By Ed Piper
I had what I consider a good experience February 5 regarding other people's use of my photos (ljhssportsbyedpiper.shutterfly.com). Mark Tennis is editor and publisher of calhisports.com, which covers high school sports in California. I called him after seeing a photo of mine of Tim Holdgrafer, the Viking pitching and hitting standout, on the calhisports.com website. The photo carried my name, but instead of stating the name of my website, it said "La Jolla Viking Baseball". Something not quite right about that. (My photos are only available on my website.) The date said July 2015.
I pointed out to Tennis, who was calm and willing to listen when he called back after I left a message on his cellphone, that I have no record of calhisports.com trying to reach me to receive permission to use my photo and to arrange to compensate me financially for it.
He immediately got my drift, and asked specifically what the photo was of (Tim was honored as the state Player of the Year for Medium Schools) and said he would remove the photo.
I really appreciated his response.
I asked him how it was that my photo ended up on his commercial website, which makes money from ads, when I hadn't been asked for permission for my property to be used. Tennis said he sometimes is sent a photo by an athlete or coach, or he goes online and finds photos. But he said if the photo carries a copyright, he doesn't use it.
I pointed out to him that at the top of my website it clearly states that media and other outlets other than La Jolla High students, families, and friends need to contact me for permission and payment. He really didn't know how the photo ended up on his website, but he reiterated that he would remove it.
It isn't always so.
A couple of years ago, I happened to look at the San Diego Friday Nights Live high school sports website, and there, lo and behold, were multiple photos of mine, including ones of Viking football player Brandon Bonham. I immediately found a contact number for SDFNL and dialed it up. The gentleman, at first, was uproariously happy and jovial until he heard the seriousness in my voice and what I was telling him.
He said, despite the ads on his website, that "We do it for the kids" and "We take in hardly any money." But they do take in money, which I don't do via ads or my website. "Maybe we can work together," he said to an already soured listener. Not the time to be jovial. Take responsibility, acknowledge the presence of other people's property on your website--without attribution; at least calhisports.com did that--and commit to remove it.
Whereas Tennis "got it", saying, when pressed, "I went to college. I know about media law and copyrights," this guy didn't fully get it. He told me to tell him if there were any more of my photos on his website. It's not my job to police other people's websites to keep them honest.
At the start of last season, I sent an email to then-head football coach Jason Carter to please ask his players to respect the use of my photos--that they were for their personal use, but they could not give them to media outlets. They weren't their photos to give!
But where I really got my bad attitude from--which Tennis has, thankfully, helped sweeten with his cooperative response today--was a school advisor years ago who basically blamed me for not having my photos on a secure site. I even went into this person's classroom to talk with him one-on-one. But he never apologized for his students' multiple use of my photos without my permission. Instead, in an attempt to deflect blame, he said I shouldn't have contacted his student editor on Facebook, that that was somehow wrong.
Granted, I was upset the morning before, after reading an email from the student saying, "Mr. Piper, thank you so much for the use of your photos by our yearbook staff. We have used them on several occasions." Neither she nor her advisor nor any member of her staff had ever tried to contact me to ask permission. If they would have, I would have said, Go ahead. But they never did.
The advisor apparently never told them to avoid using my photos if they hadn't asked me for permission.
After that incident, for multiple years I carried a lengthier notice at the top of my website specifying that media outlets and others needed to contact me to get expressed, written consent from me to use my photos. I later took that down and now have a simplified notice posted.
So, not to stew in my previous attitude, I am pleasantly satisfied that Mark Tennis did the right thing today.
Now, to clarify: I'm not wishing for Tim Holdgrafer not to be recognized for his justly deserved award. He was great last season. He earned every accolade he received. But--this is the point--commercial media, who sell their product, should not be using other people's property without their expressed written consent.
I had a mom, Cindy Albers, Morgan's mom, ask me about the photos. I said, "No, Cindy, you and Morgan and your family are welcome to use my photos of him playing basketball for LJHS. Just don't sell them, which you're not going to. My notice on my website, if you read it over, is intended for people outside the Viking family who are making a profit" (i.e., newspapers, sports websites, etc.).
Thank you, Viking family, for how you say thank you so often to me for the photos. I love doing it, and I enjoy the fact that you enjoy them.
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