Copyright Violation - What to Do?

[Julio]

I took some BMX pictures this summer to try to get some sales (from the parents) by posting them on my site. I have this notice prominently displayed:


ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHTED AND THE SOLE PROPERTY OF JULIO YESTE
(photosbyjulio.com) AND MAY NOT BE DOWNLOADED OR REPRODUCED WITHOUT SPECIFIC, WRITTEN PERMISSION. Your illegal use of these images is a violation of US Copyright Law (17 USC §100 et al). The Sports pictures may be hot-linked but may NOT be altered in any way or have the copyright notice removed under penalty of law.

I found three of my pictures displayed on a BMX site (by the riders--two sisters) that had been downloaded from my site and uploaded to the BMX site. My copyright is still clearly on the pictures:

http://aba.sponsorhouse.com/Members/mikennakoth/Apps/Photos.aspx?resourceId=cf480949-6e6b-4570-8c71-b361ecd59020

http://aba.sponsorhouse.com/Members/mirandakoth/Apps/Photos.aspx?resourceId=96497da5-ca92-42ec-a87f-ce6f7665c6bf

http://aba.sponsorhouse.com/Members/mirandakoth/Apps/Photos.aspx?resourceId=ee56afe7-9059-4a10-bd5e-1111d21599cf

So, the users have violated my copyright as has the site. I am going to ask the parents for $100 for the usage, but what should I do about the site? And what if the parents don't want to pay--should I go to small claims court? What should I say to the parents to try to resolve this quickly and amicably? TIA!

[lingham]

cant really charge the parents for the usage as they im guessing are unaware they are being used.

[AussiePup]

Normally it would be recommended that you (or your have an attorney) send some sort of cease and desist order to have the pictures removed from the web site. However this may not be a good business practice as it will more than likely kill any possibility of future sales (not that you are getting a sale right now). A realistic approach might be to send an email or letter to the web master indicating that the use of the picture is in violation of US copyright laws and they can either purchase the picture for use only on the web site for $$ or remove it entirely. If that approach does not work then time to call the attorney. Just my 2cents

[superdiver]

Have your attn do it...may cost more then you will get, other then the staisfaction of course...

A dentist collegue of mine found some pictures linked from his site (he is strickly a cosmetic guy) and he was so upset that he replaced the linked pictures on his site with baboons having sex. The other dentist got so mad and he couldnt get ahold of his web master for days and those pictures wre on his site for DAYS!...LOL

too bad they didnt link them and you could have done something similar....LOL

[lingham]

Have your attn do it...may cost more then you will get, other then the staisfaction of course...

A dentist collegue of mine found some pictures linked from his site (he is strickly a cosmetic guy) and he was so upset that he replaced the linked pictures on his site with baboons having sex. The other dentist got so mad and he couldnt get ahold of his web master for days and those pictures wre on his site for DAYS!...LOL

too bad they didnt link them and you could have done something similar....LOL


BRILLIANT - LOVE IT!

[tcphoto1]

I would start by posting a comment on the images. If you state that you are the photographer and they are violating your Copyright, they will probably take it down.

[CelticRavenVA]

I would start by posting a comment on the images. If you state that you are the photographer and they are violating your Copyright, they will probably take it down.

You might also suggest reasonable terms to them to use the photos, and then it is a win/win...

[ST77]

Its a common problem these days on the net, but not normaly that hard to take care of. I had to deal with myspace not to long ago over some of my pictures appearing on some pages, they sent me a email form I filled it out and they promptly remove/shut down those pages. Sad fact is anytime you upload a photo to the internet there is a good chance it will be stolen at some point, but most website hosts have no problem removing the copyrighted images.

[jpwone]

You specifically allow hot linking so I would drop them an email reminding them of this and suggest that in future they do use hot linking for your images. I am not a lawyer but (famous last words) the fact that you allow hot linking will probably reduce significantly any damages that a court would consider reasonable to award in this case. They have not removed the copyright overlay and you would find it difficult to show any cost or loss (damage) as a result of their actions.

Softly, softly would be my approach to this as what you have is a technical infringement and you can do damage to your business by handling it badly. Handle it well and you may win a couple of good (and now educated about copyright) clients.

I would set the tone of the email to informal initially and do the 'Hi, just to let you know' type of email to the sisters and then see what type of response I got back.

[sspellman]

Julio-

While yes, it is clear that there has been a copyright violation here, is important to address the issue in a productive manner that will not increase your costs. This is a better opportunity to gain a customer than to get income from a lawsuit.

Step 1) A friendly email to the person that specifes that the images may not be copied to other servers without paying the licence fee of X. They can pay the fee within 5 days or remove the images.
Step 2) Send an email to the contact info of the website specifying that they remove the images within 5 days.
Step 3) The last and 99% effective step is to send a DMCA violation notice to web host that you can find using whois. They will respond quickly and take down the image within a few days. There is a sample notice here: http://www.itc.virginia.edu/security/copyright/sample.html

-Scott

[Julio]

Thank you, ALL! You've been VERY helpful.

I'm not so upset at the girls or their parents as I am at the website. They should be more diligent in my opinion. I've had at least one other picture that iI know of (of a Marine) stolen for MySpace. The girl who did it at least put the address of my website under the picture. I contacted her, told her I wasn't upset but I just wanted to know how she got it. She told me she did the "print screen" routine. I thanked her and gave her permission to keep using it with my site address. But that picture didn't have my copyright notice plastered across it as this one does.

Anyway, thanks again. I will proceed with prudence.

[rabidcow]

I really don't see how free advertisement is an issue....

Your name is on the images, your images are on a website that many will see. I see this as a good thing. Pursuing legal action will only leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

[Uhland]

I really don't see how free advertisement is an issue....

Your name is on the images, your images are on a website that many will see. I see this as a good thing. Pursuing legal action will only leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
I agree.
You did the right thing by using your website as the watermark.
They arnt leaching your bandwidth.
You arnt loosing anything but the cost of them using a small web image.
You are getting free adverotisment.

Id be happy about it.
But you do have the right to request the webmast of that site to take down your content.

As a matter of fact this I was just going to put my name for my watermarks.
Now I will be doing website in hopes someone does this to me =)

[blackshadow]

I wouldn't be happy about it. The whole point about advertising is controlling where and when your brand name is displayed - you have control whether it be free or paid advertising.

If you are trying to promote your business in a professional manner and some hack puts it up on a crapola website it impacts on your professional image. Image and branding take a long time to build up and can be destroyed in very short order.

How about if the image appeared on child porn site, would you be happy with the "free advertising" then? I think not.

Julio I advise you to exercise your rights as sspellman suggested.

Good luck with it.

[CelticRavenVA]

I would persue... just don't go for blood... unless you have the extra (ten times the money of the photographs) to spend to go after them...

Work a deal with them it is pretty obvious they like they photos....

[S.Horton]

Invoice them.