Copyright infringement

[chrisga]

This is a question to the pro photographers out there who may have experience of this, but if anyone else knows the answer please feel free to chip in.

If you find a website has used one of your photographs without your prior permission, am I correct in thinking that it is called a copyright infringement?

If you have proof that it is one of your photographs what are your options? Does it matter where they got the image from? I think it may have been grabbed from my flickr account, although I have set downloads to only be available to my friends/family in contacts. If someone else grabbed it and put it on the website and there was no copyright logo on it and the website in question had no way of knowing who had taken the photograph can they use it anyway or should they not use it until they ascertain who owns it? Is it my fault for not using a watermark?

If the photograph has been used on a website and they remove it when copyright infringement is pointed out can you still charge for its use or is that OTT?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

Edited by chrisga on Wednesday 12th June 14:54

[markmullen]

Did they embed the image from your flickr or just download it and rehost it on their site? If the latter then yes it is an infringement, no it doesn't matter that you didn't watermark it.

First thing to do is to screenshot it to prove they used it so that when they know you've seen it and take it down you've got proof.

Next, the choice is yours. You could send them a cease and desist notice, if it is through a third party, like Facebook, you can report it and it will get taken down. You can try invoicing them for twice your normal rate for unauthorised usage, you could try and get some paid work out of it eg if you like my photos so much how about paying me to do your next shots (with fee up front, naturally), it all depends on what you want to achieve.

NB All these assume that on flickr you're set to All Rights Reserved, not to Creative Commons, which would bring all sorts of different issues into play.

[chrisga]

Mark,

Thanks. flickr is set to rights reserved. I'll grab a screenshot now. Good tip! Would there be a standard type form for this on the web or is it just make it up on an individual basis.

I'm not a pro so have no idea how much my image is worth. In this case not very much I would think as its a low res small image but its the principle that has annoyed me.

Chris

Edited by chrisga on Wednesday 12th June 15:36