Happy New Year to you all. Been a while.
What should i do about an ex-employee who has set up his own business and used a selection of photos of my projects on his website.
All the images he has used are of areas that he was involved with.
However he never asked my permission and also one of the jobs was for a designer i do work for and she has requested that i credit any images i use where she has designed the work. He obviously has not done because he is not aware of her requirement. That alone puts me in a tricky position.
Its put my nose out of joint as the images are of areas of complete projects that i designed and managed. He has used them to pad out his website as he does not have enough of his own work yet. His headline images on his website are of the garden designer project. Its a level of project i have put 20 years of self employment to achieve and he feels he can just splash it around his website without earning his stripes so to speak.
I plan to have a friendly chat with him but i feel quite strongly about this so wondered what other courses of action i can take if it came to it.
Views: 643
Replies
I would have a friendly chat first and see how it goes. If it carries on then you will need to b a bit tougher. Saying that, as the law stands you can't legally challenge him unless you took the photos.
There have been prosecutions by Trading Standards when people have just taken random photos of others work and used them for advertising when they have had nothing whatsoever to do with the work.
I’m not sure how the law applies if they did actually work on the jobs, but I’m sure they must be breaking some laws.
It’s not cricket is it. It is certainly underhand to just use the pictures without your permission. It is a false and misleading claim as it gives the impression that it is his work alone.
If when you talk to him he gets upset at being challenged, it might be counterproductive and he will just continue to use the pictures anyway.
So what I would suggest is this. If he looks like he won’t remove them, why not suggest that he can use the pictures if he states clearly that yes, he was involved in the project, but whilst employed by you and that this was your project. He could name both you and the designer. This would have to be very clear though with perhaps your companies name on the actual images. He can still say that he works to that high standard but without taking all the credit.
He could perhaps say he was a subcontractor.
I know it would be better if he removed them altogether, but if he won’t then this would at least be better than the current situation.
Omg, Cheeky little mother 🤬!
My question is can he actually produce the work to your standard? Because if he can't he's gonna make a right prick of himself!
Whilst it's annoying to you, it could easily be misleading advertising.
Yes indeed and ultimately will come at a cost of a failed business.
Business is all about integrity Ed , hence your post I dont feel you will be doing the guy any favours by not pointing him in the right direction .
Obviously its better for both parties to try and stay on good terms as it could work out to mutual benefit further down the line .
Unless he's actually in your area competing against you for work, is it really worth getting worked up about? As you say, he was working on those projects so it doesn't seem too unreasonable to use the photos.though perhaps he could add something that credits the design to yourself?
I was going to say the same, is he competition in your area?
Re the designer, all you can do is explain the situation and apologise, as long as you are keeping your word with them.
Whoever took the photos or employed someone to take photos on their behalf as part of their employement holds the copyright regardless of what they're used for - if he took them on his volition they're his to use - if not you have a copyright issue to pursue if you're inclined - misrepresentation of the work shown in the picture which is deliberately misleading for a potential customer and can be proved to be false may be of interest to Trading Standards
Steve