Woman's Viral Photo She Took 9 Years Ago Has Been Sold Everywhere—But She's Made Zero Dollars

Influencer Jaci Smith should have a lot of money by now from the photo she took of her friend nearly 9 years ago – instead, she's made nothing. On July 24, Smith uploaded a video on TikTok to share the story of her famous photograph, garnering over one million views in 24 hours.

According to the TikToker, she took an iconic picture of her friend holding a Chanel surfboard at a beach. That same image has since been sold at markets and framed in numerous locations, and she's even seen it in Copenhagen. "So let's talk about how I should be a multi-millionaire for this photo I took, apparently," Smith says. "But instead, I've made $0."

"So I took this photo of my girl Amber," Smith explains. She adds that her friend probably paid her to take the picture, but that's all she's made from the shot. She continues, "This photo was probably taken, like, 9 years ago. It turns out that a lot of people loved it."

"I don't even know how they got this file. Okay, but I see this photo for sale everywhere. When I go to a flea market, it's there. I have seen it at multiple different markets, framed in all different sizes. I was walking down the street in Copenhagen, Denmark, and I see it sitting in this little salon," she adds.

"But I went to a salon in LA five years ago, and the entire wall was the photo. It was 10 feet tall." Smith wonders how the resolution was so good and where the salon even got her photo in the first place. The TikToker's friends also saw the picture at a random apartment complex. She adds, "Tyson went into a random apartment complex of his friend's, and he's like, 'Your photo's on the wall.'"

Her image is being sold on Etsy as prints as well. "It is for sale online everywhere. Like, how is this legal? Run us our check."

Funny enough, some of Smith's viewers commented on her video to say that they also bought her photo, proving once again just how popular it is. "I literally have this photo on my bedroom wall girl," says someone named Katelyn.

Another TikTok user claims, "omg I literally have this photo in my bathroom."

"OMG I BOUGHT THIS PRINT IN PARIS," a user going by Adelaide adds.

Even companies (like Shein) have been caught allegedly stealing the artists' work, an act that harms content creators financially and emotionally. Unfortunately, technology makes it more difficult to enforce laws against this, and some retailers have been discovered to use AI to determine trends and find art online to use on their merch. Even when artists try to protect their work using watermarks, corrupt drop shippers and merchants find ways to easily remove them. In Smith's case, registering her photograph for copyright protection and taking legal action would probably be the best recourse.

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