Copyright Infringement

[Killjoy]

I found one of my images on another forum.

One that I had never joined. I had to join that forum, just so I could report the thief.
Then I found that same image on another forum. I had to join THAT one too, so I could report it as well.

The posts on both forums were identical. The user was a different name, but the threads were the same, the sample images were the same, etc.

What really bugs me is that on one of the forums, the "user" was a "Super Moderator".

What kind of Mod steals other peoples images?

The first forum has already removed my image, and it even shows that the thread has been modified.
Still waiting on the second one to be corrected.

I also saw another image that had copyright info on it. So I googled the person and sent them a note with the link.
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[bobbyz]

What kind picture just out of curosity?

We had these guy who was posting nice bird images all over the forums but all of them were stolen from other folks.

Personally rather than asking forums mods to remove the image I would publicly humiliate the person as to why he/she thinks that image is theirs.

[Killjoy]

It was an image of a Fire Dancer that I shot in SF with DigitalShe and Robin.

I was actually rather happy with the way the image turned out.

I found it in a tutorial thread on how to shoot certain types of images.

After going round and round with this guy, I finally got the image removed.
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[brucep]

[tjotala]

Did they link to the photo, or grab a copy of it and post it as their own?

If they were stupid enough to do the former, change to linked photo to something highly offensive. IIRC Anand did that once to someone using his photo as a MySpace background
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Tapani
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[BenUdkow]

[Killjoy]

I wish I had though of that, when the guy was giving me a hassle about it.

That being said, I do have it posted elsewhere, and it would have effected those links too.
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[jorj7]

I found someone using photos of my car to sell his car on ebay. I sent an
email to the seller, and he removed the photos. He said he didn't have any
good pictures of his car, and mine looked like his...
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Canon 1Dmk2, 1D, 60D, 20D, 650D
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[J. A.]

A few things regarding infringement:

The book at this address is very readable and right on topic:

http://www.krages.com/lhp.htm

I have filed copyright on about 1400 of my images. You can do this as a "compilation" if the images were: 1) taken by the same person, 2) in the same year and 3) you can come up with a title for the group. It used to cost 50 dollars and about twenty minutes filling out the form to copyright images. The maximum in a compilation is, or used to be, 750 images. You can find out all about it at: http://www.copyright.gov/

If someone infringes on a copyrighted image, sometimes you can get an attorney to take your case on contingency because the law allows for the easy collection of legal fees from the infringing party. Practically:

1) Shoot RAW and distribute JPEGs or TIFFs because you can always prove you took the photo. JPEGS and TIFFS come from RAW files not the other way around.

2) Demand photo credit because after a few copies get around, people will really think they took the image or it is in the public domain. Photo credit helps you control your images and sell your images. For example:

Here is one of my images on the web, I let the artist use it, but made him promise to give me photo credit. (See: http://www.futuremusic.com/news/june2006/trimpin.html) Trimpin tried to get me photo credit, but finally I had to write Future Music to get them to add the photo credit--which now links to my website.

Then I licensed this very same image to the producer of a movie about Trimpin--Peter Esmond. (See: http://www.pitchengine.com/trimpin/trimpin-the-sound-of-invention-screens-at--mill-valley-film-fest-and--san-francisco-docfest/26853/) Photo credit helps protect your images and make sales. Note folks I've only licensed two images in my whole life so I'm surely not bragging, just explaining how it actually worked in my very limited experience.

3) Write to the offending website and I bet the image comes down right away. I've done this sort of thing for the company I worked for many years ago. Much copying is innocent, sounds like yours wasn't; in the case of bold infringement it's really best to go after the infringer as may be reasonable.

4) Have the website let the infringer know the infringement has been discovered--they'll do this if they can contact the person.

Best wishes,

Joe

[rhbourbonnais]

If you don't know about TinEye, it is a good way to find your images posted all over the place.
http://www.tineye.com/

[Killjoy]

Found another one.

This time I replaced the image.
It shows the new image on my site, but it still shows the old one on the site of the thief.

Any ideas on how long before it gets changed on the referring site?

Oh, and Tin Eye didn't find it out there anywhere.
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[BenUdkow]

Link?
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Hello, my name is BEN
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[Killjoy]

http://kernel.com.au/carters-1996-ski-doo-mxz-583-specs-and-reviews/


Down the page is my image from Upper Antelope Valley.
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[Killjoy]

Nevermind. It took.
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[kalieaire]

you should've done a gay porn gif w/ ben campbell's head.

like what they did w/ 300 and van damme in 1984 hit break dancing movie "Breakin'"
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stan