This can cause a problem for the amateur photographer when their work is so good that it looks professional. A Coventry student was recently turned away from a local branch of Boots when she wanted to have her photographs printed because staff suspected that the pictures were copyrighted to a professional photographer and had been downloaded via the Internet.
The student, twenty-five year old Joanna Ornowska, may have received the same response from other Print companies in Coventry as her pictures, which were of her pregnant friend, looked just like the sort of professional photographs that you would find from a professional photography website.
The photographs taken by the Coventry student weren’t even for her coursework – they were just so her friend, Malgorzata Kulinsha, could show her family.
Because staff at Boots suspected the photographs were downloaded from the Internet, they could not Print them due to the company’s policy on not printing copyrighted photographs – a policy that would be held by any Print company in Coventry.
Despite showing her student ID card and a letter from her university attesting to the originality of the photographs, Boots staff still refused to Print her pictures.
Miss Ornowska commented:
The pictures were just simple shots that I'd taken of my friend holding her bump - I was just doing a favour for her.Get a Free Quote for Print
They staff at the shop said they looked professional and that I needed to write a letter with headed paper to show who I am but I didn't have any.
My friend was upset that she couldn't give them to her family. I was upset myself because they just shouldn't have done that. It's very unusual.
The staff said that they didn't believe that I'd taken them. It was crazy. Should I start taking very bad photos to be able to get them printed?