Quote Originally Posted by DavidEccleston View Post
I was under the impression that everything you do is automatically copyrighted unless you explicitly waive your rights. This site seems to agree ( https://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/copyright-faq ).

You can register your copyright, which helps (scratch that, according to the link above, is NEEDED) when fighting over ownership, but anything you make is copyrighted automatically. If you made something as an employee of a company, it's known as "work for hire", and belongs to them.

So, without a registered copyright, you may be out of luck pursuing them in court. You can look to see if you can register after-the-fact. From what I understand a Getty sale is often for very little money (a couple bucks is common, and a hundred or two a rare event). If you're only able to claim the lost sale as your damages, it might not be worth the time or effort to fight for it, unless you're just suing them to make a point.
I don't make enough on Getty to retire early but it is nice monthly pocket change. Some photos a I net around $80 on a sale and some less than $5, it depends on a number of factors. I could never sell my photos for $500 myself here or abroad so what I get from Getty selling them around the world for me is better than $0. With my big monthly sellers, it is more annoying than anything when you see people using them for free and removing your name off of them also. I have one company that put their logo on it with a copyright symbol after removing my name! Even more irritating when it is your own dog.

I did find out last night that the newspaper bought my photo from someone, I still have to contact them to see who they bought it from. I do sell to media companies but not to that particular one. So, even more annoying to know someone else may be selling them.

I'm not so much looking for compensation by suing them as I am to just getting some of them to remove them from their ads, etc. I don't want to be saying it is copyright protected please remove it if it isn't, technically.

More of a moral thing I guess, which obviously some people just don't have when it comes to stealing photos.