James,
the magazine is The Canine Chronicle and I've had several long and somewhat heated discussions with the publisher about the entire issue of copyright usage. The folks at PPA are doing a lot of work in this area and I've asked them to contact this publication along with others to make sure they understand their obligation in running photographs.

The person who created the ad happens to be a well-known photographer/designer who, I'm told, "is a very nice person". Swell. She also must be a moron if she didn't know the photos were proofs. Since she's a competitor of sorts, I need to be careful not to imply that she did it on purpose -- although that is certainly a possibility. My attorney is sending her a letter questioning her judgement.

As for proofs, I usually put the word "proof" across the image at 65% opacity. For that particular show, I left off that step for the Group photos since there was a rush to get them to publications for year-end issues and since the folks who own Group placing dogs are generally pretty knowledgable about using photos in ads. Wrong! Never assume competency.

One of the advantages we have is the insight gained from publishing our own breed magazine The Rottweiler Magazine. We receive hundreds of win photos from all over the country and Linda creates most of the ads for each issue. We never accept a photo without written release from the photographer and we never accept a bad scan from the owner because we know they didn't get a release. If they send us the photo to be scanned, we contact the photographer and get written permission. Most photographers are thrilled to have their work published so it's never a problem. And if the original were shot digitally, we get a really good copy of the original file.

Regardless, we feel it is in fact our duty and responsibility to protect photographers' copyrights. Maybe that's because I am one but I'd like to think it's because we value intellectual property.

The copyright issue is a complex one and most of us have neither the time nor the economic resources to fight numerous infringements. And so people get away with it. Such is the life of a show photographer

Jim