Recently, the club was targeted by a copyright enforcement company using AI tracking. They identified images uploaded to our website all the way back in 2002 that had been copied from commercial news libraries (AFP, Reuters, and AP). Based on these old uploads, they hit us with aggressive payment demands exceeding £10k.

While we eventually settled the dispute for a significantly lower amount, the entire ordeal has been incredibly draining. It has consumed a massive amount of time, effort, and energy from our volunteer Board and Committee - not to mention club funds. Frankly, we can ill afford to waste either our volunteers' time or our financial resources on avoidable legal disputes.

To safeguard the club, we are implementing immediate changes to how we manage our online presence:

Website Uploads: We have updated our website permissions to limit who can upload and how public they are.
Social Media & System Access: Moving forward, any and all social media and external system access associated with the club, including Pitchero, can only be accessed via an official member@FarnhamRugby.org account. We must establish absolute control over these platforms to ensure we can properly manage our digital footprint and protect the club from risk.
Footprint Rationalisation: We are actively in the process of rationalising our club's social media footprint and our overall use of images and video including Veo.

As a charity, we have the great benefit of access to all of Google's services, including unlimited email addresses. If you are conducting any sort of business for and on behalf of the club, please make sure this is done via a club email address. Steve Ratcliffe can and will help to set up your account for you.

Moving forward, please be extremely vigilant. Any image or video used for club promotions, social media posts, or public galleries must be wholly owned by you or the club. Do not download and use images from search engines, news sites, or other online platforms under any circumstances. If you did not take the photo or video yourself, or if we do not have explicit, documented permission to use it, do not post it.

This has been a very sorry and stressful incident. Let’s work together to make sure we do not have a reoccurrence.

Thank you for your cooperation.