Toyota Apologizes For Using Flickr Photos In SUV Ad

Toyota U.S.A. has removed a photo feature from one of its Web sites and apologized to Flickr photographers whose images appeared on the site without their permission.

Flickr users recently noticed that a Toyota 4Runner site was running some outdoorsy photos that appeared to be copied from Flickr. A Flickr forum soon lit up with gripes about the Toyota site, including complaints from photographers who said they hadn't given permission for their pictures to been used in an ad.

Flickr user Jakerome identified over 40 Flickr images used on the 4Runner site and compiled them in three galleries.

Photographer Michael Calanan, who found one of his pictures copied (seen in the image above), has been tracking the developments on his blog. He labels his photos on Flickr as "All Rights Reserved" and says he was never contacted about the use of his images on the Toyota site.

Late Wednesday, a Toyota rep posted an apology on the Flickr forum:

"Toyota apologizes for pulling images from Flickr without photographer permission. Images from a handful of photographers appeared on a Toyota site for five days. We’re working quickly to reach out to the individual photographers involved. Until then, the images have been removed, and corrections have been made to the process of pulling images from Flickr."

The apology offered no explanation as to how this happened. Before the photo feature was removed from the 4Runner site, some Flickr users determined that the site was pulling images from the Flickr servers into a Flash interface. The 4Runner site displayed the pictures at 230 by 150 pixels and included links back to Flickr.

Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles handles advertising for Toyota, and at least one of the Flickr photographers said he's been in contact with Saatchi.

This is not the first time a company has attracted complaints after using Flickr images for advertising. In 2007, a family in Texas sued Virgin Mobile Australia over an ad campaign that used Flickr pictures. The case was dismissed after Virgin Mobile argued the suit was filed in the wrong jurisdiction.

Comments

[calanan]

Thank you for bringing our story to light. I'll update if folks are interested in hearing what happens next.

- mike

[Daniel]

That Michael Calhoon is one fine photographer.

[Demetri Mouratis]

Thanks for putting the word out. More info here:

Oh What a Feeling

[Demetri Mouratis]

Corrected link
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v

[Anthony]

Newsflash! The practice of stealing images from the web and appropriating them into advertising, etc. is RAMPANT. It's only that few are caught. It happens all day, everyday and will continue until something is done - not payment or apologies, but BIG fines. Until things like this happen, it's only going to continue. Or, we could get guerilla on them.

[calanan]

An interesting side note, the fellow who tipped me off to my photo being used (Flickr user jakerome) just found a press release touting Toyota's new "Beyond Cars" user-submitted minisite campaign. Checking the site's Terms of Service one finds that the legalese appears to give Toyota a rights grab.

See my latest blog entry for more details http://is.gd/4OkUP

[smithered]

apology fine but article doesn't say how much toyota paid the photographers for using their work.

double seems fair.

[Photo-John]

Thanks for the article. The more press this gets the better. Even if it was a mistake, this is an important issue for photographers and the more attention we can give it the better. It took a while, but I have had some contact with someone representing Toyota. They haven't made any kind of compensation offer yet, though.

[Bec Thomas]

I also hope that the photographers receive compensation from Toyota for the use of their images. The photographers should invoice them.

[Joseph]

Saatchi & Saatchi LA:
"We're about respecting people’s time, space and their frame of mind."

Doesn't look like they're following thier spiel.

Joe

[Frank Broughton]

Toyota, you can use my pictures next time for $25 each one time fee. I would be honored.

[pam]

Bottom line at flickr is if you upload un-watermarked images you are asking for your work to be lifted and reused. If you tag your images as all rights protected then you must watermark them.

There are members who have spammed and actively attacked the people who watermark their images on Flick. There are warnings all over the site, including the names of the people who have done this. It is very sad but true - for people who are really looking to sell their work Flickr is a waste of time.

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Sorry doesn't feed the bull dog as they say. A big agency such as Saatchi and Saatchi should have known better. Were they hoping to use Mr. Calanan's photos on the sly?

[André Spinola e Castro]

Here in Brazil, HSBC tried to pull a similar one. The marketing people there created a "cultural contest" where the winners would have their pictures used in their ads. A page was created for people to post their photos and wait for the result. The dirty detail could be found in small print somewhere in the rules of the so called contest: no payment for the use of the photos. The prize itself was the authorized use of the pictures in HSBC ads. One Flickr member alerted the others here about this small-in-fine-print detail and a page was created to denounce and, of course, a lot of photographers immediately joined. It took the marketing people at HSBC a couple of days to notice and to publicly declare that they were willing to study a compensation for the use of the pictures. We are still waiting for the result of this study. : )

[calanan]

A word of note, in regards to the comment by André Spinola e Castro"

Toyota also recently announced a campaign called "Beyond Cars" http://www.toyotabeyondcars.com that allows users to submit stories, ideas and media to a community web site. Reading the Terms of Service one finds what appears to be some very rights-grabby legalese.

See my blog entry for more details:

http://is.gd/4PN5P

- mike

[Lenn Long]

Five days or five years, it doesn't matter. You can't break into my house, take my stuff, and give it back to me later and say sorry I didn't mean to steal it. And "We didn't realize" isnt going to hold up in court either.

If Toyota wants to spin this positive, they had better drop a few emails to these photographers and spend some cash licensing these images and paying VERY WELL for that use. Otherwise I think a federal judge will make sure the photographers are VERY VERY WELL compensated.

[LaLaLaLaLaaaa]

What about Getty's relationship with FlickR? How does that work?

[millzero]

I really don't know much about this but i guess the Advertising company has done a bad thing.

I got a mail apologizing me about what they have done.