Filipino photographer Romy Ocon accused Malaysian Postal Authorities for using his photos without permission

Filipino wildlife photographer Mr. Romy Ocon, 48, accused the national postal service of using his photo on their stamp set without prior permission . In a forum thread of Digital Photography Review : dpreview.com . Link: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/5242663. An online forum sites for Photography enthusiasts.-

He also said that he posted the photos in his online website: http://www.romyocon.net/2013/01/long-tailed-shrike-at-bacnotan-la-union.html

The bird was photographed at the field in Bacsil ,  Bacnotan , La Union  province in Northern Philippines.

Shooting Info – Bacsil, Bacnotan, La Union, Philippines, January 20, 2013, Canon 7D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x II, 700 mm, ISO 200, 1/200 sec, f/7.1, manual- photo from the right side

The said post had several hundreds of respondents from different parts of the world.

According to Ocon, the photo of the Long-Tailed Shrike was also wrongly labeled on the stamp as a White-Fronted Falconet. The photographer referred to the error as a “serious ignorance” due to both birds having distinctly different appearances.

The White-Fronted Falconet is known for having a prominent pale patch on its forehead whereas the Long-Tailed Shrike’s famous posterior lends it its name. The bird labeled as a Falconet in the stamp has a rounded dark head and pronounced tail.

screen capture from POS

The image on the stamp and the original photo of a Shirke provided by Ocon look remarkably alike, with the exception of a different background and a slight tilt of the bird, something that can be easily edited through photoshop.

Ocon, a civil engineer by training, was informed of the supposed blunder via email on Oct 30 by a concerned stamp collector from the United Kingdom.

“By posting the embarrassing situation in various internet forums, I hope that the Malaysian Post Office will be ‘shamed’ to acting and correcting what wrong was done,” he explained.

“I often viewed in admiration the Malaysian Prime Minister each time I see a ‘Visit Malaysia’ ad on TV, and I secretly wished that we have the same campaign for the Philippines.

“Now, my photo is used without my permission as a small part of that ‘Visit Malaysia’ campaign. I’m confident that the prime movers of the ‘Visit Malaysia’ program will find their use of a stolen photo very embarrassing and act swiftly to rectify the matter accordingly,” he said.

Ocon added that the RAW file of original shot is in his possession and he will be able to easily prove copyright ownership. A commenter at dpreview.com has also uploaded a video analysis to further support Ocon’s claim at http://vimeo.com/78143984 .

For now, Ocon is in consultation with his lawyer on what to do next on the legal front.

A picture of the stamp collection was posted on Facebook but has since been taken down after receiving negative comments from netizens who were informed of the plagiarism claim.

The stamp, depicting a white breasted bird was released by Pos Malaysia as part of its Visit Malaysia 2014 collection. There are altogether six different species of birds in the series.

Another picture in the set, one of a Malaysian Hill Partridge was also claimed to have been ‘stolen’ from photographer Con Foley by a commenter on a Malaysian news portal.