Willful Copyright Infringement

jonrider · September 5, 2012

Tonight I stumbled across several of my images being used without proper license. Normally I would first reach out to someone that is misusing my images and ask for proper payment before taking any other action against them. What I found tonight though is blatant and intentional copyright infringement.

With this situation I feel compelled to send a DMCA notice to Photobucket and various forums in which my images appear as a first strike before attempting to learn who the infringing party is, followed by attempts to collect payment for illegal use of my images.

These are links to my images on my website:

A. http://www.deepsouthfocus.com/Cars/Meet-and-Greets-Cruise-Ins/Middle-Georgia-Shindig-Event/24721413_3LQJWd#!i=2026438738&k=zwbNgCJ&lb=1&s=A

B. http://www.deepsouthfocus.com/Cars/Meet-and-Greets-Cruise-Ins/Southeastern-Shindig-2012-08/24721239_Fxwdgw#!i=2034903741&k=4xzLzDm&lb=1&s=A

These are links to infringing images and forum posts that show blatant disregard of copyrights:

A.
1 - http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Intrep_ED/2012/?action=view&current=mag2-1.jpg&newest=1

2 - http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Intrep_ED/2012/?action=view&current=mag2.jpg&newest=1

B.
1 - http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Intrep_ED/2012/?action=view&current=mag1.jpg&newest=1

2 - http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Intrep_ED/2012/?action=view&current=magnum_Ed.jpg&newest=1

3 - http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Intrep_ED/2012/magnum_Ed.jpg

4 - http://www.dodgeintrepid.net/showthread.php?t=220452&page=243 post #3635. Also of interest on this same page are posts #3638 and #3640 which show willful intent to infringe upon my copyrights.

Some background on my business: I have started gaining a large following in the southeast and I have been receiving more and more requests to come to car shows in the region. As I don't know who this person is, or what type of following/clout they have I am at odds as to the best way to proceed. Advice from all of you seasoned photographers here is appreciated.

orljustin · September 5, 2012

How is that different from them being shared on facebook or Pinterest or tumblr? He isn't selling them, he isn't claiming he holds copyright, they aren't on a blog, and he isn't using them for commercial gain.

Art Scott · September 5, 2012

jonrider wrote: »

Tonight I stumbled across several of my images being used without proper license. Normally I would first reach out to someone that is misusing my images and ask for proper payment before taking any other action against them. What I found tonight though is blatant and intentional copyright infringement.

With this situation I feel compelled to send a DMCA notice to Photobucket and various forums in which my images appear as a first strike before attempting to learn who the infringing party is, followed by attempts to collect payment for illegal use of my images.

Some background on my business: I have started gaining a large following in the southeast and I have been receiving more and more requests to come to car shows in the region. As I don't know who this person is, or what type of following/clout they have I am at odds as to the best way to proceed. Advice from all of you seasoned photographers here is appreciated.

imho... ...you have 3 choiced....1- ask to have them removed and let it go... ... 2- send him an invoice and wait for reply and 3 this is what I would do, but then I have a couple of attorney friends.....Have an attorney send the invoice stating if not paid a court date follows.

It should get his attention.....but then are all of 14 images on his PB stolen from other people, or just yours ???... ... ... I would do the DCMA after finding out who the infringers are and I would make a strong suggestion to each forum and son that they BAN the infringers for life....this is a serious problem....there is only 1 reason to remove someones watermark and that is too profit from it again this is jmho.......

I do wonder how he got such high resolution images off your site????

orljustin wrote: »

How is that different from them being shared on facebook or Pinterest or tumblr? He isn't selling them, he isn't claiming he holds copyright, they aren't on a blog, and he isn't using them for commercial gain.

that is an assumption....no one here knows what ED is doing with them...he removed the watermarks, said so on the Intrepid forum...and if you click on the Pic Info button on the lower right of the PB site...it shows the owner as EDRo......and as being in the IPTC data.....so he changed the IPTC data to his moniker ....again as stated above this is BLATANT THIEVERY.....

Good Luck

orljustin · September 5, 2012

Sorry, missed the part about the forum posts.

Sam · September 5, 2012

I think having people praise your images and link to your website is fantastic.

The guy who is cloning out your watermark is an other story. I would send him a message on that website or email if you can find one and see what kind of a response you get. Next step is to contact the site host.

There could be a problem with an attorney friend sending a letter threatening to take him to court. In CA if an attorney threatens to take someone to court and doesn't they are opening themselves up to a law suite simply based on the threat, and is completely separate from the initial claim.

Good luck.

Sam

Ferguson · September 5, 2012

Did he really clone those out, or has someone stolen the images without watermarks? Just looking at one of them, it's either a really, really good job of cloning, or he got copies without watermarks. In the first shot, look at the driver's right hand, behind the windshield. There's detail in there I can't even see in the original.

angevin1 · September 5, 2012

Ferguson wrote: »

Did he really clone those out, or has someone stolen the images without watermarks? Just looking at one of them, it's either a really, really good job of cloning, or he got copies without watermarks. In the first shot, look at the driver's right hand, behind the windshield. There's detail in there I can't even see in the original.

If you go to the links the OP posted, the last one particularly, You'll be able to answer your own question.

Ferguson · September 5, 2012

angevin1 wrote: »

If you go to the links the OP posted, the last one particularly, You'll be able to answer your own question.

Sorry, I only looked at the first.

mercphoto · September 5, 2012

It really sucks what was done, but you need a water mark that is not so easily cloned out.

jonrider · September 6, 2012

Art Scott wrote: »

imho... ...you have 3 choiced....1- ask to have them removed and let it go... ... 2- send him an invoice and wait for reply and 3 this is what I would do, but then I have a couple of attorney friends.....Have an attorney send the invoice stating if not paid a court date follows.

It should get his attention.....but then are all of 14 images on his PB stolen from other people, or just yours ???... ... ... I would do the DCMA after finding out who the infringers are and I would make a strong suggestion to each forum and son that they BAN the infringers for life....this is a serious problem....there is only 1 reason to remove someones watermark and that is too profit from it again this is jmho.......

I do wonder how he got such high resolution images off your site????

that is an assumption....no one here knows what ED is doing with them...he removed the watermarks, said so on the Intrepid forum...and if you click on the Pic Info button on the lower right of the PB site...it shows the owner as EDRo......and as being in the IPTC data.....so he changed the IPTC data to his moniker ....again as stated above this is BLATANT THIEVERY.....

Good Luck

Thanks for your feedback. I have my SmugMug settings to not allow right click saving, I can only assume he did a screen capture to obtain the images.

Sam wrote: »

I think having people praise your images and link to your website is fantastic.

The guy who is cloning out your watermark is an other story. I would send him a message on that website or email if you can find one and see what kind of a response you get. Next step is to contact the site host.

There could be a problem with an attorney friend sending a letter threatening to take him to court. In CA if an attorney threatens to take someone to court and doesn't they are opening themselves up to a law suite simply based on the threat, and is completely separate from the initial claim.

Good luck.

Sam

on the point of having people link to and praise my images. I am not opposed to use of my images in blogs, Facebook etc, as long as the watermarks are left in place. I look at this as a form of marketing.

I have followed your advice and located an email address for this person and sent an email to him regarding what I have found. We will see if I get a response from them. If no response is received, I will send a DMCA Notice to photobucket as well as the forum admin.

mercphoto wrote: »

It really sucks what was done, but you need a water mark that is not so easily cloned out.

If you have any suggestions on how to improve my watermark, I am all ears

mercphoto · September 6, 2012

Quick fix to your water mark is to up the opacity so that its more obtrusive. Its too transparent, in the very least. A second thing to try is to make the text have thicker strokes. Thin strokes on letters would be easier to clone out than thick strokes.

Lastly, stop offering X2 and X3 image size viewing. 900 pixels on a long side is PLENTY large enough for people to make a purchase decision from. Anything larger is just making image lifting more rewardable for the thief.

Just remember you'll never stop it all. And in some ways I mostly gave up myself and stopped worrying too much about it. I just put a watermark lower-right, which is hardly anything that would deter image theft. It helps that this photography venture of mine never was and never would be a major income source of mine, and that definitely slants my view of this sort of thing. But if my photos generated substantial revenue for me I would have definitely done watermarking much different than I had before.

Sam · September 6, 2012

Jon,

Keep us posted and let us know if you receive a response.

When it comes to water marks there seems to be 3 schools of thought.

One, make it so horrible and intrusive no one in there right mind would even want to try and see if there is a nice photo in there somewhere. Great for security, terrible for potential clients to try and view.

Two, Just put a small unobtrusive water mark down in the corner. Great for viewing, not very good on security. Easy to crop off the bottom.

Three, this is where we attempt to put a water mark on our images that is too large and difficult to crop out or clone out yet does not drastically interfere with viewing the image.

Personally I would be more intrusive with event type photography and less so with fine art. Trying to snatch a fine art print with screen capture and getting a good print isn't all that likely. On the other hand people will snatch event photos and put them on face book, email friends etc.

Sam

SamirD · September 8, 2012

I just saw this thread and know exactly what you're up against since I'm in the same genre.

So based on what I did see (since photobucket honored your takedown request), here's what I would have done.

Tell photobucket to take down the photo as per the DMCA
Contact the forum owner and let them know they are publishing your work without permission. Tell them to replace his images with the links to your original image. Because the site publisher (forum owner) is liable, you don't have to actually worry about the infringer. Besides, the infringers typically don't have money--businesses do. If the site owner doesn't take action, take legal action against them since you will win. But be sure to gather all the evidence and save it before this as they can destroy it.

Good luck!

SamirD · September 8, 2012

Oh and see my thread on 'innocent infringer' that let's the forum owner off the hook:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1815117#post1815117

jonrider · September 9, 2012

I sent an email to the person asking if he would like to buy the licensed downloads through my website, or if he would rather I send him an invoice. He replied within an hour stating he had no need for the images and that he had edited them at the request of the owner of the car and he would delete them.

I verified the images were deleted, and I thanked him for his prompt action. We have exchanged further emails. He later replied with a much longer apology. I am satisfied with the outcome, and I believe that in this case, going the route I did, without the DMCA notices worked well.

SamirD · September 9, 2012

Excellent! That's a really great result from a bad situation.

Willful Copyright Infringement

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