Hello NIck, I think the Web and file "sharing" has diluted the ideas of copyright, ownership, creation credit and similar ideas to the point of absurdity.
As someone in s similar position, who has published photographs, a book, and written material, I expect my work to be stolen, used without proper credit, and generally manhandled. There are a few things you can do to make this theft a little more difficult: 1. Embed a copyright notice into the photograph. Looks crappy, but it's difficult to publish a photo as-is without photoshopping the note out. 2. You can use the file info within Photoshop or most image retouching programs to put copyright notices, ownsrship info, terms of use, etc. into the actual file information. This is viewable by anyone who has the proper software. Search engines can also read this information. 3. There used to be plugins that allowed you to embed visually invisible watermarks that could be read using the plugin, a way of proving ownership. I have no idea if these plugins still exist. Other strategies: 1. We have a lawyer client, and on one occasion we had him draft a "Cease and Desist" letter sent to the party in question, giving deadlines for removal or that "legal action will be taken." That works pretty effectively. and the attorney was happy to do the letter for free. They have ready-made templates for this sort of thing, so it is a quick plug-and-play. 2. Time stamps are a good way of showing priority. Always retain the original photo which will show the date of creation. Many stolen images will end up having a more recent date. You can download the image off the web site in question and compare it to your own file. Forr some honest administrators, that may be all the proof required. 3. You can assume your work will be stolen, but make it easier for people to use it. Just insist on your web site that any images freely used MUST contain proper credit when published. A more formal version of this is a Creative Commons license 4. Really consider embedding your web site name into the photos. At the least, you may get welcomed traffic to view your other creations and ideas. The legalities: 1. Copyright is copyright, and in the USA, you do not even have to copyright an image to claim ownership of it. However, if you have creative work of value, it is advisable to formally copyright it with the US Copyright Office. That takes time and costs something. 2. About the best you can do is a "Cease and Desist" unless you can prove monetary loss.. How effective is that? Look how far prosection has gotten the record companies in trying to stop file sharing of their clients' hit records. Others may have ideas about this, but the situation you describe is nearly impossible to stop if the administrator can blow you off and do nothing. Ethics is not a strong point these days, and we have all lost ground because of that. The spirit is damaged. Wes Wada Bend, Oregon On Monday, July 27, 2015, Niclas (Gmail) <[email protected]> wrote: > So, guys - here's one for you... > > Background: > I'm getting tired of people posting my flies and stating that they are > their own. The more flies with different owners showing up in picture > searchs makes the ownership of the material on my own website unclear. > I know what copyright is about and until today I thought it was the same > "over there" but on a certain discussion forum where you also can upload > patterns to a pattern database I ran into a brick wall. The discussion with > the administrator has been ridiculous But as an administrator I'd like to > assume that he should have some knowledge about rules and laws... and since > he's not bending one inch (and getting more and more rude), it's not that I > start to wonder if I'm wrong myself. > > Someone else has used a photo (taken by myself) from my site and used it > for uploading a pattern in the forum's pattern database. First he thought I > meant that it was my pattern and he wanted to see a patent ID. I explained > that the pattern was beside the point and that it was the picture that was > the issue. I think I got that through. But he's still wants to see a patent > ID to remove it "or stop wasting his time because I'm bringing up shit that > noone but I even care about". > > Question: > Is copyright different in US. Has a US discussion forum more rights than a > private person to publish copyrighted pictures? > > /Nick > > -- > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" > group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','[email protected]');> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en > > VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VFB Mail" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','vfb-mail%[email protected]');>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. 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