Eugh.. Some site is using one of my photos without permission or credit

And I want to make sure i handle it "correctly"

I found their contact email and I'm intending to write them that one of the photos on the site is mine and that they cropped it to remove my watermark, I will link the page in question as well as the copy of my work on my Flickr account with the watermark intact.

I want to ask them to kindly do one of three things, Restore the photo to the original uncropped version with my watermark intact, Add a short line giving me credit for the photo and linking back to my gallery, or remove the photo. I do not mind my photo being on the site so long as im given credit for it.

I guess my question is what if they do none of the above and refuse to comply?

Cease and desist letter from an attorney.

Make sure you make a copy of the page - print it...

Make sure you keep a copy of your correspondence to them

The hard part of this is if you do need to go to the legal path - getting your cost back will be easy enough - but establishing "damages" will be harder if you don't already have commercial rates.

Good luck. It's flattering and frustrating at the same time.

"Copyright" in the US needs to be "© 201X YourName" or "Copyright 201X YourName" to qualify under Section 1202 of the U.S. Copyright Act which makes it illegal for someone to remove the watermark from your photo so that it can disguise the infringement when used. The fines start at $2500 and go to $25,000 in addition to attorneys' fees and any damages for the infringement. See http://www.photoattorn​ey.com …e-music-to-your-ears.html in Carolyn E Wright's blog.

FWIW, © in windoze is Alt + 0169. (C) is not a legal substitute: 10 Big Myths about copyright explained.

You can try to persuade them -- but without the overhead of a $300-400 per hour payment of legal fees to get the letter written (whatever the going rate in your area happens to be)!

Advise them of violation of copyright and their lack of rights to use the photo for promotion of their business without your permission. Convince them of the soundness of your statements via link to a website which states obligations, like this

https://smallbusiness.​chron.com …ghted-material-34105.html

"Federal law give copyright owners intellectual property rights to use their copyrighted works for a term of life plus 70 years. If you own a federally copyrighted work, no one else can use your work without your permission as long as you are alive, plus an additional 70 years. If you are caught using copyrighted material or images owned by a legal copyright owner, you may have to pay him civil damages."

"Copyright Infringement
If you infringe upon someone else's intellectual property rights by using the author's copyright without his permission, you may be guilty of copyright infringement. You may be able to assert an defense excusing your unauthorized use of copyrighted material in certain situations. Typically, claiming that you did not know of the existence of someone else's copyrighted material does not excuse you from using his copyrighted material without his consent."

Also good to cite what Photosguy included i his post:

"Section 1202 of the U.S. Copyright Act which makes it illegal for someone to remove the watermark from your photo so that it can disguise the infringement when used. The fines start at $2500 and go to $25,000 in addition to attorneys' fees and any damages for the infringement."

Thankfully the site in question does not seem to be using it for commercial purposes. If they were say, selling items with my photo on it im not sure id even bother with a nice letter id just jump to "Call an attorney"

Im gonna start with the nice request and then depending on the response decide if im going to bother with legal fees, As established above, I don't have any current rates (Since I do not make money off my photography) I am going to link to the photo on my Flickr as well as to where they're using it for convenience

And I do use the proper © on my watermark, Though i omit the date it simply has my name plus the address of my Flickr. I should probably update that

At least gives me a place to start nontheless, Thanks for the help