a case of the stolen photo

photo theft -- it happened to me!


Last Tuesday, July 8, a photo of UST Growling Tigers coach Pido Jarencio was published in the Inquirer Sports Section with an article entitled "La Salle gets a tech, officials spare UST." to show that Green Archers’ coaching staff should not have been slapped a technical foul during an Ateneo vs. Lasalle game on July 6 for not following a UAAP rule on wearing ID’s. The controversial photo shows Mr. Jarencio not wearing an ID during the previous day’s UST vs. UE match proving that UAAP Basketball Commissioner Chito Narvasa was being selective in rule implementation.


I took this photo, which was mentioned in the article and caption to have been submitted by La Salle team officials, while I was covering the July 5 games for inboundpass.com, a website devoted to reporting Philippine collegiate basketball. I was merely doing my job. Apparently, a La Salle fan sent this photo to the Archers' team offcials who in turn released it to various media, PDI included, without my knowledge or permission.

The published image was an altered version of my photo. As you can notice, my watermark below Mr. Jarencio and Jervy Cruz' feet was purposively cropped to conceal the source. Below are the screenshots of an article at inboundpass.com and inboundpass' flickr photostream to prove it.

I emailed and sent a registered mail to Inquirer's chief photographer Mr. Ernie Sarmiento and to Bro. Bernie Oca, Director of the DLSU Office of Sports Development requesting that I be issued an erratum and an acknowledgment letter for this oversight from them respectively.

Mr. Sarmiento replied and promised an erratum. I hope that the erratum comes out tomorrow or Sunday at the latest. Bro. Oca has not yet replied but one of my colleagues at Inboundpass.com talked with DLSU coach Franz Pumaren and the latter had promised to cite Inboundpass.com should they need to use the photo in the future. I don't see a written statement forthcoming.

Image theft is becoming very rampant today. It's just so disappointing that people (very educated ones at that) become very careless, if not malicious, in their use of photos. Inboundpass.com is a web-based company. As such, it is inevitable that we upload images online. I will be following up measures to rectify this mistake. But I just wish that people be very conscious and cautious about copyright laws. In the end, it's still a matter of the golden rule. What you do comes back to you a hundredfold.

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UPDATE: Last July 14, a correction was issued by the Philipipne Daily Inquirer on page A4 of the paper stating that the Pido photo was taken by me. As with all errata, you'd miss it if you weren't looking but I guess that's better than nothing. La Salle has not replied to my email and registered mail yet. I see no reply forthcoming.