Why Is Installation Image Theft Still A Problem?

It’s not as if this subject is new to our industry. The issue of image theft, particularly images of installations being used by other installers in their name is constant. And it came up again on Sunday.

I saw a tweet from a good industry friend of mine publicly confronting the offending company who had stolen images of their work and published them under their name. Naturally, I had a gander at what was being stolen, only to find further down their timeline that images from our own installations company had been stolen and used too.

So, a tweet from me was sent directly to them. Low and behold, images both on social media and their website have been removed. But this is old ground. It seems that for as long as I have had DGB or a social media account, I have seen ours, and other installer’s work being stolen. How can it be that in the plain light of day, in front of thousands of glazing companies on social media, dodgy installers are still stealing other people’s work and advertising it as their own?

Brazen

I don’t know if it’s bravery, stupidity or negligence, but it staggers me to think that an installer taking other installer’s work and publishing it on social media believe that they won’t get caught out at some point. There are literally thousands upon thousands of glazing companies on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. The chances are that if you’re tweeting pictures of someone else’s work you’re going to get found out pretty quickly.

On this latest occasion my brother actually got on the phone to this other installer, based in the south of the UK, to tell them firmly that if the stolen images were not taken down immediately we would take further action. The phone call worked, the images are now not to be seen.

But we shouldn’t have to be doing this. I keep an active on eye social media now to see if any images of our work are being used by others when they shouldn’t be. I’d say I catch someone using our work at least once every six months, although that ratio has come down from previous years.

Still, the most surprising element of all of this is the apparent belief that the offenders won’t get caught. Everyone is online now these days, and sharing and promoting pretty much everything very publicly. You can’t hide in plain sight on social media. You nick someone else’s work you’re going to get caught. If you’re that dumb you shouldn’t be allowed control of a business social media account.

Willingness to share…going

I think the ones in a sticky place in all of this are fabricators and suppliers. They want their installers to take tons of pictures of their products installed so that they can either enter them in monthly competitions or for them to be used for wider media and marketing purposes. That is understandable. The installers is the last ones to deal with the home owner and most fabricators are too busy to organise their own photography services. That image feed from installers to fabricators is vital.

This is where a grey area starts to show up though. Fabricators often post images of their installed products on social media, crediting the installer to make sure that they get their well earned pat on the back. This is fine. But what happens when an installer, who is short on images but is keen to promote their business on social media, needs help from their fabricator? Most are inclined to help by lending them images from their stock. Problem is, much of that stock will be comprised of images provided by other installers who may not realise that their images may in the future be lent to others looking for promotional help.

Some installers will be irked at this. I don’t think most mind giving installation images to fabricators to help them with their marketing. Brochures, social media, posters for example. But I think some will mind them being lent out to others in order to promote their business, especially when they don’t get the credit for the image or the work from the other installer. It is easy to see how installers can get wound up about it.

This is where this grey area needs to be cleared up fast. If a fabricator wants it’s installers to provide images, then that fabricator needs to make it clear that there is a chance those images could be lent out to other installers to help boost their own marketing efforts. If that is made clear, some installers may become less willing, less inclined to share those images. However, it would save future arguments between installers and suppliers.

I do think though there needs to be some incentive. Fabricators need installers to give them installation images, it’s the easiest and most productive way to build up a stock of images of their products installed. But if there is a chance that those images could be lent to others, then the installers handing the originals over should be rewarded for their work and willingness to share, even though they’re not going to benefit from that sharing. Fabricators could monetise the process, by increasing the discount on their prices in return for supply of images. Or at least provide vouchers to be taken off of future invoices. Just a thought.

Perhaps then we could create a system where installers who need image help can go to their suppliers in the knowledge that they can use images they are given safely and without risk. Whilst a certain number of installers willing to share their images of the projects are rewarded for their vital help and won’t have to worry about their work being used illegally as much as they might normally.

Either way, something has to change. I can safely say it is supremely irritating to come across a rogue company using your own images, without credit or permission, and passing it off as their own. Other than naming and shaming online, or the idea stated above, I am unsure as to how else we will actually stop this kind of thing from going on.

Any new ideas welcome in the comments section below!