Bad Nikon. Stealing is wrong

Did Nikon steal an image from a photographer? Read this story to find out more.

I have not had a chance to verify this story but I found the information off the PMA website so I somewhat trust its validity. But according to the below article it seems that Nikon stole an image of some guys website to use in a internet advertisement. It turns out the owner found out and even reported that the image was captured using a Canon digital camera. Now it seems that the ad agency pulled the image as a reference photo and published it by mistake. You would think these types of things are checked out before ads are published. Isn't that why you over pay an ad agency? The phase "Your Fired" comes to mind.

If someone has a link to the image we would love to see it.

PMA story

Photo used for Nikon camera ad raises property rights concerns

A stolen photo had been used for one of Nikon's new digital camera Internet advertisements without the photographer's consent, raising concerns over an infringement of intellectual property rights, The Korea Times reports. "One of my photos on my personal homepage was used on an Internet advertisement for Nikon's new product D50's," Lee Tae-young, a firefighter, told Korea'sYonhap News Agency. "Even worse, the camera image shown on the ad was not a Nikon product, but a Canon 300D."

In the ad, however, no Canon logo was seen because it has been changed into a Nikon logo, Lee said. The controversial ad shows a boy holding a Nikon digital camera with his hands while his father supports the boy's arms. The Internet commercial, which has been aired since June 29 in time with the product's launching, has been popular because of its phrase that says, "Being a good father becomes easier. As my father records me with a Nikon camera, I also record my child with a Nikon."

Lee revealed the news on a camera-lovers' Internet site SLR Club and ad agency "Communication it," which used Lee's photo, admitted its theft of the photo and put an apology message on the website, the article says. According to the ad agency, it copied Lee's photo as a reference but the photo was used for the Internet commercial by mistake.

"For reference, we have collected some photos from Internet sites including Lee's. But by our mistake, Lee's photo was used for the Internet ad," Kang Jun-shik, a manager at the ad agency told The Korea Times. Kang admitted that he didn't get Lee's approval to use his photo as a reference. "I met Lee and apologized for not obtaining his consent in advance. And we had deleted the ad already," Kang said, adding that the mistake is not related to Nikon's Korean sales agency Anam Optics Corp.

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