What do you call taking a picture from a website without permission?
In legal terms, it’s known as “infringement of intellectual property”.
In everyday language? Stealing.
That’s what Singapore Press Holdings site www.omy.sg seems to have done to Red Sports. The photo was also used on the front page of the May 15th edition of Lianhe Wanbao (see screen shot below). A second photo was also ripped from the site and used for the story.
SPH is the company that publishes most of Singapore’s newspapers, like The Straits Times, The New Paper and Lianhe Zaobao. It reported $1.3 billion in topline revenue for the financial year 2008.
One of our volunteers spotted the report below on www.news.omy.sg. See the picture? Doesn’t it look exactly like the Red Sports picture, also shown below? (UPDATE ON 11 AUGUST 2009 10.56AM – We noticed that the picture has just been removed from the www.news.omy.sg website. But you can see the evidence in the screen shot below.)
As if taking the picture isn’t bad enough, they covered their tracks by cropping off the copyright watermark – “© REDSPORTS.SG” – from the bottom right of the picture. They gave information about the date of the picture, the context of the picture but – oh, my! – failed to mention where the picture came from.
What part of “© REDSPORTS.SG” did they not understand? (© is the universally accepted symbol that stands for copyright)
The photo was taken by Marvin Lowe, a Red Sports volunteer, who confirmed that Omy did not at any time seek his permission to use the photo. Neither did they ask us. We would have rejected them outright because of the intended use of the photo.
Given the circumstances of the story, we think the infringement is especially vile. A young girl died tragically. Was OMY so eager to give a face to the story that they would stoop so low as to rip off someone else’s picture?
At the bottom of the www.omy.sg website, there is a line that says: SPH Copyright ©
The double standard.
They would never do it to Reuters, to Associated Press, or to Agence France Presse (AFP) to whom they have to pay millions in fees to have the right to publish their pictures.
Those agencies are owned by foreigners who will sue them for copyright infringement. But to rip off a small site run by a Singaporean? Sure, why not.
This is not the the first time an organisation has taken Red Sports pictures without permission. We usually give infringements the benefit of the doubt but a professionally-run, billion-dollar media giant like Singapore Press Holdings?
No excuse.
The www.news.omy.sg report.
A close-up of the picture in question.
The photo that appeared on Red Sports that was taken by a Red Sports volunteer. Identical, yes? And the copyright watermark, © REDSPORTS.SG? They cropped it off. The picture was originally posted as photo 22 of a story about a netball game between Sports School and MGS. (Photo © Marvin Lowe/Red Sports)
“We wonder what used to be there…” The stolen picture has since been removed within 24 hours of this post going up. We DID NOT ask them to take it down. However, it’s still on the world wide web. This begs the question: “If you remove the picture you stole, did you steal?” Discuss in no more than 500 words. Winning essay gets lunch from the Red Sports crew.
SPH also used the photo on the front page of Lianhe Wanbao as well (bottom right, black and white picture). The picture was repeated in the inside page and a SECOND photo was also ripped off from our site. Lianhe Wanbao stated the photo was taken from Red Sports, making it seem like we agreed to it. We DID NOT agree and WOULD NOT have sold them the picture given the story.
REDpoll
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Size doesn’t matter here. You have the proof to nail them and ask for big compensation…
Below is a guide I got from IPOS top gun… Still not too late. I am sure lawyers will want to take this on.
· Civil Action
Section 119(1) of the Copyright Act provides for the rights owner to bring a civil action for an infringement of copyright. You may wish to consult a legal professional to find out more about your options in this case. IP Service Providers is a list maintained by IPOS to aid members of the public in finding a law firm that specializes in IP law. You may also wish to attend one of the IP Consult sessions, during which registered participants may be offered the opportunity to attend a one-to-one consultation session with legal professionals.
· Criminal Enforcement
There are circumstances under which copyright infringement may amount to criminal offences under the Copyright Act. For more information on the criminal action and enforcement measures employed in the case of copyright infringement, you may contact Superintendent Teo Cheow Beng of the Intellectual Property Rights Branch (IPRB) under the Criminal Investigation Department of the Singapore Police Force (SPF). He may be reached at Teo_Cheow_Beng@spf.gov.sg.
Don’t give in on this. Expose it and teach them a lesson.
william
Yes but still, what is that which you can do. It will be quite hard to go against such a large company, like what blade said and I agree with him also that there will be no point in wasting our precious minutes ranting about SPH since there is little chance that you will succeed against them. I agree that what they have done is considered wrong but can you achieve anything by complaining about it on this one blog
I think that we should perhaps clarify before posting such angry comments. Has any response been obtained from the paper as to why your picture was taken. Also these mistakes do happen.I believe that it is wrong of the paper to do such a thing but to make a generalization of all of Singaporean Media is wrong Jan so i think you should be more careful of your comments. It is not right to stake your claims of the depth of the media on but one incident.
@rafe: This is the fourth time that we have noticed that they have taken pictures from others without permission within the last one year. This is the first time it has happened to us.
I’m honestly surprised/taken aback by those who still don’t “see” what is so wrong with this (@blade, @a-passer-by etc), this shouldn’t even be a question or a debate to begin with. It reminds me of something said by a former editor with the mainstream media:
“If it is true that the newspapers of a country reflect the caliber and depth of a society’s intellect, then the mainstream media does Singaporeans much injustice.”
I will leave you to chew on that.
Les, I think it’s time to STOMP IT! haha … Can’t believe they still haven’t take down the picture from the server? …
Have you sent them an email about this?
No word of apology?
Thanks, Alex.
Now you see it:
http://redsports.sg/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/2009_netball_cdiv_mgs_spss22.jpg
Now you don’t:
http://showbiz.omy.sg/omymedia/image/News/LocalNews/200905/20090513_YJ_GIRL2_AM.jpg
From google’s cache:
http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:NzTSXW0vbgEJ:showbiz.omy.sg/News/Local%252BNews/Story/OMYStory200905131636-60985.html+“???????????????”+omy&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg
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to a-passer-by
Its because they are SPH, they always said that taking intellectual information without asking from others is an offense but they just contradicted themselves didn’t they.
The fact that they didn’t ask, and that they took away the water mark that was put there as a precaution shows they have something to hide.
Just because we are a small website, with volunteers who spend time to contribute willingly do not mean that we are going let a multi million dollar company step all over us.
Well if someone took something, that you actually worked hard to create, without permission you would feel how we feel. Get that ‘Aiya, they bigger mah so let them win luh!’, Singaporean mentality out of your head. We are not going to be push overs, just because we are small.
@a-passer-by:
It is precisely because we are a nation ourself that we should not steal from each other, and instead respect each other. From your interpretation, would it be ok for us to take stuff from SPH without asking then? I’m sure we’d have a lawsuit in our hands by then.
SPH is a multi-million dollar organisation and yet they don’t have the courtesy to ask for permission to use the picture. Yes, I’m sure the small website who provides whatever service they can to readers can become pushovers I suppose?
I don’t think SPH would be dumb enough to print our letter demanding for an apology in their own forum section. It’d just be announcing to the whole world that they took our picture without asking.
Let’s see your reaction when someone takes your things without asking. Then maybe you’ll understand where we’re coming from.
So what if they stole? I thought red sports would be more than happy to adverise their own pictures in some famous newspaper. I know they din say it was taken from redsports, but haha, come on we’re from a nation ourself. and you people still said happy birthday singapore in the home page=.= I think you should take it down man. It jus shows how petty you people are. Im so dissapointed. Could you guys write in the the newspaper and ask for an apology instead of writing such crude comments here?
@blade
I think we are smart enough to ASK our photographer first before posting this story. We may be a small website but that does not mean we are pushovers, and that we can allow big organisations to steal our stuff.
If you were clever enough to read the post properly before shooting your mouth off, you would have noticed: “The photo was taken by Marvin Lowe, a Red Sports volunteer, who confirmed that Omy did not at any time seek his permission to use the photo”
You are but a small start up with zero profits and virtually no sway on the popular market. SPH is the source of all news to singaporeans and can easily crush you. Also perhaps you should learn more about sedition and slander and the laws on them before you attempt to discredit the name of an honourable company.You have a brilliant idea and a decent future, dont ruin it by making foolish and immature follies. Stay smart or you will never go very far
@blade: Excuse me blade. You wrote: “How would you know if the same photographer sold or even gave his picture to SPH. Also perhaps he could have posted it on a personal blog.”
Our reply: We know. We asked the photographer. You should read the article more carefully.
You wrote: “What gives you the right to slander…”
Our reply: We are not making a false statement. They stole. They took down the picture after we posted this story. They also did not ask our permission for the picture. Copyright law in Singapore says anything posted on your own website belongs to you and nobody can take it without permission. Perhaps you should look up the definitions of the words “sedition” and “slander”. You don’t seem to understand them.
Excuse me people. How would you know if the same photographer sold or even gave his picture to SPH. Also perhaps he could have posted it on a personal blog. You are a starting up website that makes zero revenue, what gives you the right to slander such a huge company that could decimate your hope of ever being a reputable company. Be mature and sensible or you will never get far.
@Anti-Bullying
I don’t know man. There is a lot of type of gangters … lol … If I businessman type of gangster, I pay $1 and sell the pencil case back to you for $5 … Must buy if not I beat you up! hehe
@tonyr
Then is the concept of WMG taking out audio from YouTube videos wrong? I think what Les is talking about is exclusivity. Why would anybody come to RedSport when it is on another well establish portal where all news, be it world news or local news are there?
A compliment SPH should give to Les and his team is to seek permission and give acknowledgement. Chargeable or not is up to the rightful owner.
I know what you meant tony but there is a much proper way of acknowledging someone’s work.
@tonyr
The photographer is not honoured. In fact, the photographer wouldn’t have sold it to them for any amount of money. And neither would I, if it was my picture.
We gave them no permission and they did not ask us.
@ Zaphod and addymuliady – If the school gangster takes your pencil case, and you say, “Oh, actually I meant to sell it to you. Please pay me $1,” what do you think the gangster will do?