Digital Download "Terms"

Fly The Bug

I have a customer who has been notorious for screen printing my images, pasting them into a photo editor, and then posting them to social media. Finally, yesterday, I made my watermark more pervasive and, regretfully, it wasn't received very warmly.

I added a printmark to their gallery and would like to offer them the option of downloading the entire gallery ONCE at a reasonable price. Once downloaded, I'd like that option to sort of "go away".

I have a few questions:

1. Is there a way to change the shopping cart terms of purchase that say "printing" to simply social media?

2. Is there also a way to increase the size of the printmark on the digial downloads? I am restricting this customer to .3 MP downloads only. I fear she will still be able to trim the printmark off the bottom, but if it's slightly larger, it'll at least make her bootlegging habits a little easier to break.

Thanks in advance!

AlliOOP

Fly The Bug wrote: »

I have a customer who has been notorious for screen printing my images, pasting them into a photo editor, and then posting them to social media. Finally, yesterday, I made my watermark more pervasive and, regretfully, it wasn't received very warmly.

I added a printmark to their gallery and would like to offer them the option of downloading the entire gallery ONCE at a reasonable price. Once downloaded, I'd like that option to sort of "go away".

I have a few questions:

1. Is there a way to change the shopping cart terms of purchase that say "printing" to simply social media?

2. Is there also a way to increase the size of the printmark on the digial downloads? I am restricting this customer to .3 MP downloads only. I fear she will still be able to trim the printmark off the bottom, but if it's slightly larger, it'll at least make her bootlegging habits a little easier to break.

Thanks in advance!

This doesn't really answer the question...I'm just confused...is she screen capturing them from your gallery display and then uploading them to social media? Is she actually paying something for the digital photos first? If it is the former, she needs to just GO AWAY period and stop stealing your photos and needs told as much. If it is the latter, the standard download agreement (from SmugMug's help section) states:

Photographer or videographer ("Content Provider") grants buyer a non-exclusive perpetual personal-use license to download and copy the accompanying image(s) or video(s) (collectively, "Media,") subject to the following restrictions:

• This license is for personal use only. Personal use means non-commercial use of the Media for display on personal websites and computers, or making image prints or video copies for personal use. The Media may not be used in any way whatsoever in which you charge money, collect fees, or receive any form of remuneration. The Media may not be used in advertising. The Media may not be resold, relicensed, or sub-licensed.
• Title and ownership, and all rights now and in the future, of and for the Media remain exclusively with the Content Provider.
• There are no warranties, express or implied. The Media are provided 'as is.'
• Neither Content Provider nor SmugMug will be liable for any third party claims or incidental, consequential or other damages arising out of this license or buyer's use of the Media

which IMO allows her to use them on her website when she paid for their use.

A work around would be to turn of the printmarking and instead create a watermark that fits onto the photo. Place the watermark as the printmark in the photos using photo editing software and then upload the photo as the original. Then the digital downloads will include however big of printmark you want on the photo regardless of the download sizes.

McQ

This also may not help, but the person you're describing isn't a "customer", she is a photo thief. Why is her business so important to you if all she is doing is stealing your images?
I'd just leave the watermarks nice and big on the photos and let it go at that.

If she wants to buy images, she can, for a price you think is fair.

DesptachesGallery

There's something we're looking at also - although we're nowhere near launching. SM's own licensing is just that - it's a base. YOUR licensing you can put in your own Terms and Conditions, usage rights etc. We're toying with this on our main Products Page - but yet to finalise it, obviously, as this may impact how we set our pricing (which we're working through also).

We definitely use SM's inbuilt capability to watermark all our images, so that will save screen caprtures, right clicks, and even the snipping tool.

Feel free to have a look at our watermarks - they have been vetted by both Australian an US lawyers, so, if you ask nicely, happy to give you the full wording and once we're done, our licensing wording as well remember also you can do a link outside of SM to a static page, containing say a PDF, which describes your licensing policies - you can also use a simple Journal (OLD) style like we did too.

Hope this helps! Pete