I'll try to keep this concise.
A friend is in a legal battle with her insurance company. She was injured in a car accident. The insurance company is fighting to not pay her medical bills.
She's a performer in a stage troupe, for which I have taken photos and posted on my website.
The insurance company's lawyer swiped photos of my friend off my website, and is using those photos against her medical claims, insisting that if she's still performing, she could not possibly have ever been injured.
The photos are not registered with the copyright office, though obviously they are still my intellectual property.
The trial was supposed to be this week, but has been postponed until October. I plan to register everything as soon as I can.
Questions:
1- Does the lawyer have the right to use my photos as evidence without my knowledge?
2- Should the lawyer have gotten a subpoena to copy and display them?
3- Can I forbid the lawyer to reproduce my images without a usage license or a subpoena?
4- Can I send the lawyer a bill for usage?
5- If I register the photos now, before the trial, and the lawyer still attempts to use them without a subpoena, can I bill for damages as well as usage?
Any statutes or case law would be appreciated. My friend's lawyer is not well versed in IP, though I think she has someone on staff who is.
[edit] I found this from Carolyn Wright, which may indicate that a subpoena/warrant is needed. However, I was not compelled to provide the images; they were on display on my website, and have already been copied without knowledge or permission.
http://www.photoattorney.com …your-photos-are-evidence/