Blog
Posts focused on search visibility, documentation habits, and practical infringement recovery systems.
Small business owners who've grabbed an image off Google genuinely often didn't understand that what they were doing was wrong. They're not malicious - they're just not thinking about image licensing the way a stock library account holder would. When you explain it clearly and give them a reasonable path forward, most of them take it.
This doesn't mean you roll over. "I didn't know" doesn't erase the infringement or the license fee owed. But approaching the conversation like a business negotiation rather than a confrontation tends to produce better outcomes.
Published Apr 30, 2026
The moment you confirm that a business is using your image without a license, there's a very strong urge to fire off an angry email.
I understand that urge. I've felt it. You made something, they took it, and they've been profiting from it while you got nothing. That's genuinely infuriating.
But here's what I've learned from going through this process multiple times: **the goal isn't to express your anger. The goal is to get paid.** And calm, professional, well-documented outreach gets you paid far more reliably than anything that reads like an accusation.
Published Apr 23, 2026
When I found commercial websites using my photos without permission, one of my first instincts was to wonder if I even had a case. I hadn't registered my images anywhere. I didn't have a watermark on them. I'd posted them publicly on the internet.
Did I actually have any rights here?
Yes. Unambiguously yes.
Published Apr 16, 2026
The uncomfortable truth is that if you've been posting your work online for any length of time, there's a real chance someone has used it without permission. The good news is that finding out isn't hard, and it doesn't cost anything.
Published Apr 9, 2026
I was expecting to find a few more Reddit posts, maybe a Pinterest board, possibly a Tumblr from 2014. What I actually found was a handful of commercial websites using my image — a local business, a media site — without a license, without permission, without so much as a credit line. Just my photo, deployed on their site like it was a free stock image they'd pulled from somewhere.
Published Apr 6, 2026