It's not even really that great of a photo, and it was taken several years ago for practice when 
and I still had time for date nights and photo adventures.
But because the subject is our local downtown skyline, this early piece of my work has been yanked off of Facebook or Google by several companies looking for content for their websites to target residents in the Springfield area.
I just so happened to stumble onto the first copyright infringement by accident. I was doing a reverse Google image search for a completely different photo, and there it was, staring me in the face - my work on a number of local business's websites or websites targeting local residents. One of Winston's images from the same spot on the same date night was there, too.
Even though the images were taken in fun, they are special to the two of us. Due to building projects in the area, they can never be recreated. There are now buildings blocking a majority of the skyline.
Right away, I was flooded with strange emotions I had never felt before. It was a weird mix of flattery and gross violation. The only place on the internet I had ever uploaded this photo was my own, private Facebook page!!
Unfortunately, there is an extremely large group of people out there who don't understand what it's like to spend so much time building a skill and a consistent product to base your business off of, just to have your work taken without being paid for.
It kind of felt like I had been the victim of internet shoplifting! ("Clean up of intellectual property on aisle one, please!")
How I Fought Back to Protect My Work
Many months before, I had joined up with a company called Pixsy, who makes it their mission to seek out copyright infringements and try to collect payment from the "thiefs" by legal, professional means.
Now, keep in mind that Pixsy takes half of any proceeds they are able to get for you, but they are still an efficient way to approach this kind of situation without barely lifting a finger.
All I had to do was submit my cases to Pixsy and wait...
They kept me updated through emails, but the back-and-forth process of contacting the business or website owner did take a few months. As you can see from my case submissions above, a couple were not accepted. Pixsy told me that it was because they had taken on cases like that before, and based on the info they gathered, it was not worth the time to pursue those particular infringements.
But eventually, THIS HAPPENED:
Pixsy is free to join, and they will monitor 500 of your images online with the free membership. If you feel you need to protect more of your work, they have upgrades available for a decent price.
After this incident, I often check back with a Google image search to make sure there are no new cases I need to submit, and I currently have 4 more cases still pending.
We live in an age where it's almost impossible for artists to protect their hard work with 100% accuracy, but with companies like Pixsy scouring the internet for copyright infringements, it at least makes it a little easier! Don't be a victim!