A Thief Strikes Again

In a recent post, we talked about plagiarism, the act of one author stealing from another (or several others) and passing the work off as her own. I hate to say it, but a different author has committed the crime of theft, only this one is more interesting than the last.

Every author knows writing a book is only step one in the process of releasing your book. So much more goes into it, including having a cover. Anyone will tell you that a cover can make or break a book. You can have the best-written book, but a bad cover can kill your sales.

So, what do you do when your book is written and you need a cover? There are several options.

I’ll tell you what you don’t do though. You don’t search the internet for a photo, find one you like and then use it for your cover. If you do, chances are high you are committing a crime. Like books, most photographs are copyrighted. To use a photo that has a registered copyright without permission of the photographer is copyright infringement.

And guess what folks? You can’t hide behind the ‘I didn’t know’ argument. If you’ve found a photo you like during an internet search, it’s your responsibility to track down the photographer and find out if it is available for licensing. If you don’t do that, and you use the photo anyway, you are engaging in copyright infringement. What is that old saying? Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Now, let’s say you don’t heed this advice and you use a stolen photo. If the photographer finds out, and contacts you and asks you to stop using his work, you’d better comply. If not, you are not only a terrible person you are also in violation of copyright laws.

I’m equal parts disgusted and saddened that photographer Michael Stokes was the subject of one such thief last week. Even more appalling is that when Stokes reached out to two authors he found to be using his work without permission one took him for a ride on the crazy train. The author accused him of being a liar and a racist, among other things, and refused to stop illegally using his photograph on her book cover. The author in question defended her actions by saying she paid $1.50 for the picture and would continue to use it.

I don’t know about you, but the fact that the picture only cost her $1.50 raised a huge, red flag for me. Michael Stokes, Golden Czermak and Wander Aguiar are among the most prolific photographers in the industry. There is no way any of them would sell their work at such low cost, and they shouldn’t be expected to. Even if the author did pay someone for the picture, the photographer has informed her that he wasn’t paid for its use. That should be enough to get her to stop using his work, but she continues to refuse.

As if that isn’t bad enough, she’s also taking shots at anyone who defends Stokes. Not only has she made disparaging remarks about Stokes, his colleagues and his fans, but she’s failed to keep in mind some of us stepping up to stand at Stokes’ side are readers. Readers who are so outraged and disgusted by her actions that we do not intend to purchase her books. This woman has cost herself a loss of future income in addition to the financial loss she’ll face if Stokes pursues legal action.

I’m not just a reader. I’m an author. Would I love to be able to license photos from industry titans like Stokes, Czermak and Aguiar? Sure, I would, but I’m not in a position to do so now. Does that mean I’m going to use their work anyway and then have the audacity to justify my theft? Absolutely not.

The bottom line here folks is that using a photograph for any reason without the photographer’s permission is stealing. No self-respecting author, or person, would ever to such a thing. I, for one, hope Stokes takes her to the cleaners.