Hi Nancy I'm not an expert on copyright law and it's not clear from your message exactly what the person is doing with the photos but I believe the answer to the question is in the portion of your photography policy that states "...or DISTRIBUTED without written permission from the Museum." Placing material on the web on pages that are accessible to the general public is in fact 'distribution'. Without getting into numerous legal arguments about 'was the policy posted at the facility when the pictures were taken?' or 'Would a reasonable person be expected to find the policy on your website?' etc, the fact that the policy has now been brought to the attention of the offending party means that they should cease and desist. Any culpability prior to having that notification is murky at best. I would try again and inform him that he's in violation of the 'Distribution' portion of your photography policy. Hopefully he'll take the pictures down. If not, then your Photography Policy will be open to the courts interpretation. Personally, I don't believe that courts deal in right and wrong, only in 'tradition' (past case law) and since there isn't a lot of Internet case law to go on, ... who knows what would happen!
That said, the next question becomes ... and this is the tricky part ... if you should decide you have to fight and hopefully win, will the backlash effect the Museum's reputation and thus effect it's ability to raise funds in tough times? An Internet/Media savvy person playing the 'poor innocent victim' of the 800lb gorilla could possibly do a lot of damage to your reputation/fund raising ability ... especially in an Internet aware place like the Bay Area. Look at the 'black eye' the Recording Industry is getting by taking 12 year old kids to court for downloading and trading songs. Are they right? Absolutely! Are they doing themselves and their Artists significant damage? Absolutely! While that's an extreme example, it points out that the Internet is going to create issues for many industries that can't be handled by current laws or current thought processes. Good luck and I'd love to know how you make out. Opinions are my own and not those of my employer, etc. Randy Heise Information Systems Manager The High Desert Museum 59800 South Highway 97 Bend, OR 97702-7963 (541) 382-4754 Ext. 244 (541) 382-5256 Facsimile [email protected] www.highdesertmuseum.org -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 12:47 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Unauthorized website posting of museum images Hello and happy 2004! I am looking for suggestions from any of you who may have advice on how we should deal with an individual who has posted approximately 450 unauthorized images of our museum and our collection on his website. --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected]
