Copyright issue

DianeKDianeK Registered Users Posts: 4 Beginner grinner
edited April 3, 2012 in Mind Your Own Business
One of my photos ON MY SMUGMUG web site has been copied and now appears on a web site for a motel looking for customers to stay at their motels across the country. I am looking for advice on how to proceed on this and am hoping someone can shed some light on this for me.

Comments

  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,938 moderator
    edited April 2, 2012
    My advice would be to make a screen shot of the infringement showing the photo on the web site.. Given your description, the picture
    was easy enough to find-and it has some EXIF data still in it. Did you take the image with a 5DmkII?

    Then, I would read through this and proceed accordingly. This is a document from
    the U.S. Copyright Office.
    Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
  • BlakerBlaker Registered Users Posts: 294 Major grins
    edited April 3, 2012
    DianeK wrote: »
    One of my photos ON MY SMUGMUG web site has been copied and now appears on a web site for a motel looking for customers to stay at their motels across the country. I am looking for advice on how to proceed on this and am hoping someone can shed some light on this for me.


    First of all, are you absolutely sure it is your photo? ( see http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=57102) rolleyes1.gif

    Take screenshot and print out the ad where it is being used- also write down the date you first noticed it. Keep checking back so you will know how long the photo is being used.

    Next, if you plan on suing them for statutory damages , be sure to immediately register the photo with the US copyright office.

    Find out who is the owner of the motel, and send him a copy of the ad using your photo, along with an invoice of what you would usually charge for this usage. In your cover letter you can ask him to get in touch with you to discuss further usage and fees.

    He likely will not respond, so you can escalate by sending him invoices for late fees - if he still does not respond you can notify him that you will be referring this matter to an attorney.

    If you haven't registered the photo with the copyright office ( or even if you have) you can take him to small claims court. ( This is probably the most appropriate way to sue for this particular infringement.)

    If you are not interested in monetary compensation, you can just send him a takedown notice asking him to remover your photo from his website.

    Hope this helps!!
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