I am not a lawyer, I do not even play one on TV. I am in no way qualified nor will I ever attempt to give anyone any legal advice. Only my opinion, which should be taken as the ravings of a crazed madman and nothing more. Always check with an attorney if you have any legal questions.
Topic 1: Image copyrights >From what I understand every photo is copyrighted, unless specifically stated otherwise. If you take a picture you are the photographic artist that owns the rights to that image. No one else may use it without your permission for any reason commercial or otherwise. In addition you may not take pictures of copyrighted images, unless you are expressly given permission. This is why many museums do not allow cameras. You may not take any pictures where someone has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Reasonable is left up to a judge, but this is why cameras in dressing rooms and bathrooms are illegal. Getty and other companies and people make their living selling photographic rights. www.istockphoto.com www.shutterstock.com www.gettyimages.com If you go to a website, download an image and use it for our own purposes you are essentially stealing that image. The photographic artist, who owns the image, has not been compensated for their work. This would be exactly the same thing as you giving someone a manicure, they go to the bathroom to wash their hands and leave without paying. As innocent and harmless as it sounds to just download a little image and use it is the same as taking a roll of toilet paper from work, clocking in then going to Starbucks or stocking your purse with sugar packets from your favorite restaurant. It seems like a victimless crime, until you become the lady holding the file wondering why your client has been in the bathroom for 15 minutes. That doesn't feel good, and neither does seeing a photograph that you took being used without your permission. There is no doubt that there should be copyright and trademark reform and a real definition of "free use". But that is a political discussion for another time. You can use Google image search http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searchbyimage.html to upload an image and search the entire internet for it. Getty uses this type of technology to constantly search for its entire catalog of 965 Kabizillion images. Once it flags one, an alert gets sent to a live human who then sends you a nastygram telling that you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar. This is like your boss showing you camera footage with you leaving with company toilet paper, or a restaurant owner glaring at you as you load all the silverware on the table into your doggie bag. Except that Getty sends you a bill. You can do one of four things. Ignore it: At best they will just drop it. At worst they will sue you. They will win. If they sue you in their own state, they will need to have the judgment domesticated into your state. If they sue you in your own state, they will need to send or hire a lawyer in your state. I am guessing they probably already have one there. In any case the entire process could take $30,000 and a few years. You would be responsible for their attorney's fees along with whatever judgment they were awarded. Then they would have to try to collect it. Collection agencies, a judgment on your credit report, a lean on your assets or taking the money right out of your bank account. Fight it: Get a lawyer. The lawyer will attempt to fight the case for you. If you lawyer up, they may get edgy and take you directly to court without passing go or they may back down completely. Now you have a $2000 lawyer bill which will soon turn into $30,000 if you go to court. Negotiate with them: Tell them you didn't know, you have removed it and ask them to wave their licensing fee. Explain that you are a working nail tech with no assets and to pay this fee would cause a hardship. At best you will pay nothing at worst they will say no. Pay it: It will go away. They will grant you a license for the time you used the image. Topic 2: Get free images to use on your website Take the picture yourself. Then you own the license and can use it anyway you want to. Be careful about taking pictures of with sports teams or copyrighted characters on them. Kitty, Mickey or Mark Cuban might get angry. You don't want to see Kitty get angry. If you want to see Mark get angry just turn on the TV pretty much anytime. or You can use Google to search for images that have a public free license or no license at all at Google advanced image search http://www.google.com/advanced_image_search. Enter your search terms, then go to the bottom of the page where it says "Usage Rights" and select "Free to use and share, even commercially". Or if you need to modify the image in any way choose "Free to use, share and modify, even commercially". There you will find millions of images for free that you can use. Topic 3: How to protect images you own on your website Anyone that knows what they are doing can circumvent any sort of protection on the internet. If they really want your picture, they are going to get it. It is data and if the data is displayed on your screen, it is stored in or streamed to your computer. But you can make it difficult for a casual user to take your image. Second, don't pay some web dork $100 to "implement right click protection security protocols" on your website. Simply go in to HTML mode and add this line right below where it says <body> <body oncontextmenu="return false;"> It turns right clicking off. This will eliminate probably about 75% of the people out there from stealing your image. There are many more sophisticated ways to protect your content such as using frames, storing the pictures on a protected server, using flash or redirecting. But most people need to pay a web guy to do that sort of stuff. Plus it all can be circumvented. If you know how to edit photos you can do a watermark, which is see through text on your image. But a watermark is as easy to remove as red eye is. You can also put a copyright statement on the lower left corner of the image, which will make some people think twice about stealing. Sort of like the sign on the bowl of candy, "one per customer". Remember, I am not a lawyer, seek your own legal advice, this is only my opinion, please don't sue me. Now so I can pay for my Wheaties... Like us on facebook at www.facebook.com/gelousy P.S. Buy my gel, it will brighten your client's smile and give them a strong healthy glow. Erick Westcott, CEO Gelousy Gel Nail Systems 1745 W Deer Valley RD STE 124 Phoenix AZ 85027 602-493-9043 Fax: 602-493-2544 [email protected] www.gelousy.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Laura Merzetti Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2012 6:36 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: NailTech:: Re: oh no Anna, is this code embedded in the picture or on your website? If it's on pictures I would like to add it to mine. I specifically asked my web designer about enabling this when he was working for me and he told me it was a lot of work (read: more expensive) so I didn't do it. But if I can do this myself I want to - thanks for sharing. Laura -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Anna Z James Sent: March-17-12 1:24 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: NailTech:: Re: oh no On homestead/intuit you can add a code to right click protect your photos I don't think it works for facebook...about 2 yrs ago I found a few of my designs on some elses blog along with others and asked them to remove them and ever since I have had the protection on my page. I would assume a large company that pays photographers for their photos would have done the same in additon to that that they would have water marked items that they didn't want used on google??? I'm a small person in a large pond of people that create sites for their business' if they need $900 that bad they can try their luck at getting it but won't cause I ain't got it! Anna T-Mobile. America's First Nationwide 4G Network Wet Paint Nail Spa <[email protected]> wrote: >How do you right click protect your photos? Does it work on Facebook >photos too? > >Michelle Phoenix, Owner/Elite Nail Technician Wet Paint Nail Spa Nails, >Skin & Hair www.wetpaintnailspa.com > >On Mar 16, 2012, at 11:15 PM, Anna Z James <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Well today I too received a letter and apparently a photo I was using >> on my site for over 3 yrs now on my site was one of many getty photos....I took this photo from google. I have a right click protention on ALL of my photos and not one of them is on google so why may I ask was this one on google? They are asking for the sum of $ 925 for 1 photo....they can kiss it where the sun don't shine!!! >> >> Anna >> >> T-Mobile. America's First Nationwide 4G Network >> >> "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> One thing no one had mentioned......Getty is a LARGE " company" with >>> the rights to millions of photos. >>> Why would they not have all these photos where NO ONE can grab them? >>> Seems that this is what they want. There are many photos I cannot download. That option is not available on many sites. Getty surely can do this. >>> In the one article it said that it is unlikely Getty will go after someone who only took one. They want bigger thieves. It would cost them more to go after you. >>> Pinterest is a whole other story. Read the article Holly sent last week. >>> Buenos dias, >>> Lynnette >>> >>> >>> Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide >>> >>> ----- Reply message ----- >>> From: "Debbie Diblasi" <[email protected]> >>> Date: Wed, Mar 14, 2012 8:43 pm >>> Subject: NailTech:: Re: oh no >>> To: <[email protected]> >>> >>> Ladies: >>> >>> Maggie is exactly right. >>> >>> Whether or not this case involves the real Getty Images or a scam >>> using Getty's name, it's a good caution for everyone to recheck your own websites and social media for potential violations. >>> >>> Copyright violation in regard to online images is a large and >>> quickly growing area of prosecution, especially in regard to social media, especially Pinterest, etc. Whether completely innocently or blatantly on purpose, many people have been "stealing" others' images and articles for years and using them on their websites, to promote their businesses on Facebook or in ads and in many other ways. I personally know of many cases where people and companies cut and pasted others' articles and resold them under their own bylines. Word for word. While the small freelance writers and photographers don't have much recourse, the larger agencies are getting tough. >>> >>> Here's how some of it happens: >>> http://webtechlaw.com/posts/pinterests-hidden-threat-to-its-users.ht >>> ml >>> >>> >>> I also completely agree with Maggie's recommendation. >>> >>> Best, >>> >>> Jayne Morehouse >>> Jayne & company >>> >>> >>> On Mar 14, 2012, at 8:30 PM, Maggie in Visalia wrote: >>> >>>> Lauren: >>>> >>>> First of all: Where did you obtain the photo? Did you know it was a Getty image when you used it? Did it come from a source that lead you to believe it was royalty free and available for your use? If so, then you should write that all up in a fancy letter of dispute and send it back to them asking, essentially, for them to fogive the infraction and call it good, or at least point them at a bigger fish to go after. >>>> >>>> Even though it is customary to send a cease and desist order, it is >>>> not necessary. For any of us who have had our photos stolen, you know how crappy it is. They CAN just go after you. But if you can prove that you did not know it was a copyrighted image, then you have a leg to stand on. >>>> >>>> There's a number of software options out there now that search the Internet for photos. Several of them are out there for free and available to consumers, I can only imagine what Getty Images has in its arsenal. >>>> >>>> Taking the photo down does not "un-do" copyright infringment, all >>>> they have to do is take a screen shot of the site while it was up and they can take it to court. I'm not sure how far it will go with a judge that sees that the image was removed upon notice, but it's a possibility. >>>> >>>> Try communicating with the people who sent the letter (once you ascertain that it is legit) and see if they are reasonable before you panic. >>>> >>>> Maggie Franklin: >>>> Owner & Artist, The Art of Nailz, Visalia CA "Visionary rebel >>>> dreamer; obviously way ahead of my time." >>>> Maggie Rants [and Raves]@Nails Magazine Facebook >>>> >>>> >>>> From: Jill in Ky <[email protected]> >>>> To: NailTech <[email protected]> >>>> Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 7:24 AM >>>> Subject: NailTech:: Re: oh no >>>> >>>> Now that you've taken it down, that should suffice. It sounds very >>>> fishy, too, cause normally from what I understand they first send >>>> you a letter explaining your violation and then tell you to remove >>>> it immediately. They traditionally do not shake people down for >>>> money right at the beginning. I'd definitely not pay a lawyer and >>>> I'd definitely not pay this company anything, not even if you >>>> bargained with them to lower the fee. It probably is some kind of scam. >>>> >>>> The company has to first sue you in court to get a judgment, and >>>> that will cost them way more than the $780 they're trying to charge you. >>>> And going thru the suit process just for $780 seems very unlikely, >>>> since that would also take months. I'd just tell them that you've >>>> taken the image down now that you're aware there was a problem and >>>> if they want any more from you they'll have to file a lawsuit. >>>> >>>> If by some odd, small chance that this company is legit and they do >>>> sue you, it'll take months and months. Then you'll get a notice to >>>> appear in court (due to the amount it''ll probably be in small >>>> claims >>>> court) and at that point you can call the company back and >>>> negotiate for a smaller settlement if you want. >>>> >>>> But think about it....anyone can send anyone a typed up, legal >>>> looking letter thru the mail and demand money for some random >>>> infraction that may or may not be true. Naive, honest people and >>>> old people automatically pay it with no questions asked because >>>> they get scared that their credit will be ruined. And it's true >>>> that there isn't a debtors prison. They could be sitting at home >>>> trolling the internet or Facebook for beauty related businesses and >>>> sending hundred or thousands of people letters such as this. Think >>>> of the amount of money this alleged company or scam artist is >>>> making just if 10% of their targets pay up? >>>> >>>> You may want to also check this out on snopes.com where they list >>>> recent scams and such. >>>> >>>> Jill Wright >>>> Bowling Green, KY >>>> >>>> On Mar 13, 6:53 pm, Lauren Dodson <april392.. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en. >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "NailTech" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en. >> > >-- >You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >Groups "NailTech" group. >To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. >For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NailTech" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nailtech?hl=en.
