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A Disturbing Pattern
When The Chadds Ford Post violated our copyright by publishing a photo taken from TheBrandywine.com without permission, proper credit or compensation - it's was annoying. Then the Journal Register Company Suburban Philadelphia Newspapers, the company that owns The Chadds Ford Post and 11 others in the greater Philadelphia/Brandywine Valley area did it again.
I thought it would be best to write to Bob Jelenic, the publisher of the Journal Register Company Suburban Philadelphia Newspapers, and let him know what is going on at his newspapers. Below is a copy of the letter emailed to him on June 03, 2002, at 12:54 PM.
Dear Mr. Bob Jelenic,
I am writing to make you aware of two copyright violations by your
newspapers, namely "The Chadds Ford Post" and the "Delaware County
Times".
In the Chadds Ford Post, March 14-20, 2002, page A6 (OPINIONS) a four
column wide photo of "Banjo, the fence sitting horse" appeared above the
fold. That photo was That photo was taken from my Web site, TheBrandywine.com, and reprinted without permission. In the paper, the credit line says, "Courtesy photo". After seeing the photo, I called and talked with Chris Barber, Chief Editor.
She said that she had gotten permission from my wife to run the photo. I
told her she was mistaken. As it turned out, someone had called Banjo's
owners and mistakenly thought it was their photo. I thought it was only
a misunderstanding and asked that she run the photo again with a credit
to Seth Fox/ TheBrandywine.com. She said she would, however, I have not
seen it.
The photos taken from TheBrandywine.com Web site. |
The second occurance was in the Spring 2002 issue of "Discover the
Delaware Valley". On page 13, the story "What's Old is new again" uses one of my photos of the 2001 Battle of Brandywine Reenactment event at the top of the page. The photo is credited to S. Fox/Brandywine along with another which I used with permission of the Chadds Ford Historical Society. Both are used to illustrate a story about the Brandywine Conference and Visitors Bureau (BCVB). Again, I was not asked for permission to use the photo or compensated in any way for its use. The credit is wrong and is especially annoying since a reader might think that I am a photographer working for the BCVB. Proper credit should have been given to TheBrandywine.com so readers interested in more information could have gone to that Web address and visit the best portal to the Brandywine Valley on the Web. This "mistake" would have had to been made purposely since whoever found the photo on the Web would have to have known the URL of the Web site where they found it.
As a publisher I'm sure you can understand my concern over the
non-compensated use of my intellectual property in clear violations of
my copyright. Photos on TheBrandywine.com are credited to the
photographer and carry a copyright notice along with my phone number at
the bottom of each page. Getting permission would not have taken more
than a few minutes at best.
I would like to see your papers provide TheBrandywine.com with exposure
equal to that of the story in the "Discover the Delaware Valley" which
used my photo without permission and a credit to Brandywine.
Your sincerely,
Seth Fox
Unica Multimedia
Publisher of TheBrandywine.com
610.388.6841
As of yet, I haven't received a reply from Mr. Jelenic, not that I expected one. What can he say? "I regret our paper's disregard for the law and our unwillingness to do anything about it."
This is one of those injustices that goes unpunished due to the cost of legal representation and the ability of the offender to outspend the offendee. That's one of the reasons I decided to publish my letter here for everyone's benefit. I have always thought it wise to inform people about those in power who thinks they are above the law, especially when they have control over the print media and can influence our access to information.
Seth Fox
Publisher, TheBrandywine.com
Copyright ©1997, 2001 Unica Multimedia 610.388.6841
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