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BSA Use Photo without Permission in Campaign

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday March 26 2014, @05:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the couldn't-happen-to-a-nicer-bunch-of-people dept.

lhsi writes:

Torrentfreak has announced an amusing case of being hoisted by one's own petard:

The Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing Adobe, Apple and Microsoft, has been caught using a "stolen" photo in one of their anti-piracy campaigns. The group is running various Facebook ads to convince people to snitch on pirates, but this effort has backfired terribly.

After being contacted about the use of a photo of a pot of gold by Torrentfreak, the BSA didn't respond and within an hour the advert had mysteriously disappeared.

 
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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by everdred on Wednesday March 26 2014, @05:50PM

    by everdred (110) on Wednesday March 26 2014, @05:50PM (#21619) Journal

    Having worked in marketing, it's extremely easy to believe that some underpaid person at some overpaid ad agency working on this shitty ad didn't really give a shit about it, and was probably under some pressure to just get it done. If a thought was given to rights at all, everyone probably assumed that that's something that someone else was supposed to think of, and will promise that it won't happen again until it happens again.

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Dunbal on Wednesday March 26 2014, @07:49PM

    by Dunbal (3515) on Wednesday March 26 2014, @07:49PM (#21711)

    Not necessarily underpaid people either. I know a lot of marketing types who regularly lift photos from Google searches to use in corporate presentations. That is when they're not busy stealing each others' presentations. I remember my wife, a 6 figure earner, being rather shocked when I told her that she was actually breaking the law by doing this. And she's one of the more ethical ones that I know.

    • (Score: 2) by dotdotdot on Wednesday March 26 2014, @08:03PM

      by dotdotdot (858) on Wednesday March 26 2014, @08:03PM (#21720)

      Why does Google even provide image search then? What possible legal use is there?

      • (Score: 1) by youngatheart on Thursday March 27 2014, @03:15AM

        by youngatheart (42) on Thursday March 27 2014, @03:15AM (#21896)

        Just because Google is giving you a way to see things doesn't mean it's legal. Google has a lot of very expensive lawyers to defend their rights, that doesn't mean it is legal for you to do what they did.

        Google is using the images under the educational portion of fair use allowance. Are you?

        Google is creating a transformative work by creating a context independent of the original work. Is your work transformative?

        Google has a lot of lawyers to make sure they follow the law. Do you?

        If you can answer "Yes" to one or some of the questions above, then you too may be able to defend your right to use the images that google provides. The practical issue is whether you are able to defend your right to use the images.