Ever have someone copy your work?

[d2creative]

Ok, what I'm about to explain could just be coincidence, but hear me out...

So a couple months ago I get a call from a magazine for green architecture. They want to use ONE of my images in an article about a local green home and they need the high res. So during our discussion of cost/usage rights they realize that the builder that gave them the low res images does not own the rights for them. It ends up that the image they were looking for was for the cover, but the article itself contained 10 more smaller images!
I was contracted by the architect firm that designed the home. At least that was my understanding during the shoot... the architect never mentioned the builder. In fact, the "contractor" (this is the term the architect used) had their own photographer there at the same time I was there. We shot on different ends of the house and then switched. The "builder" and the "contractor" could be two different people, i don't know. Anyway... it was pretty understood by the architect that the architect owned the images but not anyone else. In fact I was contacted not long after the shoot by one of the suppliers who wanted to use one of my images in a trade show and bought the rights to it from me. He got my info from the architect.
So now the magazine is pissed because they need to go to print yesterday and now they don't own the images. So we work out a price. They originally just wanted to give me credit but I was ticked off that the contractor was trying to go behind my back so I charged them out of principle. And not nearly what I should have, just enough to make a point.

So that's the background. Fast forward to this weekend and my wife is flipping through one of Houston's free rags. She hands me the magazine, open to a one-page article. It's yet another article on this same house which again seems to be more press for the builder, not even a mention of the architect firm. But what really caught my eye was the photos. There were 4 and two of them were almost IDENTICAL to my shots. The big shot of the rear of the house, and a shot of a staircase. So close in fact that I had to go open up my images and put them side by side to see the difference and make sure they weren't mine.

I don't want to name names or show pics or articles because the photographer was credited in the article and is a very talented local photog. But to me, it seems like the builder was probably upset that he or the magazine got charged for the last article so he decided to have his own picks taken that he could own outright. This is all fine with me. I would have let him use the images for credit if he had just asked and didn't try to get away with it last time as well. Coincidence? Maybe. Just curious if anyone else ever had something similar happen to them.