An image of mine was used without my promission to sell a product,

an LG monitor to be more specific. There is a company that sells monitors by way of Overstock.com
that used an image of mine to sell there product. I first contacted Overstock in the afternoon, and
the image was removed in the evening.

I was told about it by two different car forums.
**All the detective work from the Z forum. I came in at the bottom.

I was led from there to the original forum to where a man working at the company that sold the monitors
was looking for a picture of a car to put in his ads. A member of that forum put up a sample image that I
posted here, and at one Z forum to show off the car of a friend mine.
**Here is a link to that forum to help out my explanation.
I then contacted the guy who was looking for images to use for his monitors, he is reluctant and
scared that he might lose his job if I speak to his boss about him using a copyrighted image without my
permission. I don't want some guy to lose his job because he thought it was someone else's photo, but I do feel
that I am deserving in some compensation for them using my image for almost four months.
He is asking me to drop my request for compensation and he will put up an image of mine to use in their ad,
this time with my permission and credit for the photo.

What type of recourse do I have in this case?

Here is the photo from the ad.
And here is a link where you can see the monitor with a smaller image is still clearly visible, but the ad itself, the image is changed.

I am new here, but shouldn't you be compensated in some form, for the use of the image during the 4 months?

Would you be happy with a credited image for compensation is my first question.

TampaFoto wrote in post #9124809
Would you be happy with a credited image for compensation is my first question.

I don't think one image is compensation enough. Maybe their entire line for a period of time? That maybe too much, I'm just not sure.

TampaFoto wrote in post #9124809
Would you be happy with a credited image for compensation is my first question.

No I wouldn't.

My feeling is that if they do this for a living, they know it's wrong and he got caught. Tough economy or not, it's wrong to steal. You can either request payment or agree to his proposal to use another image.

It's a beautiful image and likely had the original data... so he would of known who to contact if he looked. You just have to decide how much damage it caused you... and mark your images!

The only thing that bothers me is it looks like he was trying to do the right thing by asking people to only post their pics, the guy who posted your shot as his seems to be at fault. If it were me I'd talk to the mods at the forum and get him punished for falsely posting an image on the forum. If it was on the forum I moderate at (shameless plug www.stanceworks.com) I would vote he be banned for 3 months and have to write you a personal apology before he returns. But then again our founder is a working automotive photographer so we take that sort of thing more seriously than most car forums.


Erik

TampaFoto wrote in post #9124809
Would you be happy with a credited image for compensation is my first question.

(I have said it before and will say it again) I would be more than happy with photo credit... if I could talk the bank into accepting them as mortage payment.

ErikatSSI wrote in post #9125005
The only thing that bothers me is it looks like he was trying to do the right thing by asking people to only post their pics, the guy who posted your shot as his seems to be at fault. If it were me I'd talk to the mods at the forum and get him punished for falsely posting an image on the forum. If it was on the forum I moderate at (shameless plug www.stanceworks.com) I would vote he be banned for 3 months and have to write you a personal apology before he returns. But then again our founder is a working automotive photographer so we take that sort of thing more seriously than most car forums.


Erik

Impressive work there. Quite low enough?

The guy was just doing it as a joke at first, but he seemed to follow up with giving an okay for a car that was not his. You can see it on page 1 and 2. The guy wanted newer cars, so "BobbyT" posted an older one, an image that I shared for a forum after doing a paid shoot with a friend.

The closest I've come to this situation is a local flooring company trying to use a pic of my garage in their newspaper ad to sell epoxy flooring. (funny thing is that I did my own floors) I tried to get mad but I couldn't help but laugh b/c my garage is e-famous. the designer found the pic on the on the vortex. I didn't even know it was up there, i've lost track of how many places I've seen it since.

My advice would be to be nice and ask this guy to give you a Photo-assignment immediately. If you get paid for a project from them, its cool.. If he refuses to give you work and also refuses to pay money for the image he used, ask a lawyer to send him a notice (not a law-suit, just a formal legal notice bringing attention to infringement of copyright) and he will pay you himself.

that lg tv looks good as a compensation

Assuming you are in the U.S.

1st off you should be registering your images with the copyright office. If you haven't then you need to do so. You can do it online and register images in batches for a small fee (I believe it is 35 bucks - instructions on the U.S. copyright office efile website).

2nd the damage is already done. He used your image in an advertisement that has been running for X amount of time and may have sold X amount of units with that ad. Can't unring the bell. Statuatory Damages for a registered image (U.S.) starts at 750.00 PLUS Attorney fees and goes up to 150,000 PLUS Attorney fees PER image. An IP attorney can advise you on this but they may even recommend sueing for a percentage of the sales that occured after the ad aired using your image.

If you are in the U.S. and you haven't registered your image then do so. After that you may contact the infringer and ask a reasonable fee. Perhaps one or two of those LG tvs like another poster suggested for advertising rights to the photo. I am assuming this company isn't LG itself but a small retail outlet of some sort. That being the case it would be cheaper for all involved to come to an understanding.

If it is LG or a large retail outlet then they have deep pockets and an attorney would probably be very interested in persuing a copyright infringment case against them.

The guy who used the image in error should have done due diligence to establish the ownership of the image... If he did, he'll have info to backup that someone fooled him with forged info, and shouldn't lose his job over it. If he didn't do his job, he deserves to lose it.

I would stop with the haggling, sparring and silly work arounds and go right to the top. Send them a bill for usage along with proof that the image is actually your copyrighted work.... Bill them at least 3 times the "normal" usage fee.

You'll end up negotiating and might get some additional image sales and/or a new flat screen TV out of it, if not simple payment for the usage of your image.

They can pursue the guy who pretended the image was his and sold it to them, to recover what they paid. But, if you have his name and address, you should also send him a "cease and desist" notice that he should immediately stop misrepresenting your copyrighted work as his own, under threat of lawsuit for deliberate copyright infringement. Talk it over with an attorney who is knowledgeable about intellectual property. (In many parts of the US there are "Lawyers for the Arts" offices that specialize in exactly this sort of thing and will do an initial consultation for little or no cost.)

Also insure that your copyright is registered, if you haven't already done so.

I would contact an attorney immediately.