My Photo, Text or Video Was Used Without Permission: How Can I Protect My Copyright in Turkey?

1. When are photos, texts and videos protected?

A work is an intellectual or artistic product that bears its author's individuality and falls into one of the categories listed in the law (FSEK art. 1/B [1]). What is protected is the concrete expression, not the idea; the Directorate General for Copyright also states that ideas are not protected (Ministry of Culture and Tourism [3]).

Not every photo, text or video is automatically a work. In one case the Court of Cassation (11th Civil Chamber) held that a news photo of people going through rubbish under election posters merely recorded an everyday event through a lens and lacked individuality and aesthetic value, so it was not a work. The decision was by majority, with one dissenting judge (Court of Cassation 11th Civil Chamber, 26.01.2021, E. 2020/1245, K. 2021/469 [4]). Whether content is a work is decided case by case, usually with an expert report.

Protection may exist even without "work" status. Photos and recordings that are not works are covered by FSEK art. 84: the person who recorded them can prevent third parties from reproducing or publishing the same recording by the same technical means, and unfair competition rules apply to anyone who does so, even a non-merchant (FSEK art. 84 [1]). In the case above, the photo was not treated as a work, but compensation was awarded under unfair competition rules and the Court of Cassation upheld that judgment (11th Civil Chamber, 19.09.2023, E. 2022/5510, K. 2023/5116 [5]).

Who owns the rights? The author is the person who creates the work (FSEK art. 8 [1]). A person named as author (or by a known pseudonym) on published copies is presumed to be the author until the contrary is proven (art. 11).

2. Which uses need your permission?

The author has two kinds of rights:

• Economic rights: adaptation, reproduction, distribution and communication to the public by any means, including the internet, belong exclusively to the author (FSEK arts. 21–25 [1]).
• Moral rights: deciding whether the work is made public, having your name shown, and preventing changes without your consent (arts. 14–16).

Contracts and permissions concerning economic rights must be in writing and must list each right granted (FSEK art. 52 [1]). Posting your work publicly on social media does not mean others may republish it on their own account or website.

3. How do you secure evidence?

Online content can disappear or change quickly. Document both the infringement and your authorship:

• The infringement: save the full page address (URL), account name, posting date and screenshots, ideally showing the address bar, date and time.
• Your authorship: keep raw photo files and their metadata, drafts of texts, source files of videos and the link where you first published the work. Your name appearing on the published work matters because of the presumption in FSEK art. 11.
• Official record: a notary can record the facts (Code of Civil Procedure art. 401/2 [6]). If evidence may be lost, you can ask a court for a preservation of evidence order before filing suit (arts. 400–401).
• Optional registration: works can be recorded with the Directorate General for Copyright. Registration does not create rights and failing to register does not cause any loss of rights; it only makes authorship easier to prove (FSEK art. 13 [1]; Directorate General for Copyright [3]).

4. How do you get the content removed?

Platform reporting tools. Most major platforms have a separate copyright complaint form. Some of the information you provide may be shared with the other side; YouTube, for example, says that the claimant's name and email address may be passed to the uploader (YouTube Help [7]). Read the platform's explanations before submitting.

FSEK Additional Article 4 procedure. Where your rights are infringed through means of transmitting signs, sounds or images, including the internet, the law sets this sequence (FSEK Additional art. 4/3 [1]):

1. First, you apply to whoever published the content (the content provider) and ask for the infringement to stop within three days.
2. If it continues, you apply to the public prosecutor. On that application, the service provider is asked within three days to suspend the service it provides to the infringing content provider. Service resumes once the infringement stops.

The law also provides a separate prison sentence for content providers that continue to infringe your rights (FSEK art. 71, second paragraph [1]). Using a written, dated channel (such as a notarial notice or registered electronic mail) helps prove your application.

5. What can you ask the court for?

The Court of Cassation upheld the judgment in a case where three times the market fee was awarded under art. 68 (11th Civil Chamber, 12.02.2026, E. 2025/4101, K. 2026/965 [8]). How the fee is calculated in a given case is for the court to assess; the market fee is usually set by a court expert.

Interim injunction. If continued infringement until judgment would cause serious harm, you can ask the court, before or during the case, to stop the use temporarily (FSEK art. 77 [1]; Code of Civil Procedure art. 389 [6]). The court generally requires security (art. 392). If the injunction was granted before filing, the main case must be filed within two weeks of requesting its enforcement, or the injunction lapses (art. 397).

Competent court. Cases are heard by the intellectual and industrial property civil court; where none exists, by the civil court of first instance designated by the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (FSEK art. 76 [1]; Industrial Property Code art. 156/1 [9]). Besides the court of the defendant's domicile, the court where the wrongful act occurred or the damage arose, or of your own domicile, is also competent (Code of Civil Procedure arts. 6, 16 [6]). Authors may also bring removal and prevention claims where they reside (FSEK art. 66).

Easier proof. If you present evidence strong enough to support your claim, the court may order the user to produce documents showing the necessary permissions. If they cannot, the use is presumed unlawful (FSEK art. 76/2 [1]).

When is mediation mandatory before suing?

Cases arising from intellectual property legislation are generally commercial cases. However, cases arising from rights in intellectual and artistic works are not commercial if they do not concern any commercial business (Turkish Commercial Code art. 4/1 [10]). In commercial cases, applying to a mediator is a precondition for claims for a sum of money, including compensation (art. 5/A). The Court of Cassation upheld the dismissal, for failure to mediate first, of a claim for material and moral damages under FSEK arts. 68 and 70 brought against a commercial company (11th Civil Chamber, 02.06.2026, E. 2025/6202, K. 2026/3104 [11]).

In practice:

• If a company or commercial business used your work and you want money, apply to a mediator first. The mediator must conclude within six weeks, extendable by up to two weeks where necessary (Commercial Code art. 5/A-2).
• If you only ask for the infringement to be stopped (removal and prevention), this precondition does not apply, as the claim is not for money.
• Limitation periods are suspended during mediation. If an injunction was obtained before filing, the two-week filing deadline does not run during mediation (Law No. 6325 art. 18/A-15, 16 [12]).
• If the other side is a private individual with no commercial activity, the case may not be commercial. How this line is drawn in a given case can be disputed, so it should be assessed before filing.

6. Criminal route: how and by when to complain

Unauthorised use may also be a crime. The main offences and penalties are (FSEK art. 71 [1]):

• Adapting, reproducing, altering, distributing or communicating a work to the public (including online) without the right holder's written permission: one to five years' imprisonment or a judicial fine (art. 71/1-1).
• Putting your own name on someone else's work: six months to two years' imprisonment or a judicial fine; if done by distribution or publication, the upper limit is five years' imprisonment (art. 71/1-2).
• Quoting from a work without citing the source: six months to two years' imprisonment or a judicial fine (art. 71/1-3).

These offences are prosecuted only on complaint. For the complaint to be valid, you must submit documents and other evidence of your rights to the chief public prosecutor's office within the complaint period; otherwise a decision not to prosecute is issued (FSEK art. 75). The complaint period is six months from the day you learn of the act and the offender (Criminal Code art. 73 [2]). Because the offences are prosecuted on complaint, victim-offender reconciliation is generally attempted at the investigation stage (Code of Criminal Procedure art. 253/1-a [13]). On a complaint, the prosecutor arranges seizure of the infringing items and may, if necessary, order reproduction to stop; that order must be submitted to a judge for approval within 24 hours (FSEK art. 75/3).

The criminal and civil routes are not alternatives; both can be used.

7. Deadlines at a glance

A note on limitation: FSEK has no specific limitation rule for infringement claims. The general rule for tort damages is art. 72 of the Code of Obligations (Code of Obligations art. 72 [14]). For the art. 68 fee, the Court of Cassation upheld a first-instance judgment that applied a ten-year period, without giving separate reasons on this point (11th Civil Chamber, 12.02.2026, E. 2025/4101, K. 2026/965 [8]). When the period starts can also depend on whether the infringement is ongoing, so deadlines should be calculated for each case.

8. Hypothetical example

This example is purely hypothetical. Photographer D finds that a landscape photo published under her name on her own website is being used, with her name cropped out, on a hotel's website and in its social media ads. D takes screenshots, has a notary record the pages, and keeps the raw file and the link to the first publication. She then writes to the hotel asking it to stop within three days and reports the ads to the platform. If the use continues, since the hotel is a commercial business, D first applies to a mediator for her money claims. If no agreement is reached, she can ask the intellectual and industrial property civil court to stop the infringement and award the art. 68 fee and moral damages for omitting her name. She may also file a criminal complaint within six months. The outcome depends on whether the photo is a work, the scope of any permission and the evidence.

9. FAQ

I appear in the photo. Is it only a copyright issue?

No. A person's picture, even if not a work, generally cannot be exhibited or otherwise made public without that person's consent (FSEK art. 86 [1]), and personality-rights claims remain available. If the content violates your privacy, you can apply directly to the Cyber Security Presidency to block access; you must then submit the request to a criminal judge of peace within 24 hours (Law No. 5651 art. 9/A [15]).

They credited me. Is it still infringement?

It can be. Crediting you only respects one of your moral rights; it does not replace permission to publish. Use without permission is lawful only within limited exceptions such as quotation and news, and a quotation must also cite its source (FSEK arts. 35–37).

Does using only part of my work count?

The author's rights cover the work as a whole and its parts (FSEK art. 13 [1]). Using sections of a text or clips of a video without permission can therefore infringe, subject to the exceptions.

Can I claim rights in photos I took for my employer?

For works an employee creates in the course of their duties, the rights are exercised by the employer unless a contract or the nature of the work indicates otherwise (FSEK art. 18/2 [1]). For freelance work, the written contract determines which rights were transferred (art. 52).

The content has been deleted. Can I still claim for past use?

Removal does not undo infringement that already occurred. Claims for the art. 68 fee and art. 70 damages for past use can be brought within the limitation periods, which is when the evidence you saved earlier becomes important.