copyright

Seeking Justice

If you told me that I’d be earning a living from photography when I used to shoot blurry shots, I’d have laughed out loud and told you copywriting is my thing. See, photography was just a hobby. It was one of those things I did when I had nothing to do. I loved creating ads and didn’t see myself doing anything else.

Eight years later, I’m living solely off the clicking of my camera. It’s great to earn a living from what you love, especially when you know it’s what God made you for. Add travel to breathtaking places and meeting interesting people to the list and you’ll understand why I love what I do.

Photography isn’t always rosy though. I’ve had many short nights and long working days working to deliver to keep my word to clients. There’s times when I push myself and don’t get photos that I can be proud of. Moments like these can be humbling. They remind me that I need to keep learning and shooting even when I’ve not been asked to.

The worst experiences I’ve had as a photographer have been finding my work stolen by an organisation or individual. On days like these, I feel like giving up, calling it a day, quitting photography and getting back to copywriting. But when I remember we serve a Just God, I know there is hope. Hope that one day, all the people who have plagiarised or stolen my work and that of other photographers will come to book.

People like @pdevour who’s day of reckoning came sooner than I thought.

Then there’s Spielworks. For almost a year, their Sumu La Penzi production was advertised on DStv and GOtv using my image without my knowledge. They later made changes to the trailer, but not before I’d obtained a copy for myself for reference purposes. You’ll see my photo of Nairobi used in two instances, at the 3rd and 58th seconds, both times, it’s manipulated to hide it’s identity.

The case is currently in court.

KICC, ‘Africa’s premier meeting venue’ are next in line. These guys are defiant to another level. For sometime now, they have been using one of my images of Nairobi on their website.

Screen Shot 2015-03-24 at 5.21.18 PM

In September 2013, through my lawyer, they were informed that they did not have the rights to the image and as of the time of publishing this post, have not pulled it from their website. To make it worse, they cropped out my watermark to disguise the true ownership of the image.

Nairobi-MwangiKirubi-1

We’ll settle this in court.

Theft knows no boundaries. Last year, CNBC Africa run the 2014 All Africa Business Leaders Awards, a high profile event that they even got Johnnie Walker Blue Label to sponsor. To promote the awards, they used my image of Nairobi on their website without my consent.

Screen Shot 2014-11-10 at 5.40.12 PM

The case is also in court.

Finally, and hopefully this will be the last, was the case with Easy Taxi.

ImageTheft-Comparisons

My lawyer and I got to meet with their MD in Kenya. He is a good guy and was very apologetic for their error. It turns out that some guy was contracted by the Easy Taxi HQ to come up with the ad but due diligence wasn’t done on the image used. We went into negotiations with their legal rep and since we were unable to reach an out of court settlement, we will be headed to court soon.

There’s been many cases of plagiarism but most go unnoticed and unmentioned, leaving the content creators sore and helpless. Plagiarism continues because those offended have been unable to defend themselves against those who have stolen their work, mostly companies of ‘high standing’ in society. Well, not anymore.

Plagiarism stops here.

I believe a precedence needs to be set so that photographers can earn a living from what they are passionate about. We have a very strong copyright law in Kenya that protects content creators like photographers and I seek to have it enforced to it’s full extent. Though costly, I will continue my pursuit of justice and I have full confidence that, with God as my witness, justice will be served.

——————————  UPDATE  ——————————

I’m happy to report that Easy Taxi and I arrived at an out-of-court settlement on 19th August 2015.

  1. Hardard

    March 25, 2015 at 8:19 am

    Alex sad that these high profile Companies and establishments can assume that they can get away with whatever they do……… Keep the fight cause unless you do as you say you will be back to typewriting I do not want you to go that way. They should be taught a lesson!

  2. Catherine Nyambura

    March 25, 2015 at 9:44 am

    Hi Mwarv,

    Keep shooting those amazing photos and keep fighting if anyone steals your photos. Shame on the people who believe in living off other people’s sweat. As you said, there’s a strong copyright law in Kenya but most people give up fighting. Don’t give up. You’ll encourage other people to fight and that’s the only way such cases will decrease and stop.

  3. Eddie

    March 25, 2015 at 10:23 am

    Thanks Mwarv, valuable lessons especially for an upcoming photographer like me

  4. Chris

    March 25, 2015 at 1:57 pm

    Get the free TinEye browser plugin from https://www.tineye.com/

    I did a search on your image above and it appears 38 times on the web… Please let other photographers know there are ways to monitor images… on the web at least!

    – Chris Swai

  5. Timothy

    March 25, 2015 at 3:16 pm

    Its a tough battle but lots of publicity and awareness is required about the issue of photo copyright. In some cases I must admit that innocent organizations easily fall prey of web designers who in most cases chose the content at the design stage. When the final product is presented to the client, they like it and pay for the job. We need to also selectively target all web developers and hold them accountable. But there is also alot that the Copyright board needs to do.

  6. MMK

    March 26, 2015 at 6:13 pm

    If I wanted to purchase the said image for use on a website or app, do you have any price guidelines for that?

    1. mwarv

      March 26, 2015 at 6:25 pm

      Hi, both images aren’t available for purchase, thanks.

  7. Pamellah

    April 10, 2015 at 3:19 pm

    Hi, is it possible for you to license our company to use the image on our app?

    1. mwarv

      April 12, 2015 at 8:09 pm

      Hi Pamellah. Sorry the images above aren’t available for licensing. Please visit http://www.pichaduka.com and search for Nairobi to see images available for licensing.

  8. Maureen Ngure

    May 20, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    Hi Mwarv. I was looking for images of Uhuru Gardens in google for some project am doing then saw your website link on one of the photos (the story about the new constitution) and was curious to see more photos. Reading this story is really saddening cause am imagining how long it takes to come up with such a picture. Am sorry for what you are going through but better days are coming (: Stay strong. You are an inspiration.

Comments are closed.