Problem with Website...

[kibosh]

Not a good morning......

Opened the mail to find a settlement demand from a large and well known Publishing house for £3K+ over the use of 2 small industry-related pictures on my Company website. They state that even if I remove them, they will continue to pursue my Company for the settlement amount. They've featured on the site for over 4 years now (although I doubt they would be able to discover that).

I used a 3rd party IT Company for all design and completion of the website and at no time did they highlight this possibility. It was the IT Company that suggested the particular pictures in question and I assumed they had the legal right of use.

I've emailed the IT Company seeking their opinion/advice and so far there has been no response. Too early to contact a lawyer?

In the interim, any thoughts people?

Thanks,

K

[M400 NBL]

I would suggest meeting the MD of the company in question. If you explain that it was a mistake (hopefully he/she won't be the type of person that's thinks ignornace is as bad as purposeful errors) then they might understand.

You could offer to advertise their site on yours for free for a set amount of time, if it's a benefit to them and not detrimental to your site.

I'm glad I e-mailed mod's on Pistonheads asking for their approval of a link to this site from mine. I got a very nice reply and the ok to use it.

Best of luck. PLease let us know the outcome.

[kibosh]

Thanks.

I'm waiting to hear what the Web-designers reply is...maybe the do actually have licenses for use of the images. Fingers crossed

will keep you posted.


K

[altrezia]

pass the bill onto the company that dealt with your website. if they used it without getting it from you, its at their cost - this is how it works. We have gone through the same stuff for sites we created for our clients about 5 years ago - and we had to foot the bill.

[kibosh]

I've just spoken to them (IT Company) and the stony silence from the other end of the phone doesn't bode well. Think I may have a fight on my hands.

[jamesuk28]

Website designer here. We only use Royality free stock images that we buy, or take our own photos. Technically its your site so you are liable for the content, however the designer is at fault if they have knowingly breached copyright.

I would suggest you put out a call to PH intellectual property / copyright lawyers and see where they stand. feel free to email me direct at www.geminidigital.co.uk

Edited by jamesuk28 on Sunday 26th November 21:15

[egomeister]

I think there was a thread on this a while back - might be worth digging through the archieves to see if there was any useful info there?

[kibosh]

Thanks folks. Much appreciated.

K

[AquilaEagle]

Take the image of the site and there is no proof

[jamesuk28]

AquilaEagle said:

Take the image of the site and there is no proof

Not as easy as that I am afraid. The webpages can easily be captured as image and text documents, and it is possible to view deleted webpages from upto 10 years ago. I would recommend, if you have not already done so, that you remove the images to at least show you are trying to be the good guy, but do not go down the "image?, what image road"

[d1bble]

jamesuk28 said:

AquilaEagle said:

Take the image of the site and there is no proof

Not as easy as that I am afraid. The webpages can easily be captured as image and text documents, and it is possible to view deleted webpages from upto 10 years ago. I would recommend, if you have not already done so, that you remove the images to at least show you are trying to be the good guy, but do not go down the "image?, what image road"

Yep..If you want to go back in time..click here

[judas]

Speak with UKBob - he had the same thing with a third-party designed site about 6 months ago.

[schueymcfee]

We've had this problem before.

They're a bunch of shysters, they must have a massive team of researchers comparing images on webistes all day.

The company that owned the domain was not the contact company (us an affiliate), but our contact details where on the site. So they contacted us and not the actual owner of the website. Which means they don't do a who-is check.

They threatened court, so didn't reply and waited for them to take court action at which point we were going to say that we didn't actually own the site.

They never got back to us though! They must sned 100s of these letters out a day in the hope that someone will pay!

Don't take this as advice though!

Edited by schueymcfee on Thursday 16th November 12:24

[jamesuk28]

No, but they probably "digi marked the images" so they can be tracked on the internet, and then pounce.

[emicen]

Isnt there a program (sure I heard of this) that can compare images, so you can simply tell it to search for a likeness of your image and compare the close matches?

[jamesuk28]

Never heard of that. The problem would be in the title and description. I may have an image of a tree, but call it image01. Therefore if you asked a programme to search for all images of , say, green trees it would miss mine because it things my image is of an 01.

There are plenty of image search engines, but they would rely on the description and title of the image. I guess you could scan your image in, and the program take pixel reference points to map it, but that would be quite expensive and complicated.

I await to be proven wrong though.

[superlightr]

Have the images been lifeted from their web site and used in yours?
Who took the photos?
What is the photo of?
Does it identify another company?


You might be better to post a link to the Photography forum.

As I understand it even if you have used a picture that someone else took, the charge you will have to pay is the market rate for using that picture if it was commercially availble and a small bit on top. ie breach of copyright.

If you are using their logo in the photo then there may/will be further problems or representing they work or associate with you/your firm, breach of copyright and passing off/misrepresentation etc

You need to speek to GetCarter on the Photo forum who had the reverse happen to him recently. I think they are pulling a fast one with the amount they are claiming.

what is their image they are complining about email me a link if you wish.

(at uni I did Interlectual Property ie Copyright/trademarks law as part of a law degree many years ago


I think the best course is to ignore their letter, see what comes out in the wash. vBet its just a fishing letter.
Clearly take down the image. If you want to anoy them take your own photo and remove any identifing logos to the company so your left with just a building.

Edited by superlightr on Friday 17th November 11:25