Do you see your photo stolen on this website?

[namxas]

Beyond the copyright issue, it's simply common courtesy to get permission and give photo credit. Renee's (seahorsedreams) photos have graced the pages of Frank Marini's Lionfish book, several articles, and a few other places. She has received pay for some of them, but others were "donated" freely, and I think most folks in the hobby would likely allow the use of their material, but again, it's just common courtesy.

I might add that she has asked a few people to remove her photos simply because they DIDN'T ask her permission.

 

[Stuart60611]

On the other side of things, let me share a recent trend that I have been experiencing in my legal practice with a suprising degree of frequency. I have found owners of copyrighted photos and movies (had about 5 cases like this come in during the last few months) are frequently aquiescing to the missappropriation of their copyrighted materials to extort substantial unwarranted profits.

For example, I had case occur this month where my client misappropriated from the web a copyrighted porno movie which suposedly sold for $19.99 without paying for the movie. Upon the misappropriation being discovered by the copyright holder, my client received a demand package which suprisingly included a release of liability and payment instructions (including accepting credit card payment) and demanding payment of $1200, or the copyright holder would otherwise prossecute a lawsuit against my client seeking a sum in excess of $10,000 as provided by the Copyright Act. This scenario really seemed strange to me because I have never heard of a demand package being sent with a release included and such payment instructions. After further investigation, I could not find any means by which one could even purchase the movie for the purportedly $19.99 purchase price and that the copyright holder apparently was very content allowing his copyrighted movie to be misappropriated by as many people as possible at a demanded fee of $1200 per misappropriation. It was probably far more profitable to allow the misappropriation of the copyrighted movie than it was to legitimately sell it. It appears the copyright laws are being abused on both sides of the issue.