Orihuela Town Council uses my photographs in propaganda video without permission!

On the 13th April 2011 the Orihuela Town Council via Viva TV published a propaganda video for the governing Partido Popular party entitled ´Orihuela Town Hall Environment´ on to YouTube. Not a surprising move at this time with the local elections due soon on the 22nd May 2011. Perhaps it is actually just a coincidence!

Imagine my complete surprise when I viewed the video to find that it included three photographs that I had taken and therefore have the copyright over them. They have been used in the context of the Town Hall assisting residents in cleaning up their local environment and appear between 11:30 and 11:50 minutes of the run time of the video.

I object to this use of my photographs in this way for two reasons; firstly that the use of them is without my permission and therefore infringes upon my copyright; secondly that they are of the ´Clean up the Costa´campaign which was coordinated by the Los Verdes (Green) Opposition party, not an initiative by the PP governing party within the Town Hall as stated in the video. As an aside point the campaign was run as a result of an idea I put to the Los Verdes party.

I sent the following email to Viva TV:

I have just watched your video by Simon Baldock for the Orihuela Town Hall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJzaHLr5Hk in which you have used three photographs as attached here which I believe I have the copyright of as the photographer. I’m sure you will correct me if I am wrong, but I would have thought you should have asked my permission, or given an acknowledgement to myself as the originator. They were taken as part of the Los Verdes ‘Clean up the Costa’ campaign, not as part of an initiative by the Town Hall, so your inclusion of them in the video I believe is misleading.
I would appreciate your comments on this. I have added a comment to your video.

And received the following reply from Richard Hayward of Viva TV:

Hi Elliot,
The photographs were supplied to me with the understanding that permissions had been given. If the photographs are, as you say, it is indeed misleading and I will take action on this as soon as possible. Thank you for pointing this out to me.
Kind regards

In order to assist to clarify my claim about the photographs I replied:

Thank you for your reply.
Perhaps the following information will help to clarify my ownership.
The photographs were taken between 11:11 and 11:31 am on the 12th November 2008 on my Kodak Easyshare M763 digital camera and the location was the underpass on the N332 at Cabo Roig. I can supply details of 32 photographs taken that morning. You could cheek with the Los Verdes Councillors in Orihuela about the 'Clean up the Costa' campaign, as I no longer have any connection with the party.




As at the time of posting this article I am still awaiting to see some action from Viva TV the producers of the video, as it is still published on YouTube in its original format and length of 14:41 minutes. I would have thought that it would have been easily possible to have removed it from public view on the website as a temporary measure until a solution to this matter is resolved.

The solution that I require, and will continue to strive for, to satisfy my first objection is that none of my photographs are used within this video. I do not want to be associated in any way with this Partido Popular electioneering propaganda tale of fiction.

In the case of my second objection I will leave it up to the Los Verdes party to challenge the misrepresentaion of their ´Clean up the Costa´ campaign as they see fit.

Edit 25.04.11:
I have today sent the following email to Viva TV:
Further to my previous reply I would like to direct you to an article entitled ´More success for Los Verdes Grand Clean up Campaign´. which appeared in the Round Town News on the 21st November 2008. This I believe further supports my points raised about the use of my photographs and the context they were used in. The photograph used in the article, and others, were supplied by me to the paper for use in this article only.
I request that as the production company you delete any use of my photographs in the video as I have not given permission for their use.
I am very interested to hear what the response is from the the Mayor´s press officer in Orihuela Costa when you discuss this matter with her. 

It is interesting to note that the writer of the article in the Round Town News, from a Los Verdes press release, and the current Mayor´s press officer is one and the same person.

Edit 26.04.11 :
Today I received the following email from Viva TV.

Hi Elliot
I now have no doubt that the photographs are indeed yours, I apologise for their misuse and any embarrassment that this may have caused you and I am taking immediate action to replace them in the programme.
Kind regards
Richard Haywood

Now that´s what I call a success, thank you Viva TV. But the point remains that the Town Council´s representative supplied the company with material that they had no right to use to mislead the public!

I've been 'Plagiarized' and I didn't feel a thing!

On the 1st December 2010 I published my article entitled Expatriate Residents Apathy to Voting : No Vote, No Right to Complain! and as I do often circulated a link to it to a few readers including some local newspaper editors and reporters

One of the local English papers (Not the Euro Weekly whose Editor kindly left a comment on the article) has published on the internet and in the printed publication an article about residents registering to vote in the forthcoming local elections. As I'm reading the article published over 10 days after mine I am thinking to myself several passages seem very familiar to me. Then two particular expressions stood out, 'no vote, no right to complain' and ' complain vociferously' so I decided to investigate this further.

What I've found is that several passages from my article have been sprinkled around the paper's article. None of them attributed as quotes from myself or reference made to my weblog as the original source.

These are the passages I found copied. Well I say copied as it could be pure coincidence that the writer came up with the same wording as me couldn't it?

My Blog Article: No Vote, No Right to Complain!
Local Paper's Article: No vote, no right to complain

Blog: Expatriate Residents Apathy to Voting
Paper: expatriate apathy to voting.

Blog: In the elections in May 2007 there were only 3500 Orihuela Costa residents registered to vote out of a population in the region of 27000; that was just less than 13%. It is a fact that since 2007 many expatriates have returned to their home countries so the meagre 3500 will have without doubt reduced in number.
Paper: in the elections in May 2007 there were only 3500 Orihuela Costa residents registered to vote out of a population in the region of 27000; that was just less than 13 percent. It is a fact that since 2007 many expatriates have returned to their home countries so the meagre 3500 will have without doubt reduced in number.

Blog: very ready to complain vociferously about the failings .... to do something about it and put their vote where their voice is!
Paper: very ready to complain vociferously about the failings ..... to do something about it and put their vote where their voice is.

Blog: If you don't vote, and don't get what you want, don't complain afterwards
Paper: if you don't vote, and then don't get what you want, then you can’t complain afterwards.

So, I think that I've been plagiarized, and I didn't feel a thing! Well my work really, not me physically.

What I cannot get right in my mind is whether I should be indignant or proud, or both. It's a compliment to be copied isn't it? Isn't it polite to ask before copying someone else's work? Isn't it the norm to give a link or reference to the source of material? Shouldn't those passages have been shown as quotes by me? Does it really matter?

I'm falling on the side of pride at this time, taking it as a compliment, but if it happens again perhaps I might become indignant.

If anyone reading this is a writer what do you think? Is plagiarism acceptable or are there boundaries?