Photo Piracy
- Thread starter Doni
- Start date
XSharkboyX
Wishin' I Was Fishin'
If your photo is on someones website without your perrmission, you can ask them if they would like to purchase rights to use it for a certain amount of time, or demand they take it down. You dont need to persuade them to take your photo down they stole... If they refuse, sue them.
If your picture is registered with the copyright office, and they use it without your permission, you are looking at a 6 figure law suit.
The picture is your property as soon as you press the shutter on the camera, and should not be taken lightly.
I would approach the situations the first way i stated, tell them if they would like to continue to use it, they can lease it from you... for example $500 for 5 years... Thats $100 bucks a year.
A great way to let people know its your image is to place your copyright in the photos metadata. This can be done on most adobe photo programs, I am not sure about others.
Close.
You cannot file a suit for damages unless the image is registered.
You still own the copyright but you can only demand standard usage rates for the image, as it's used. You can't just make up a figure. That usage figure is based on industry averages and has to do with the size of the image, how it's used and the market reach.
Send the email to ask them to either pay you or remove the photo. After that, if it did not work, send a notice to their web hosting company, and most will promptly take actions.
Take a look at this link:
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/09/dmca-notice-of-copyright-infringement.html
Take a look at this link:
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/09/dmca-notice-of-copyright-infringement.html
readmeli
Do you see me SMIZING?
We deal with this every day... even after we watermark all our photos! LOL. We clearly state on every page of the website everything is copyrighted. People just dont care. Our first course of action is a friendly, but strongly worded email regarding the ownership of the image. This usually works, thankfully. I like the idea of including the rate of pay for usage of the photo!
readmeli
Do you see me SMIZING?
Well maybe I should clarify what I mean by watermark: we slap our logo across the main body of the fish or coral, etc. So if somebody wants the image whole, they'd have to photoshop out the logo, which is a bit tough! I suspect if somebody had to go through all that work, they'd just go steal somebodoy else's photo. LOL - Doing it did cut down on usage a lot I will say. But you are right beerguy, there is real way to totally protect an image.
Photoshop CS5 content aware fill. 30 seconds, tops.
FYI - I'm the technology chair for a national photography organization and am a member of PLUS (useplus.org) so I take image licensing very seriously. That said, watermarking doesn't offer you more than a modicum of protection.
SushiGirl
Premium Member
Good link, I've used that many, many times successfully.
Usually an email first, asking them to remove it, copy to my lawyer (a coworker).
If no response, then a 2nd email asking that they pay me for the use, copy to my lawyer.
If still no response, then a DMCA notice to their provider.
If still no response, they get a nice registered letter from my lawyer containing a bill.
I've only had 1 unsuccessful attempt in the last 10 years, Aquacon. Haven't decided yet how far I want to take it, but $/image/day since 2003 is a VERY large bill, and really had they asked I would've let them use it with my name on it.
The first email usually takes care of it, if you address all their "I thought it was OK" or "it helps you" crap in the initial email that you know they're going to spout, and provide a link to the rules of copyright. I've had to send 5 DMCA notices over the past 10 years.
kingfisher62
New member
I know how you feel. Reefs2go had taken a photo of some zoanthids I had.
Called them and emailed them , they did nothing about it and it is still on their website. Very frustrating.
Here is the thumbnail from their site and my photo. You can see the polyp they cropped.
Called them and emailed them , they did nothing about it and it is still on their website. Very frustrating.
Here is the thumbnail from their site and my photo. You can see the polyp they cropped.
Attachments
Not just photography practices. :beer:
