You can sue if they are used by a company but not for some little host that uses it on his listing. All they would get is a “remove it or else” letter.
Not in the US. Putting it on a commercial webpage - which is what the Airbnb site is - is ‘publishing’ and therefore the copyright holder is entitled to compensation.
1 Like
Yeah but it’s still stealing, innit? You didn’t like it when someone took your online text and you dealt with it. The fact that it resulted with “end of story” is not heartening. Not everyone has a solicitor in the family that will write a letter free of charge. Personally I have a problem with such an attitude, anyway. It starts with stealing a couple of photos and, before you know it, you’re laundering money in the Caymans. “Oh it wasn’t really my money and it was only a couple hundred thousand, what’s the big deal?”
Just kidding, of course. But worth a thought.
5 Likes
Yes, Helsi has a healthy regard for impartiality. It’s really pointless to aim for adoration on this forum. You won’t get it.
2 Likes
I suppose, but what I’m saying is that I don’t want that story told. If someone chooses a different listing because it had a photo of a slow cooker or juicer (neither of which I have but if I did I wouldn’t photograph) then that’s fine with me. I’m doing just fine with folks that mainly just want a microwave and a refrigerator. I have enough items, including condiments,spices, a blender, full cookware, etc. to do some cooking, but I’d rather not target those folks. Just my personal preference.
4 Likes
@jaquo I completely agree about the photos of local attractions in the listing. Those belong in the guidebook. Unless I can see it when looking out the window of the listing, then all those photos do are irritate/confuse me/waste my time.
5 Likes
Robin Hood was from Yorkshire 
1 Like
I hate to disagree with you and @jaquo …but:
I have the first 10 or so photos of my house and what we offer (cat!) and don’t (spa treatments!) but since I included pictures of local graffiti (and one protest) in my neighborhood, i stopped getting negative marks on location.
Maybe the two aren’t linked by anything but coincidence, but I think they gently engage and educate while winnowing out casual racists.
So… definitely no one size fits all system. 
5 Likes
Wow @Poppy what a rude response.
Yes I brought it up because I deal with copyright regularly as part of my day job so have a good understanding of the law. And how it works in practical terms.
You don’t need a lawyer to file a copyright claim here in the UK it is an easy process to do yourself. And the major photo agencies have full time lawyers who chase for copyright infringements.
Agencies and freelance photographers are familiar with the process and use software which automatically tells them where their photo’s are being used illegally.
If they have a case of course lawyers will pursue those who break copyright law whether they are an individual business such as an Airbnb owner or a multi-national.
The very worst that would happen is not being sent a cease and desist letter - but ending up in court owing many thousands.
Just because you chose not to chase for copyright infringement doesn’t mean that others can’t and won’t.
I am not ‘looking for problems that don’t exist’. Look on the internet there is lots of information about sole traders that have been taken to court for breaking copyright legislation.
When I ran an agency and people used our imagery, we did this three times and successfully won compensation. One from a sole trader and two from small businesses.
I don’t often comment on your posts @Poppy and only disagree if I think you aren’t right. This is a forum and we can disagree with each other. In this case I worry your advice could end up costing a host financially.
If you actually looked at my replies to you I have also provided you with helpful advice on quite a few occasions, which you have acknowledged yourself.
7 Likes
I have seen your listing @Alia_Gee and love your photography including of your location. It really helps give people an understanding of your location, which I agree helps manage expectations.
4 Likes
I agree with you, Helsi. I don’t want to sound pompous (I’m not, I promise!) but we all have to realise that when we post here the information is read by many people. We all disagree about certain aspects of hosting and quite rightly - there often is no right or wrong - but we should be aware that we can’t lead people up the garden path when it comes to matters of legality.
I was in a similar situation to you, career-wise, and I’d be a wealthy woman if I had a pound (or even a dollar) for every time a client said ‘oh yes, you can use this photograph on my website/brochure/whatever because I got it from Google images’. There are still people out there who think that because something is on the internet it’s free to use - amazingly. We had to insist that every supplied image had a signed document along with it declaring that the client had full copyright.
@Alia_Gee - I agree with you about showing the realities - what I object to is seeing lots of photographs (mostly stolen from the internet) showing the sights that are on every tourist website of the area
5 Likes
I second that! Also, your text is really great. It’s funny without being smart-arse and gives a clear expectation of what to expect. I remember you had a horrible time with a guest who made accusations of money going missing - every host’s nightmare - and you considered giving up. Glad to hear you’re still going
3 Likes
I’ll third it! Excellent listing and I agree about the text, you really set the scene for any potential guest and the images really work also.
@jaquo and @Helsi - yes, it’s surprising how ignorant many folks are in respect of copyright law, irrespective of where they reside. In my previous (working) life I spent many hours dealing with folks who’d stolen (yes, that is the correct term) images or text from web sites.
My main client for many years was a rather aggressive law firm in Istanbul who often had folks stealing long boring legal articles which they then passed off as their own. That was always easy to resolve.
I also used to advise smaller firms and the owner of one of these had a unique solution for folks who not only stole the image, but his bandwidth also, when they hot linked to the image (means they simply had a link on their web site to the image on his).
Every time we found this happening (which was easy when you check server logs) he then changed the image title on his site and substituted either a pornographic or scatalogical image for the one that had been hot linked to. A very prominent firm of estate agents had the header image of a large turd on their Other Services page for nearly six months It din’t stop folks stealing images, but it gave us a lot of laughs over the years!
JF
7 Likes
That’s hilarious @JohnF I have heard of IT and digital companies using these sort of tactics to good affect when someone steals their content.
I’ve got to be honest, it was the clients idea and I subsequently pinched it for any hot linked PDF’s. Anyone opening the link to Opinions on the latest move by the Turkish Central Bank to increase taxes on luxury goods would have been in for a surprise 
J M Barry and Lewis Carroll were my favorite substitute content authors as anything crude would have backfired significantly.
There are lots of remedies for digital content thieves, those are fairly light hearted. In the past we had web sites taken down by ISP’s and if we take the example suggested above, then we would have requested that Airbnb remove the listing if the image in question wasn’t removed immediately. Not good for business.
JF
2 Likes
Interesting blog here from a copywriting agency (who should definitely know better) who downloaded and used an image from the web on one of their client’s sites and ending up pay $4000 dollars in compensation for an image that would have cost them $10 to buy the licence to use.
A refreshingly honest admission of them messing up.
3 Likes
Hehe!
Most of our clients used to host their websites with us (we were resellers) and if they were late paying their annual hosting, as a last resort I would let them know (not in writing of course) that it would be very simple for me to direct their domain to the nastiest porn site I could find. I never had to
2 Likes
It’s THEFT. Although I’m no longer a full time professional photographer, I do make money from my photos, and I WILL sue someone using my pictures online if they don’t take them down as soon as I send them a copyright violation notice. If an AirBnB host were to use one of my local scenic photos, I would immediately inform AirBnB that it’s a copyright violation and ask that it be removed. And they would, rightly so, since they don’t want to be sued. US copyright law provides for some rather draconian penalties.
5 Likes
Just me, but I think that opening sentence is too long. And I like the way she starts off with “Enjoy you morning coffee…” That creates immediate atmosphere. I might word it this way “Beckon Yard is a stylish and well-equipped 2 level apartment featuring a sunny courtyard. Only 10 minutes (by train, walking, car, subway?) from the city centre, the property is next door to our home.”
1 Like