A warning for photographers

International copyright theft

Ross Vs Tribunnews/Kompas Gramdeia.

Statement of Fact & Public Notice

Claim Reference: SC009441

April/May 2026

In 2009 I took a walk around my local neighbourhood, I live on a council estate on the edge of the City of Wakefield, very close to the infamous maximum security prison H.M.P Wakefield.

At that time I often walked past the prison on my way into town or just for a walk and I always took my camera with me. A cheap Fujifilm Finepix S800 that my Dad had bought me for Christmas the year previously.

I took several photographs of the prison from the public footpath and from the edge of the recreation field on the east side of the facility. I edited the pictures when I got home and stuck them

in a folder on my hard drive, I don't recall if I shared them on Facebook or not at that time.

In 2010 I started Stageside Photography as a business, focusing mostly on music related photography such as gigs, press pack shots and backstage shots. This business only lasted three years before it folded but in that time I accumulated thousands of images.

To put this into context, I have always been a creator, I have written for several websites, one or two magazines and I have written 18 books, five of which are held in my local libraries.

I have been an artist who has sold over 150 paintings. I have won an award from the Wakefield Civic Society for one of my photographs. I have licensed images to professional bands for promotional and Album/EP/DVD covers and I am respected in my community for my work.

My first published photograph was in 2007, I was witness to a marijuana grow house being busted. I must admit my friend and I were more interested in the amount of produce that was going to waste but, I was professional enough to grab my camera and document the action.

I contacted the Wakefield Express and they asked if I would mind if they used the image. As photography wasn't a business for me at that time I agreed, happy to see my work in print and they credited me as the photographer.

A few years later in 2010 I was on a family day out for my late Mother's birthday with her and my 16 year old daughter. After a pleasant wander around Peace Hall and the town we headed for the train station.

As we sat on the platform waiting for the train home a hoard of British Transport Police descended and took over half of the station. As I had my camera with me I placed it in my lap and took a few discrete shots of the Police. We were informed that a far right demonstration was taking place and they were expecting them on the next train after ours.

When we got home I uploaded the day's images to Facebook. Within the hour I was contacted first by the group Hope not Hate, and then the Halifax Courier, requesting to use the images of the Police. Again I agreed without asking for anything more than credit.

I am unsure which of the photographs were used as I failed to get a copy of the paper at the time and haven't looked for it since.

Two national Newspapers had the decency to ask my permission to use the images, something that Tribunnews and Kompas Gramedia preach yet fail to do.

In 2010 I began Stageside Photography and upgraded from the S800 to a Nikon D60, although not the newest Nikon model it was a massive upgrade and enabled me to step back into the world of manual photography.

After a year of using this camera I accidentally dropped it while on a paid photo shoot for a family. With the D60 broken and the insurance company refusing to pay without me having to pay an excess that I couldn't afford. I faced a choice, quit or double down.

I chose the latter and took on a credit card debt that I couldn't really afford to purchase a new Nikon D3200 and a telephoto lens. I was willing to get myself into debt for my art because I believed in my work.

The irony in this is that I got myself into debt for my work and, a company with vast resources like Tribunnews are unwilling to pay to license an image.

Around this time I was also involved as an advocate and supporter for photographers rights.

The Police had been over-using Section 44 against photographers. Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowed police to stop and search anyone without reasonable suspicion in designated areas.

Following a 2010 campaign run by photographers and a mass protest in London European Court of Human Rights ruling (Gillan and Quinton) that deemed these powers a violation of privacy, the UK Government suspended and subsequently replaced them.

My involvement wasn't primary, I purchased a T-shirt with the campaign slogan “I'm a photographer, not a terrorist” printed on the front and I created a video which included hundreds of images of other photographers holding up placards with the same slogan. This video reached 4.3k views in a short time.

My experience with copyright doesn't end there. As I am also a musician and in 1999 I worked for the PRS (Performing Rights Society) for just over a year, I was asked to get a passport and go to the USA to work for them.

Unfortunately I chose the wrong path and decided a relationship was more important than a career. A mistake that became the ending of the relationship anyway. My job with the PRS was enforcing royalty collections.

I have also discussed copyright law with two lawyers who specialise in that area, many years ago I was picked up on a slip road on the M1 by them, we stopped for a cup of coffee at a service station and spent the next few hours discussing copyright laws.

Returning to 2010, when I began Stageside Photography my aim was to focus mostly on music related images, I wanted to design album covers like other famous photographers/artists had, I have always been a big fan of Pink Floyd and Storm Thorgerson's work especially.

Unfortunately I never got to meet or talk to Storm but I did get to speak with world famous artist John Van Hamersfeld (designer of The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour album cover and many other famous works)

He told me about the issues he had with working for the Beatles, a warning about media giants stepping on creators. This case I am involved in proves things haven't changes since the 1960's.

At one time I was also in contact with photographer Ian Tilton who was always happy to discuss photography and related subjects. He disappeared shortly after his well-known dispute with the stone roses and their unreasonable contract.

I have a network of famous and not-so-famous photographers from across the world, including Henry Diltz and Rudy De Donker, as well as the above mentioned. I have a proven track record of understanding copyright, the music and photography industries and the organisations involved.

My photographs have been published by national news papers, magazines, as DVD and EP covers, and as prints. I have won awards for images I have taken, the latest being from the Wakefield Civic Society for my photo of the 99 Arches in Wakefield.

I have won competitions with my photographs, one of which the prize was a beautiful Orange amplifier, the image I won this with was of a cheap guitar that I and a friend had spent hours painstakingly sticking coins to the body of.

As you can see I am not just a freelance photographer, I have a lifetime of experience and much of this includes the business of photography, art, music and copyright.

I am an established creator with a background in licensing images, selling and having my work published.

Just to add I am also disabled, gone are the days when I could go for a walk with my camera and just snap away. My health issues dictate my life now.

In 2018 I wrote a piece about the history of Wakefield Prison, known as; The Monster Mansion for the amount of inmates who have committed horrific crimes residing there. As such I used an image I had taken of Wakefield Prison from the west, showing the high walls and the clock tower, one of four similar shots from different angles that I took that day.

I thought nothing more of it after publishing the article on the website Vocal Media.

In May 2024 I received a notification email from the website Pixsy who had flagged one of my images as being used by an Indonesian news outlet called Tribun News. I attempted to solve this amicably and sent Tribun an email stating that they were using my image without permission and without proper credit.

They had used a credit to Vocal Media but they were hotlinking direct from my bandwidth on there, in reality the credit and the image link only took you to where the image was being hosted.

The original date of the Tribun news article of 16th June 2020 can be seen on the first screenshot below and shows an image which Tribun used from the Wakefield Express at the top of their article.

I am not certain if they paid the Express to use their images or not as I didn't receive any reply when I emailed the Express to inform them of my case and the use of their image.

Having received no reply from Tribun news I submitted a case against them through Pixsy on January 30th but was informed that they could not take on the case as Indonesia was out of their juristiction.

This was a disappointment to me and so I forgot about it for a while, Until May this year when I received another email from Pixsy alerting me to the use of the image by Tribun. I decided this time I would pursue it further.

Once more I attempted to reach out to Tribun News and again they failed to reply, I attempted to contact several different departments and was still ignored.

Eventually I got through to their hosting company Cloudinary.com and initiated a DMCA takedown notice. Finally someone listened and I am happy to say my image was removed, along with two others that they had used belonging to someone else.

I wasn't leaving it there though, they had been using my image for six years and earning revenue from it.

I felt cheated out of potential earnings, not to mention the fact that the DMCA takedown also affected my own article and the image has been removed from there too.

I tried again to reach out to Tribun and this time my emails bounced back. Not only were they ignoring me, they were now blocking my emails. I took to Social Media and tagged them in a post and still silence. It was like being in a graveyard at 2am all alone, the silence was deafening.

I took my case to my local MP who informed me he couldn't help but did offer some links where I may be able to find help.

I contacted the AOP (Association of Photographers) and they couldn't help but again offered advice. And I contacted the IPO (Intellectual Property Office) but they couldn't help either.

It seemed that the odds were stacked against me but then I found a glimmer of hope, a debt collection agency who worked on a no-win no-fee basis called Safe-Collections.

They were very friendly and honest about the case and the small chance of a win but they were happy to take on the case for me as they had partners in Indonesia.

I put together a case file showing all the evidence from the EXIF information of the original image on my pc, to the bounced emails and previous contact attempts. I added everything I could including the screenshots and then it was a case of sitting back and waiting.

The wait was agonising to say the least, then the day came that Safe-Collections phoned me, to say it was bad news is an understatement.

The result wasn't good, Tribun News have basically stated that they don't care they are stealing from an individual freelancer and know that it is financially impossible for me to take this further legally with a court case which could take up to four years to come to completion and God knows how much money.

Some may say that the amount of £7,500 I am asking is too much just for a photograph.

To those people I say; In my first email to Tribunnews in 2024 I asked them to pay £500 for two years licensing. This breaks down to £250 per year, that is around £0.68p per day.

The average licensing fee for an image is £50–£250 for small-scale editorial or book use, up to £2,000–£5,000+ for large commercial campaigns, and over £20,000 for global perpetual advertising.

As Tribunnews used the image without licensing and proper credit, in the UK a User Principle is added. This is a fee added to the licensing, a fine if you like.

However, because they kept it live for 2000+ days, this moves it from a "one-off use" to a Long-term Digital Asset. In the industry, "Perpetual" or "Unlimited" digital licenses for a major news outlet (which Tribunnews is) easily climb into the $£2,000–$5,000+ range.

The £7,500 I am asking works out at £3.42 per day. Less than the cost of a decent coffee.

Here are just a few examples of recent similar cases:

The London Post Case (2025): Photographer Richard Southall was awarded £335 (approx. $452) in a default judgement for unauthorised image usage, though collecting payment proved challenging.

Local Radio Dispute (2023): Photographer Mitchell won a, case against V2 Radio regarding unauthorised use, resulting in a court win after the station failed to engage.

Creative Commons Case (2024):

Photographer Larry Philpot successfully sued Independent Journal Review for using a photo

without providing the required attribution under a Creative Commons license.

High-Stakes Verdict (2023): A photographer secured a significant $6.3 million verdict against Pacifica Senior Living for wilful infringement after 43 photos were used without a license.

This isn't the end; I have escalated this to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) small claims track in London and The Dewan Pers (Indonesian Press Council) I am currently reviewing the filing fees and international service procedures involved with the IPEC.

I will admit I would prefer to settle this amicably, rather than adding UK court costs, plus interest to the debt.

As such I implore Tribunnews to contact me and work out a settlement, I am not an unreasonable man by any means, I just want what I am owed.

Tribunnews and their parent company Kompas Gramedia preach about copyright ethics and yet they hypocritically bully and steal from independent photographers. I wonder how many others photographs they are using without permission or licensing?

I may have lost a battle (or drawn) against these media giants but the war is not over.

When multi-million dollar companies throw their weight around most people buckle and drop their cases. I know the procedures involved to deal with them, but this case should be taken as a warning to others in the Photography industry about their misconduct.

I have also be contacted Indonesian watchdog organisations,the Indonesian Cyber Police and several relevant photography organisations in Indonesia and in other countries informing them of the double standards of Tribunnews.

In conclusion; Anyone who steals an image/uses it without permission and/or credit, should be held accountable. To some a photograph may just be a gathering of pixels and light, but to many photographers it represents years of practice, learning the craft, understanding light, as well as the expensive cost of equipment, we put our hearts and souls, and often our health on the line to capture these images, what gives anyone the right to just take our work and use it for monetary gain themselves? Especially when they preach about copyright ethics.