The Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance appears to be in the middle of slow motion train wreck — all of its own making.
Sunshine Coast photographer, Marc Austin-Zande, and his partner Kristin, claim the Alliance (SCCA) has infringed their copyright. It appears that when the matter was brought to SCCA's attention, its office-bearers embarked on a series of delaying tactics and obfuscation.
In June, Kristen Austin-Zande received an invitation to an event hosted by the Alliance. It was promoted as “Arts Express – AMPED Creative Showcase”. The image used by SCCA to promote the event was taken by Marc Austin-Zande. The image had been commissioned by one of the Austin-Zandes' clients to promote a specific dance event at Arts Express. The Austin-Zande's copyright watermark had been cropped out, leaving Marc and Kristen "a little surprised and very angry" that their image had been appropriated and altered without so much as a “would you mind”.
The Austin-Zandes sent a take-down notice to the Alliance, also including a counter-offer of a clean file for use — for a small fee. There was no reply.
"The image started to appear on associated websites and electronic newsletters. They had obviously distributed it to third parties who further edited it and used it," Marc said. "Two weeks later we sent an invoice for the commercial use of the image. Among others, this email was copied to the President of the Creative Alliance, Ms Angie Dunbavan."
Again no response from either the Alliance nor their President.
Two weeks later, Marc sent a sterner e-mail suggesting that they need to treat this matter seriously or they'd pursue legal action under the Commonwealth Copyright Act. Again, there was no reply.
There followed a further letter by Registered Post, and a day later Kristen received a call from their original client who had supplied this photo to the Alliance to promote her dance production. "She was somewhat distressed about what was going on. The Alliance, we believe Ms Dunbavan, had contacted her about this matter. There was a suggestion that we should just walk away and not take on this organisation. It felt like a threat. But still, the Creative Alliance and Ms Dunbavan couldn’t be bothered to contact us to discuss the situation or attempt to negotiate a fair outcome for all. They continued to treat us as fools and hope we’d just go away."
It was then they engaged a solicitor.
"On 22nd July, [Despite Austin-Zande noting his business telephone number and his own mobile number on all correspondence], Ms Dunbavan did actually leave a message — on Kristin's personal mobile telephone. I called Ms Dunbavan back the following day but my call went to her voicemail. I left a message identifying myself and my number and asked that she call me back regarding the matter. It was almost two more weeks before Ms Dunbavan finally returned my call… she left a message which included her saying “you know we had copyright permission”. The Zandes insist no permission has been given.
On 7th August the Austin-Zande's solicitor sent a letter to the association demanding they pay the invoice.
"Then the image (and all its derivatives) disappeared from the Alliances's Facebook and web site. Their solicitor also received a response from Phil Smith – Caloundra-based architect and urban designer and board member of the Alliance. Mr Smith claims that “due to technical issues”, the Alliance was not able to receive nor respond to all of our emails over a six-week period, a period in which they ran a major event."
Autin-Zande refuses to countenance this ham-fisted explanation: "What Mr Smith failed to explain is how both the Alliance and Ms Dunbavan could both have technical issues and Ms Dunbavan, the President of the Alliance could manage to run an events management business with these “technical issues” for a six week period.
"At no time did the Alliance report, on either their Facebook or website, that they were experiencing technical issues. Mr Smith further suggests he can see no reason to pay the invoice and that he was of the opinion that the matter had been resolved. In one sentence he apologises on behalf of the Alliance but then goes on to say he can see no wrong in what they did and yet he tells us the images were removed."
Marc says, "The Alliance think they have remedied matters. They also think they have done no wrong. They ignored us for nearly two months and then when presented with a legal letter, continued to fob us off. This is how they help promote local creatives? Our next step is unfortunately an expensive one and that is filing with the Supreme Court. We know we can win this but we need to fund it first.
"Deep down we do not want to destroy the Alliance either however they have treated us with such arrogance and absolute contempt that we feel it’s time to really fight back. We have been warned (or is that “threatened”?) that taking them on will prove detrimental for our business but you know what, at least we will be able to hold our heads high knowing we have, at every step of this sad story, done the right thing. This might cost us social media fans but we can’t just stand by and let this sort of thing happen. We are taking a stand as many other photographers (and other creatives and artists) are now doing, to try to educate the public that our work is not to be undervalued or, as in this case, taken and used as if it were public property."
The Austin-Zandes are considering a crowdfunding campaign to take on SCCA and are asking that their story be "shared far and wide to stop this sort of behaviour".
A full extract of the original story and links to the documents here.
