Is this becoming a trend? For the second time this year, an American musician has published an Australian photographer’s work without permission.
This time, American rapper Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges posted a beach landscape taken by Western Australian photographer Paul Pichugin on his Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Can you tell which photo was not taken by Ludacris?
Paul regularly runs reverse image searches on his popular images (something Pro Counter recommends!) and is no stranger to finding his work being used without permission.
But a recording artist with 2.2 million Instagram followers, 16.7 million Facebook fans and 9.5 million Twitter fans posting an image without permission or attribution approaches a whole new level of audacity.
In a blog post, Paul said he was ‘excited’ that the ‘Act a Fool’ rapper posted his image, but soon became annoyed as his requests to have a link attributing Paul’s Instagram fell on deaf ears. Whether the rapper operates his own social media handle or has a team of social media strategists is unknown.
Paul posted on the image to let the tens of thousands of ‘Likers’ know that Ludacris had not actually taken the photo and that it was his work, which the Ludacris fans predictably didn’t much care for.
‘Apparently I should be “grateful” that my photo has been posted without credit because millions of people will see it, that’s great that they get to see it, but I get nothing out of that,’ Paul wrote. ‘A credit would put my name on it and potentially get me noticed for some paid work or licensing on my other images, at the very least it would have helped me grow my own audience.’
The experts of the internet then came marching in, explaining to Paul that his image had been posted on a public website and was therefore free for everyone to post and claim credit for.
Paul also points out how bizarre it is that Ludacris has overlooked the seriousness of copyright infringement, after celebrity muckraker website TMZ reported in 2012 that the rapper took a Texan couple to court over using a similar name to his record label, ‘Disturbing Tha Peace’, claiming it infringed his copyright.
Paul filed a ‘Digital Millennium Copyright Act’ (DMCA) complaint to Facebook and Instagram, and it appears that both images have now been removed. While he didn’t receive the exposure he could have if the images were attributed, Paul is now registering the image with the US Copyright Office, and moving on with life.