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Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

How To Deal With Copyright Infringement

Months ago somebody contacted me to say she had found postcards for sale in the Netherlands with one of my photographs on it. She mailed a copy to me. At the time I assumed it had been licensed by Getty when I was represented by them. Somebody recently sent me a link to the publisher's site where there's a picture of a rack of postcards, and I can clearly see my photograph there. I'm wondering if Getty may have licensed it to a company with another name or some such thing and don't want to go after them, guns blazing, if that's the case. But now I'm thinking that they've lifted it from the internet.

I'm kind of laid back about copyright infringement on the internet but when I see somebody is obviously making money from my image, well, that's different. I could use some advice on how to deal with this. Any thoughts?

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Bradford Martin

9 Years Ago

I am having trouble understanding why you think it was taken from FAA and not licensed from Getty.

 

Rivkah Honeysgirl

9 Years Ago

Isn't that what watermarks are for? Not being smart...I'm new at this.

 

Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

I don't think it was taken from FAA actually...more likely from Zazzle or Flickr, I think. I don't think it was licensed from Getty because I don't see the publisher's name on any of my invoices.

 

Janine Riley

9 Years Ago

This may sound very naïve - but as the copyright holder can't you just contact the publisher and request the license info ?
If it's legit , they should gladly supply it. If not...

 

Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

If it's naive, it's right up my alley, Janine! When you're represented by Getty you're told not to do anything at all if you doubt your image was legitimately licensed but since I'm not with them anymore, I suppose it doesn't matter. I don't want to offend them but on the other hand, I don't want them to get away with anything either.

I think your suggestion makes sense. Then if they can't come up with the license info I can figure out what to charge them.

 

James Brunker

9 Years Ago

Getty's sales statements may well not mention the publisher, just a license for repro on postcards in the Netherlands, maybe a print run / time duration. Would be worth emailing Getty to double check, it could be a sale via their distributor rather than direct or a sale that slipped through the net (which happens more often than you'd like to think.... It could also be that (some of) your images are still somewhere in their distribution chain even if you are no longer represented by them). You could also email the publisher as Janine says, asking for license details to update your records or similar (don't mention infringements to start with). If they have a license they should provide you with them.

If it turns out to be an infringement this article has good advice on how to deal with them: http://www.epuk.org/Opinion/994/stolen-photographs-what-to-do It's based on UK law but a lot is applicable in other countries as well

 

Janine Riley

9 Years Ago

Ok, good. I prefer the simplest approach to begin with. There is a good possibility if this was infringed - the publisher would want to know. It could have been submitted as another Artists work fraudulently.
Thanks for the link James.

 

Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

Thanks very much, James. That's what I was wondering, whether or not the publisher's name would necessarily be on my statement. I haven't licensed anything to a company in the Netherlands but the publisher looks very legit on the other hand. So I'll email Getty first. Thanks for the link too.

Janine, you know, I never even thought of the possibility of another artist submitting it. I guess anything's possible.

 

Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

Excellent article, James. The sample letters in particular are very useful. Although the article is geared more towards infringement on the internet, there's lots of valuable info there.

This could be complicated though...the article is written in the UK, I'm in Canada, and the possible infringer is in the Netherlands.

 

James Brunker

9 Years Ago

Yes, it's an excellent article with info that can be applied to all sorts of situations, hope you mange to resolve your case, whether it turns out to be an infringement or not. At least they are in the Netherlands which improves your chances of finding out what's going on, rather than somewhere like China........ Another possibility re Getty (as if things weren't complicated enough already!) is the publisher is part of a larger company / group, and the image was licensed elsewhere for distribution in the Netherlands

 

Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

Good point, James...the image was actually licensed several times by a huge company in Germany that owns lots of other companies so it's very possible.

 

Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

O.K., so I'm feeling pretty silly now...I found the statement and yes, they legitimately licensed my picture a couple of years ago. I had forgotten that Getty put our statements in another place on their site partway through 2012 so there were half a dozen statements I hadn't seen until just now.

In a way I'm glad for the confusion though because now we have the excellent link James has provided, just in case any of us ever need it.

Anyway, it's a big relief to discover that the image was legitimately licensed.

 

Janine Riley

9 Years Ago

Good to hear Peggy.

This is going to be a common occurrence now with RF work - we need to know how to handle it.

 

Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

Especially since we won't know who is licensing our images. I don't really understand how that can work. You'd never know what's legit and what isn't.

 

Shari Nees

9 Years Ago

I have had people buy my Art... scan it themselves and then sell it. Beyond annoying. All my Art is Copyrighted.

Hope you can figure out what is going on.

 

Justin Green

9 Years Ago

..

 

Peggy Collins

9 Years Ago

@ Shari ~ I figured it out...read my post at 5:13 pm.

Edited to add: Just wanted to thank you for your contribution to the thread, James. For some reason it was closed before I got a chance to say that after your last comment.

 

James Brunker

9 Years Ago

Good to hear you've resolved it and that its a legit usage! Also a useful reminder about importance of keeping good records of licenses, which stock sites you have submitted which images to etc. Especially these days when there are so many images about, agencies often have extensive distribution and sub distribution chains, internet theft is much more common and keeping control of your work is generally harder. Things were easier in many ways in the old days.....

 

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