National Photo Month on May, 2024: A national magazine printed one of my husband's photos in this months issue without permission

May, 2024 is National Photo Month 2024. National Photo Month May Is National Photo Month

A national magazine printed one of my husband’s photos in this months issue without permission

The first step is to register your copyright. there are time limits after publishing that it has to be registered in if you are ever going to qualify for statuatory damages, you are on atime line do this first ( with in 1 month after the copyright owner has learned of the infringement)

Then decide what you want out of this. Do you want him credited with the photo, are you seeking monetary awards ?Do you want a retraction of accreditation of the photo in the next magazine.?Do you wish the magazine to assist in actions( civil or crimminal ) against the person who presented it to them as thier work ? They cannot take the photo out of a magazine already distributed so thats not an option. Odd are the magazine is as much a victim as you are they probably recieved the photo from someone claiming it was thiers but still they have responsibilities, I do not use flicker but make sure when you sign up for a flickr account that you did not give any rights away. On some sites you have the ability to set up dofferent accounts some that give others the right to reproduce your work for non commercial uses ( eg not in advertising but possibly in editorial works.) Here are yahoos terms and conditions for flickr

They type of attourney you want is an Intelectual Property Attourney

So first register the copyright and then send a registered letter to the magazine return reciept advising them of the infringement and possible solutions. Stress that you want to work with them to resolve this. Do not accuse them of willful illegal actions. You should also contact flickr here is thier copyright info page

As others have said if you want to go for monetary then you probably want to go for statuatory rather than actual damages if you do go to court. Here is what the copyright law says on statuatory damages

(1) Except as provided by clause (2) of this subsection, the copyright owner may elect, at any time before final judgment is rendered, to recover, instead of actual damages and profits, an award of statutory damages for all infringements involved in the action, with respect to any one work, for which any one infringer is liable individually, or for which any two or more infringers are liable jointly and severally, in a sum of not less than $750 or more than $30,000 as the court considers just. For the purposes of this subsection, all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work.

I would not count on getting the top amount unless you could prove the magazine greatly profited from your work. The first step on statuatory damages is to regiester the image so asap he needs to register his copyright with the copyright office. The ASMP tutorial that fhotoace sent you to is excellent. I woudl follow that as closely as you can its an excellent guide. Pay particular attention to the guide section on when you should not sue

Think about long term as well as short if your husband ever sells his work to this magazine he may be better off being amicable on this in return for furture business

I am not an attourney and nothing in this answer should be deemed as legal advice but only as an opinion on the course of action I would follow

Good luck

Can anyone give me links to good wildlife photo galleries?

Can anyone give me links to good wildlife photo galleries?

National Geographic magazine has some outstanding photo galleries up each month. This month's "Visions of Earth" is pretty amazing. They have several archives that include just what you are looking for.

The National Park Service has links, and resources online that you can tap into to look at specific regions of the country to better find what you need (say Yellowstone bears, or Michigan wolves).

I'd also look at what conservation programs various universities are involved with. I know that the University of Washington has an impressive photo spread of the "L" pod of killer whales that are in Puget sound.

How I send my photo to National Geography photo selectors?

How I send my photo to National Geography photo selectors?

Here's a little story told by a professional wild life photographer who was commissioned by National Geographic to do a piece in the far east.

He said he spent 2-months in the region shooting some 3-thousand frames of 35mm film. In the end the magazine used two of his photos and they weren't the ones he liked.

Does that give you an idea about how difficult it might be to get into that magazine?

Anyone who thinks a photo from first a bridge camera and second a rank amateur is really naive about what the world of professional photography is all about.

Holidays also on this date Wednesday, May 1, 2024...