My last comment on the diagram may seems bit flippant. But its worth asking, in the long run is it really going to effect that this person has taken my image? I don't want to be known as someone who chases after anyone who dares use one of my images even in the most innocent of situations.
As it happens, I have real world experience of this. A number of years ago I took a portrait of a good friend of mine (Bobby) as part of a series of work for college. Being very happy with the image, he posted the image to facebook and without even needing to be asked he accredited me and I was quite happy. A few weeks later, a friend of his who was a painter messaged Bobby to tell him that he had painted Bobby and was going to exhibit the painting, having not seen the painting Bobby thought nothing of it and agreed. It later came to light however that the painting was infact a direct copy of my image (even including the blue colour pop on Bobbys eyes... Dont judge me, I was young, it was cool at the time!). The painting ended up winning an award painting based on composition and "Vision". To bring a swift end to this, I'll tell you now that to this day I have taken no action. The guy didnt actually profit other than the reward, and the painting was gifted to Bobby in the end. But even now I do sense a little twang of agitation, more because of the dishonesty involved than anything else. The composition and "Vision" was not his, it was mine. He simply recreated it.
Why didn't I act? First of all I didn't have the time, I was working, trying to start a business, about to move my life halfway across the country and also finishing college. But more than that, what did I have to gain, I would take hundreds more images over the years, I would get better, improve my own skills. Interestingly now, when I consider than image on its own I cringe a bit for using colour pop, in fact that guy can keep it now if her thinks that looks good! And while he picked up that award, he knows deep down that was not his composition and not his vision, and if he can live with that then hes not worth bothering with anyway.
I realise this sound a lot of me taking the high ground, but in all honestly, its more about saying "Whatever, its an image, move on and take another". What rights do I really have to the images I take anyway? and What about Bobby in all of this, what did he think, as it happend he loved the original picture and was super happy he now had a larger version of it to put on the wall, witch really is just a big old compliment to me!
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