Copy Right Issues - Unautorized Use of Photgraphs

[conropl]

I understand. But go after them and protect your intellectual property. At the very least they should take down the photo.

I agree.

I sent you a PM with the site if you want to look. I just did not want to broadcast it.

Thanks.

[conropl]

http://www.whois.net/
Type in the bare URL and you get all the contact details for the person who owns the domian name.

(although, you only get what they've written in when they register the domain, http://www.whois.net/whois/the-digital-picture.com has all the fields left blank so we can't get Bryan's address and nick all his camera gear, he's obviously smart enough there...)

And of course that only works if the person who stole the image is also the one who owns the domain name, like if it's a *.blogspot.com or something it's useless. But it's a start.

Thanks Doc. That worked. www.whois.net gave me the name and address of the person that registered the web site. It out of Ely Nevada.

[freelanceshots]

I was the one that Getty Images contacted. They ended up going after the company I did the website for. They had more to loose then I did as I would have put up a much bigger fight. The company settled out of court for like 300 to 400 dollars. Wrote them a check and wrote the matter off. The image was of a road sign and the downloaded copy from yahoo images in 2006 was a thumbnail sized image if you can believe that. If I where you I would try and document the images being used like taking a screen snap shot or something. Contact them and tell them they owe you this amount of money for using your image to enhance their site. The rules and law are pretty clear on this matter and the creator of the image will always win in court. Try to settle out of court but if it goes further then you need to specify that there will be additional money owed if it has to go to court. If its an individual with nothing to lose then you may have to charge less but if its a bigger well known company then you can up your fee.

Start at 500 dollars and then they may try and settle at a smaller amount like 250 or 300. If you want to pursue the matter further you will need to contact a copyright attorney. See what he will charge to write them an official letter and call them a few times and then tack that additional amount onto the final amount totaling approx 600.00 to 700.00.

You can then also come up with an amount for them to continue to sue your image if you want or just remove it.

Remember to just be professional and don't get upset what ever their approach is. In the end if you want to really collect a fee you can do it.