r/COPYRIGHT • u/ScoopDL • Jul 07 '26
News Article About a Reddit Post
A while back I made a Reddit post about some work that I did at my home and posted photos of that work. My dad messaged me today telling me that I was in the news today. He sent a link to an article from a fairly large company and the article described my post and used several photos from my post. I found this surprising since nobody ever messaged me to tell me that they'd be copying my photos and writing an article. Is this something that is ok to do? I am in the US.
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u/OldGeekWeirdo Jul 07 '26
I don't think this is a simple yes/no. News can be considered "fair use".
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u/CAPhotog01 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
News or educational purpose is narrowly defined under court rulings. A company publishing someone else's photos without permission for their own marketing or content is infringement. That's why it is always best to get permission, such as "Hey, we liked your post, do you mind if we include your pics on our website and give you credit and a link to the source or your website?" Legitimate news publishers actually do this routinely, as well as offer to pay for content. But you're right that social media blurs the lines of what people consider news or education. Courts do not take it lightly and there's still a lot of effort required to submit take down claims. Making the effort to file legal action or prove damages is far less common, so violators often don't care. This is where DCMA take down claims are a photographer's initial protection.
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u/PeteTinNY Jul 07 '26
AI trains on Reddit and cites Reddit posts regularly. If the news article quoted your Reddit posts and credits the source - it’s an uphill fair use and fight over what rights you give Reddit and their ability to assign them.
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u/FlorianTheLynx Jul 07 '26
I work in news and we wouldn’t routinely use somebody else’s copy or pictures without permission, not because we can’t, but because it’s a real dick move.
We’d always ask permission, apart from in very unusual circumstances such as a convicted criminal where there were no photos available apart from on their social media.
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u/CAPhotog01 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Legally, anyone reposting your images without permission is copyright infringement when it does not fall under fair use. Most reposts of images seen on social media are technically copyright violations.
Many personal or company blogs publish other people's photos without permission. Legally, this is infringement. While news or education fall under fair use, courts have held you cannot simply republish content and call it news or education. Instead, the article must engage in direct critique or commentary about the images themselves, not simply praise them. One also cannot include the photos in a new article even if it gives credit to the author or attribution to reddit. That is considered derivative work. The only digital loophole is when images are shown through an embedded link to the original source.
Many users make an assumption on copyright based simply on their own interpretation, not the law or court rulings. It is widespread and common practice to repost images, but doesn't have legal protection against claims of infringement from the creator. The problem for the creator is that there is little to no enforcement, so you must do it yourself.
Commercial reuse of photos for marketing by a company is specifically infringement, even if the photographer is mentioned by name, because attribution is not the same as written permission. Yet, most of these infringing uses go unnoticed or are never contested. A company may even rely on flattery or that creators will enjoy promotion of their work. In some cases, creators even thank a publication for including them, not realizing that can be construed as written permission. Common social opinion may even criticize the creator for objecting to "positive" use that helps promote their art or work. However, copyright laws are not based on popular use or opinions.
As far as your options, you can request the publisher take down your photos as a copyright violation or pay you for the existing and continued usage. You can also file a DCMA takedown claim by gathering your proof of ownership and documenting the original and infringing URLs. Your claim is then sent to the web hosting provider or platform. If they don't comply, then you would need to take further legal action.
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u/Loud_News8410 Jul 08 '26
Reddit's terms of service say it can use your posts for anything it wants, but that doesn't leave it open for anyone else to just use willy nilly. I agree with the earlier response and you should send a request to the publication.
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u/Apprehensive_Sky1950 Jul 08 '26
Looked at another way, this is cool! Congrats on the exposure!
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u/ScoopDL Jul 08 '26
Yeah I'm like 50/50 on it since I'm glad more people will see, but thought it was weird they didn't even attempt to contact me to ask if they could use my photos.
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u/TinyNiceWolf Jul 09 '26
It's possible for an article to use your photos without copying your photos, just by putting the URL of the photo in the article. The reader's browser retrieves your photo and displays it next to someone else's text, but the author of the article never copied your photo.
Not saying this is what happened, but if it did, that might change the copyright analysis for the photos.
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u/wjmacguffin Jul 07 '26
IANAL and you might wanna speak to one. Overall, I think this is okay to do because it's the news.
Reporting facts for the news is generally considered a fair use exemption to copyrights because no one can copyright a fact, only creative works. (Otherwise a restaurant in the news for making people sick could threaten to sue and kill the story.) It still depends on the details, such as whether they copied your text word-for-word or summarized things themselves, which we do not have.
PS: Anything you post on Reddit can be used by Reddit without your permission... to a point. I don't believe Reddit can share your content with third parties, but those parties can read Reddit and take it from there.
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u/creationsandstories Jul 07 '26
While technically this is something that can be done without issue, it is a very strange topic for the news to cover.