Copyright Infringement recent experience

[x-ray]

I know this has been discussed to death but I thought I would share a recent experience.

As many of you know I spent considerable time and money documenting the late moonshiner Popcorn Sutton. Popcorn has become a cult figure like Marilyn Monroe (not nearly as pretty as Marilyn) and Elvis. Quite a number of magazines and news papers have purchased rights to use these images and use them on their website. The current way of thinking is if it's on the web it's free to the public. WRONG!!! I find my work all over the internet now and for sale. I found three people reproducing my work and selling it on ebay and found three people that have produced music videos using my images.Two of the videos are for professional musicians that tour. The videos were posted on YouTube and with a little research I found the person responsible for doing this. I contacted the agent for one of the musicians and stated what was going to happen if the video wasn't removed. I assume they didn't take it seriously so I first attempted to have all three videos removed by the procedure set forth by YouTube.

I'm pleased to say with proper documentation provided that I am the creator and owner of the copyright that the videos were all pulled from the web. YouTube was very responsive and took the proper action.

My advice when you create something of value. Do as I did and register the copyright with the US copyright office or the one in your country. In the US if you do not register it it is still copyrighted but it's difficult to enforce it and almost impossible to recover damages. I followed the procedure and have a registered copyright on not only all the images but my book as well. I was prepared to make a legal case out of it if needed and would have started the process if the YouTube process failed.

Here's a link to the 7 myths about copyright. This is well worth reading.

http://webnet77.com/webstuff/copyright.html

Don Dudenbostel

 

[sevo]

My advice when you create something of value. Do as I did and register the copyright with the US copyright office or the one in your country.

As far as I can make out, there is no such thing as a registered copyright anywhere other than in the US, and it is meaningless for everybody except US nationals ever since the US joined the Berne convention, as article 5(2) explicitly demands that "The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to any formality".

 

[x-ray]

I do a search every few days and just found two of my images made into T shirts on ebay. The process starts again.

This person even had the nerve to copyright my images. That's serious business with the fed. 140739980873 check it out.

Don

 

[huntjump]

As far as I can make out, there is no such thing as a registered copyright anywhere other than in the US, and it is meaningless for everybody except US nationals ever since the US joined the Berne convention, as article 5(2) explicitly demands that "The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to any formality".

Under Copy right law, formality referred to a procedural requirement formerly required before receiving U.S. copyright protection. The process of obtaining a copyright includes formalities like (1) a copyright notice appearing on the work, (2) actual publication, (3) registration with the copyright office, and (4) deposit of the work with the Library of Congress.

At present no formalities are required, although registration remains a prerequisite for an infringement suit by U.S. authors.

Formality also means the conditions which must be observed in making contracts, and the words which the law gives to be used in order to render them valid.

------

Sorry but you misread, or better said as misinterpreted the legal meaning of formality. Easy to do, I agree sevo, but nevertheless your meaning of formality and that in which the Berne Convention signatories meant it to be differ. Copyright, as OP stated, does not have to be registered to get protection (though as OP again stated, it is much easier to prove and thus recover remedy). It does not, as you state, mean the entire protection is meaningless. International law rarely has teeth to enforce its own provisions (arguably), but in some cases, good relationships among countries helps enforce an agreement. e.g. In megaupload, they extradited the violators and there was really no fuss among either country over the process.

 

[Steve M.]

"Popcorn has become a cult figure like Marilyn Monroe".

I truly hope you're not serious w/ this statement. That's lubricious. Or ludicrous. Or both.

 

[Chris Bail]

xray - did you report the item on ebay? I thought they took that sort of thing down for trademark and copyright violations?

 

[Araakii]

I love the HIGHLY RARE exclamation in the listing.

 

[Chris Bail]

Also "Not sold in stores!"

 

[x-ray]

What really ticked me off was the guy says he copyrighted the images and they are. It to be copied or used. No kidding, he obviously understands what a copyright is.

Yes Im in the process of filing a complaint with eBay it that doesn't stop them from selling them other places. Depending on the persons response and whether they cooperate will determine what action I take. In any case I'm seriously thinking about turning them over to the copyright office for registering / copyrighting images I have all ready registered. I believe this is a serious federal offense.

I do plan to go after the T shirt company for reproducing copyrighted material. Walmart got slapped hard a few years ago for reproducing copyrighted work.

 

[splitimageview]

If your images are indeed copyrighted prior to the time they were used by others, you can get statutory damages, and you may even get an attorney to fight it on contingency basis.

Otherwise, it would be limited to actual damages, which are often difficult to prove, and it's out of pocket legal fees...

Sorry you're having to go thru this, but keep us posted...

 

[maddoc]

I do a search every few days and just found two of my images made into T shirts on ebay. The process starts again.

This person even had the nerve to copyright my images. That's serious business with the fed. 140739980873 check it out.

Don

Sorry for all the trouble you have to go through. On a side-note, how do you search for your images on the internet that possibly made it into somebody else copyright-violating business ? Digital water-mark ?

 

[clayne]

Sorry for all the trouble you have to go through. On a side-note, how do you search for your images on the internet that possibly made it into somebody else copyright-violating business ? Digital water-mark ?

http://www.tineye.com/

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Looks like the shirt-vendor has taken down the add.

 

[huntjump]

awesome. guess he got scared

 

[x-ray]

I generally google my name along with Popcorn Sutton in this case. I check eBay and YouTube as well. Friends and family send links that they've found as well.

A client sent a link to tineye and I'm going to give that a try. People are lifting them from the RFF gallery, New York Times, Gourmet Magazine and several other news sites that bought one time rights. I even caught people using their cell phone to shoot them at my museum openings.

 

[jsrockit]

Wow, people are scumbags when it comes to money. Reminds me of the people who sell WTC disaster porn booklets by the WTC site. You know they didn't take those photos. Or the numerous people who sell generic NYC photos in the Wall St or Central Park locations... of which they didn't take any of the photos. Sure, I understand that not everyone has the same opportunity in the US to make a living, and if you are here illegally or legal from another country without the right skills, things are even rougher, but still, have some sort of conscious. I've always loved the musicians who smashed the tables of those selling bootlegs of their albums....just destroyed everything. A few rappers (or associates of rappers) have done this and I always wished I was there to see it. Unfortunately, the web doesn;t allow the same type of smashing.

 

[rbiemer]

Sorry for all the trouble you have to go through. On a side-note, how do you search for your images on the internet that possibly made it into somebody else copyright-violating business ? Digital water-mark ?

As mentioned, there is Tineye--I use it in Firefox--and there is another Firefox plug-in called Who Stole My Pictures ( see here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/who-stole-my-pictures/ ) that uses five different searches.

My photos are bad enough, apparently, that no one wants to steal them...sort of a mixed blessing I guess.
Rob

 

[sevo]

We who pay for our expensive software are paying for the stuff that's ripped off. I read that 1/3 of the MS products in use are ripped software. The cost of loss, just like in a department store, is built into the retail price we pay.

No, that is not really comparable - the sales price consists of design, production, material, promotional, distribution and retail cost in addition to profit at every stage of the production and retail chain.

Promotion is strictly a matter of sold items (you cannot reduce promotion if you reduce theft), material and production cost only affect material goods, while distribution and retail cost only come into count for items sold or stolen out of the shelf. In the case of copies, only design cost and profit of the manufacturer are affected - and that only if the culprits would have bought the software if they had not had access to a copy.

 

[I Love Film]

http://potrzebie.blogspot.com/

Read: In the Stills of the Night

By Tom Conroy

 

[Matus]

Within the light of the discussion I just (for the 'fun' of it) went and searched for some of my works I have published on flickr - and found 3 of my images of ORIS watches (not really that good actually) being reproduced on webpage of some spanish jewelry as part of their add - way beyond what the Crative Commons. I guess I will send them an e-mail. At the same time - what to do is there is 'no reaction' - is is in a different country in EU ...