Credit Me Not (Reprise)

I sought advice from close friends and some superiors around the office on how I could possibly file a complaint in a diplomatic manner. I came up with this email:

Hi,

First of all, I would like to express the fulfillment that you have given me by choosing a couple of my pictures for use in the project's client buy-off presentation that was created a number of weeks back. Even though I only saw the draft, I believe that a couple, if not some of my pictures making it to the presentation was more than enough fulfillment on my side as a contributor. That opportunity to help out was priceless. Again, thank you!

On another note, last week, I saw a colleague of mine holding a company branded "notebook". Correct me if my information is wrong, I believe this notebook was given away as freebie for potential applicants in a recruitment activity held over at Makati. It was such an honor to have a couple of my pictures make it to print and carry the company's branding.

Unfortunately, to my dismay, I think the marketing material given out didn't bear any information regarding the contributors. Being one of them, I believe the rights governing my intellectual property were violated through publication of the pictures without any credit.

I do believe that the company promotes and holds up to its core values in every endeavor that it puts and invests its interests on. But looking at this situation, I think it has failed to promote one -- Respect for the Individual. I am not seeking any big form of recognition, nor am I asking for any remuneration for this contribution. All I am after for is all but the due credit to my name for my contributions.

The marketing materials have already been printed out and given away. Damage has been done and there's not much that can be done about it. That being the case, I would like to express my big disappointment on how my efforts were treated and how these contributions came out to be.

 

And in a short while, I got a reply from the concerned party:

Hi Giff,

First of all, I would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention. I completely understand and agree with your sentiments. We should have requested for your permission to use your photos and we should have given you proper attribution in the notebook layout.

I could not express enough my sincerest apologies for this oversight by me team. I couldn't do anything more right now (as the notebooks have already been printed and distributed) but to give you my commitment that such instance will not happen again to you or for other internally sourced photos. We will see to it that proper attribution is made and that we seek sign-off from the photographer to utilize the photo/s.

Again, I'm very sorry about this and thank you for raising this issue. This is a wake up call for my team to careful with such details.

Best regards,
Country Marketing & Communications Lead

 

My rights were violated, so I filed a complaint with my superiors backing me.
I filed a complaint, and all I got is a written a apology.
I want to continue the fight, but my superiors ask me to be pacified by it.
Sh*t. Talo na.

Good to know though, lessons were learned by both parties --

(1) they (the marketing people), of all people in THE FIRM, should give due credit to their contributors (well, HELLO, they should know that right from the very start, DUH!);

(2) as for me, think twice before taking on another request (or maybe never get involved anymore) from the FIRM to contribute for any other activity similar to this (time until they do their job properly). Hindi lang sila ang may kaya magpublish ng pics. pfft! Badtrip!