Sir Stirling Moss, The Blonde and The Mystery of The Stolen Image

So today, this is a personal post. I’m feeling cross and also depressed. I’m generally a pretty upbeat kind of person, not given very often to the ‘glass half empty’ attitude. Whether I’m working on location or just going about my day to day stuff, I think that life’s too short. I’m a glass half full kinda guy.

EDIT – after reading this, take a look here at how the Jalopnik guys stepped up to the plate and sorted this mess and how they were also victims in all this

So this week, someone gave me the heads-up on a new way of tracking unauthorised images. With time to spare, I used it. And was dismayed. For sure, I know that my work appears all over the internet. Enthusiasts of cars and photography often cut and paste into forum discussions and comment on the subjects. Personal blogs sometimes feature my work, nearly always with a link back to me and a credit line. These people have no axe to grind, no budget for photography, their websites are personal ones, not commercially minded and I don’t object. But when an image that I shot that has proved to be a regular seller is taken and uploaded to Flickr as someone else’s creation, you can imagine I’m pretty upset. When that image is then taken out of context and used across commercial websites for their own financial benefit, you might imagine why I’m writing this. Because that’s what happened.

I found a cropped version of one of my images on Flickr. It had been uploaded by someone else onto their account. It appeared in his photo stream, in direct contravention of Flickr’s guidelines:

Do upload content that you’ve created.
Respect the copyright of others. This means don’t steal photos or videos that other people have shared and pass them off as your own. (That’s what favorites are for.)

It gets worse. This person now has his photo credit beside my image. Lots of people are commenting what a great shot it is. It’s just a shame he wasn’t the photographer. Right alongside it, there’s a ‘request a licence via Getty’ button. It also has a copyright notice “All Rights Reserved”

So now, I’m angry. Further searching of the same shot reveals that the cropped version of the image from that Flickr account is everywhere. Many are non-commercial, personal websites. But Jalopnik, a large commercial car website, used it, despite the image having ‘All Rights Reserved” alongside it.

Jalopnik credited the Flickr account holder as the creator, but or course decided for themselves that a fee wasn’t needed. Jalopnik and it’s parent, Gawker, have ignored my contacts. Of course, their own terms and conditions contain the following warning and a different set of standards for their own content. It seems that it’s different when the roles are reversed:

EDIT – Jalopnik, in fact contacted Galanos for permission. Of course, he gave it….

Requests to use copyrighted and trademarked content may be sent via email to the Permissions Department at permissions [at] gawker.com and may be subject to a fee.
In your email, please provide the following information:
– Your Company
– Your Name
– Phone Number
– Fax Number
– Description of the Requested Content
– Description of Intended Use

The chances of me ever seeing any redress of any kind on this is very remote. I have neither the time, funds or inclination to pursue any of this. The image is now gone from Flickr within moments of my contact with the account holder. Flickr don’t seem interested in taking it further, even though it seems pretty clear that many of the images he has uploaded are probably not his. As for Jalopnik. Time to move on, I’m a glass half full kinda guy, don’t forget.

EDIT – Jalopnik have been straight down the line on this, in no way could they be at fault.

So to put the record straight. I am the person that took the image of Stirling and the lovely blonde model that day. And here’s the where, how and when it was done. And why it proved to be so popular.

Taken at Donnington Park race circuit in the UK, it was part of a press day for a motorsport event that ended up being stillborn. There are various similar images shot by various people that day, but here’s what really happened and how the image came to be.
I’d been invited by historic racer Andy Middlehurst and we’d had an excellent lunch sharing a table with ex-Lotus F1 mechanic Bob Dance. Sir Stirling was driving exhibition laps in Nick Mason’s Maserati 250F. We had an open pitlane and various photo opportunities with Sir Stirling, Jochen Mass, then Minardi F1 team owner Paul Stoddart and other people, all available. The blazing red 250F peels off into the pit lane and Stirling cuts the motor, rolling to a halt. An assistant dashes over with a brolly for the hot sun, but Stirling waves her away, ‘Why on earth wouldn’t I want to be in the sun?” A photographer with assistants was shooting tethered into a laptop, creating marketing material for the event’s launch. They finished and the blonde model hung around, still posing. Stirling’s telling her to be careful of the hot exhausts so she moves around to the other side. Most people have taken shots and moved off, but the model is laughing more, we’re all laughing too and she suddenly starts putting her arm around him and then the moment when she kissed the top of his head. Stirling removed his helmet and she did the same thing, Stirling with a surprised look on his face.

The reason why this images has proved to be popular, apart from the obvious successful ingredients of a pretty blonde and a famous driver, is that everyone else got the standard shot. I wasn’t the only person with a camera to his eye at that instant, but I haven’t seen any other example of the same pose.

I’ve only ever met Sir Stirling on three occasions, each time he’s been the consummate professional, always finding the time for everyone in the room in an uncanny way. The lovely blonde model I just met the once, sadly. She hung around to chat afterwards and was as professional as Stirling, but with considerably better attire.

So the next time you see this shot on a forum or a website somewhere, this is the page to link to when someone asks what seems to be the inevitable question these days, ‘Was that Photoshopped?”

EDIT – after reading this, take a look here at how the Jalopnik guys stepped up to the plate and sorted this mess and how they were also victims in all this