All Photographic images on this website are the property of Kevin R. O'Brien. Copying, saving as digital files, linking directly (Hot linking), manipulating or reproducing of any kind without the prior permission of Kevin R. O'Brien is strictly forbidden and would constitute a breach of copyright under International Copyright law.

Please read the information below. It's here to protect yourselves as much as it does me

Image theft doesn't pay

Image theft is a huge problem for professional photographer's websites and mine is no different.

All my images carry copyright information and a digital watermark. I carry out regular checks to find my images using various different techniques including search machines and image theft software.

Please note: I do not tolerate my images being used illegally. I have to make a living as well, therefore I will bill anyone using my images without written permission at four times the licence fee for the use they have already had and ask them to remove the image(s) then re-negotiate a new rate for further use of the images. The extra charge is for searching and finding stolen images and for administration costs.

I contact the owner of the website straight away, bill them and ask them to remove the images from their website within seven days or I will commence legal action. I will also contact their web provider and ask them to close down the website until the said image(s) are removed.

Please note: In the terms of a website owners hosting agreement it will state that other peoples copyright must not be used without their permission, any such use is a breach of that agreement and can and normally does lead to a website being removed. Hosting companies do not want to get caught up in legal action.

Things people get up to

Most offenders are bed and breakfast establishments, holiday cottages, guesthouses, travel websites and small businesses who create their websites cheaply to save costs. Others are unscrupulous website designers who think they will get away with it leaving the website owner to foot the bill after they have already charged for their services, so be aware for your own safety.

Some try stripping copyright information from images, others even try to change the images by removing certain objects from the image, they don't seem to realise I have copies of all my images and it's very easy for me to prove the image belongs to me. Some blame the web designer but it's the owner of the website who is responsible for what they put on their website.

It doesn't pay to steal images from another photographer's website. I really don't like having to word this the way it is but unfortunately some people think they have a god given right to use other photographer's copyrighted images however they like and for free, therefore I have no alternative. But if you contact me I'm really a very nice guy and I know I can help you get the images you want to move your business forward, and guess what? It won't cost you an arm and a leg. Stealing my images will.