12/03/2025
๐๐ป Artists deserve to be compensated for their work. Love this refreshing story from Scott Grant of RONiN photo!
I wish all copyright and art works were given this same proper ending and solution. One can dream! ๐
I told you this was by far my most stolen image!
Here's another tale, if you have time...
This past summer I get a text from my buddy with photos illustrating how a big box store in Corner Brook has a print of this very image on their wall measuring a full 4X8 feet! I was floored as I had never had any professional dealings with this company before.
I immediately emailed the GM, and of course attached an invoice. No answer. Three weeks go by and nothing. I follow up with a second email and the only reply I get is silence for weeks. At this point I'm trying hard to not to act on emotion but after a month of nothing I decide to walk in the store one day and speak directly with the manager.
After walking in the door and expressing my 'concerns' with one of their employees a floor manager comes to speak with me. I tell my story and I can tell immediately that this guy is genuinely concerned about the situation. I ask to speak with the GM and he tells me he's out to lunch and will be back in 30 minutes. I left and returned too the store in about 31 minutes to find him.
When I go back I'm introduced to the GM who comes across as they nicest gent you'd ever want to meet. He asks me what email address I used and shows me his card. I sent my emails to the wrong email address! FFS!
He can tell immediately that I'm quite upset about the situation and assures me it will get dealt with ASAP.
I leave the store and within 30 minutes of chatting with him in person he's already made three calls to me updating me as to what I can expect to happen. He puts me in contact with the national marketing manager who calls the same day and explains how they ended up using the image. They state it was basically a 'right click and save as' on a low res image they found reposted on a site somewhere. And then had it printed large.
And that is a copyright violation in Canada, if you didn't know.
To make a long story short the national marketing manager told me to tear up my invoice, double the amount and resubmit it to them. In return they wanted a high res copy to print and hang in the store, with my name attached! I don't think they have reprinted it yet. Maybe they never will, but I don't mind too much as I did get paid fair $$$ for use of the image.
And just to finish, I know some of you will figure out which store I'm referring to, as you've probably seen the print. I'm overall very happy with how they dealt with the situation, both at the local store and nationally. They were very professional so please don't take this as a slight to them. They did make things right in the end.dntelarg
