copyright

Beware of Facebook sharing and so called Friends

April 12th, 2015  |  Published in copyright, facebook friends, intellectual property, Social Issues

In Jeopardy_Cover  In-Jeopardy-cover22014

Minutes ago I saw an advertisement which featured an image that I have used and paid for on my Ebook novel In Jeopardy. I hope this person/organization has paid Shutterstock for the use of this image as I did. I am aware I don’t have exclusive rights to this image. However, I find this confronting given that I changed the previous cover of In Jeopardy when I found the image had been used on another book cover after mine had been published.

Imagine yourself peering into a bookshop window at the other side of the country and seeing your book cover on display with another title? In this case the proprietor (a) removed the book from the window (b) was very helpful and disclosed full details of the use of this image, which was legitimate. None the less really frustrating. My jaw dropped when I discovered that a friend on Facebook had used this image to promote one his own ventures. Even more disheartening was when I discovered that he had recently viewed my post displaying this cover.

Original cover is at the top left
New cover – recently viewed on Facebook is at the top right