of the image must still be paid for for thefollowing reasons:­ The image copyright belongs to me and Red Jumpsuit did not havethe permission or legal rights to post this image, the use of theimage for 24 hours to an audience of approximately 1.4 millionpeople must be paid for.­ The image was edited (filtered and quality reduced), which alsobreaches copyright use of the image­ The edited image then had my name attached to it 5 hours afterposting (after I requested it to be removed), which I believe mayhave damaged my reputation as a photographer.I have attached the invoice to this email. The invoice must be paidwithin 30 days.Please note that paying for this image does not give you permissionto use it again, this cost is purely for the previous use. If you wouldlike to use the image further, we will need to discuss a furtherpayment.I am well within my rights to seek legal advice in regards to this, butI am giving you the opportunity to pay my invoice and avoid legalaction.If you do not pay the invoice within 30 days, I will continue withlegal 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 anunreasonable amount and was a similar figure listed on the Getty images pricingstructure guide.

I received a final response directly from their management:

“This conversation is officially terminated and you have been flaggedas abusive. You will be hearing from our attorney shortly. Any emails received from here on will be deleted. Do not attempt torespond unless via legal council. Sent from my iPhone”

I never heard from their lawyer and it seems they have a warped sense of what isabusive.

I figured this would be the last response I got from them until I spoke to my lawyer, butI got one more surprise late one night. They looked up and found out who Iphotographed their show for and sent the editor the following email bagging me out (Ithink need a lesson on the use of quotation marks):

” Howdy, this is The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. We recently grantedyou (blanked out) show access and gave guest list spots tofilm/photo and review our Aussie tour with the assumption wewould be able to post those pics and/or reviews because that isindustry standard. We were later approached by “Rohan” withabsurd demands and threats of all nature which is quite strange and

annoying. We just wanted to let you know the image he is portrayingon your company is a bad one and we hope you will help resolve thismatter ASAP seeing how you placed him “Rohan” at our show to

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All images © Rohan Anderson Photography 2014

matter ASAP seeing how you placed him “Rohan” at our show tobegin with. Thanks for your time.Sent from my iPhone”

And a more detailed email from them after more detail was requested from the mediaoutlet:

“Apparently one of our members posted a pic from the Sidney showthat he took for you guys with our permission. That pic was postedon our FB and didn’t have a “thumbnail” so he (Rohan) reached outand demanded we pull it or he would sue us ect. We posted his namewith credit within hours to the photo as soon as we knew who hewas in good faith then he demanded we pull it anyway saying he isgoing to sue us again ect ect. We thought that was silly so we pulledit out of good will(again) and he now persists to threaten us withlegal action to which he has no right or claim in doing so as well asdemanding an outlandish fee for said photo even though it waspulled. If we didn’t grant photo access to begin with no photos wouldhave been taken so this matter is pretty small to us however this guy“Rohan” has really gone out of his way to insult and harass us via email. I can not share those e mails because if this goes any furtherthey will be subject to possible litigation. I realize he may not workfor you directly and just wanted you to know that when this is allsaid 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 friendsbecause we try to avoid conflict when possible but “Rohan” is theabsolute most disrespectful photographer we have ever had theunpleasure of dealing with. Thanks for the quick response, any helpwould be appreciated.Sent from my iPhone”

After being CC’d in the email response back to Red Jumpsuit from the media outlet, Iread 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 absolutelylovely 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 barrageof unprofessional and juvenile behaviour from the band.I don’t think you’re ever going to see compensation from the band,so I wouldn’t continue to push it. However, rest assured that theband is now blacklisted from (removed).It’s a shame that they’ve acted in this manner. (Removed) supportsyou 100% on this.I’m quite frankly surprised by the bands flagrant disregard forcopyright, suggesting you should be honoured for them to infringeit. Unbelievable.

The fact that Red Jumpsuit has now been blacklisted from the media outlet iscomforting, it’s just piece of mind knowing that I’m not alone in this fight and I’m notthe only one who believes that their responses and the way they dealt with this situationwas downright awful.

This situation isn’t over, a letter of demand has been delivered to them, and after 21days, legal proceedings will begin.

Many of you might believe I have taken this too far, which may be true, but I’m standing

up for all live music photographers in Sydney and across the world. We’re sick of beingpaid very little, if at all, and then having our images stolen. If you swing us an emailasking permission, most of the time we’ll be more than happy to say yes if you just put