We’ve all been victims of unscrupulous people who like to “borrow”, steal and publish our photographs without compensation. I found out recently that even high-profile publications around the world are not above stealing and publishing photographs.

I photographed former professional wrestling icon Macho Man Randy Savage’s wedding in May. We had an agreement that I could not distribute any photographs without his consent. (He and his wife, Lynn, are actually dream clients. They appreciated the photography and gave me carte blanche access and control to make sure it was staged perfectly on the beach in Sarasota, FL).

Of course, I kept my word to them and only released a few, select shots to Getty Images. They did not get much attention there. They were posted a few days after the ceremony and didn’t get put out on their news and celebrity feed. Everything changed when Randy and Lynn posted one of their favorite images to his web site (www.machoman.com).


I learned of the first theft of that image when TMZ posted it to their web site without attribution, without payment, without regard to ownership of the shot. I called them immediately and was told

“That shot is public domain.  It’s all over the internet.”

Of course that’s not true.  It’s not a public domain photograph.  It’s copyrighted and registered and I told them that.    Apparently, they did have some working knowledge of copyright laws and offered a photo credit and link to my web site in exchange for the photograph, but also asked if I had any others from their wedding.  The guy I talked to said that he was a huge Macho Man fan.

After talking with Randy and Lynn, they allowed me to release a few more to TMZ.  I negotiated a photo credit, a link to my web site and payment for five other photographs.  I was satisfied. I then started looking for other publications that had stolen that photograph and found it on the National Enquirerer web site, the UK Globe site and more wrestling blogs and publications than I could count. I’m still tracking them down and asking for payment.

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