POD site selling prints without proper license? Seeking advice...

[Sedge]

I recently performed a Google image search for my name and found one of my microstock images being sold as a POD canvas wrap on these four websites: Wayfair.com, AllModern.com, Gilt.com, and Wallmart.com.  Needless to say I was a bit shocked at this discovery!  I eventually determined with certainty that the distribution source was a company called Epic Art, located in Baltimore, Maryland.  Strangely, when viewing their website, I was unable to find my image.  My next step was to review all my microstock agency sales for any extended licenses for that image that would allow for the reproduction and resale of canvas wraps.  The image only had one extended license sale, and after contacting the agency that sold it, they determined that the sale was NOT to Epic Art.

So now I'm looking at a possible copyright infringement and/or liability case.  I suspect that Epic Art may have simply purchased a regular subscription or credit license for the image, which I believe for all agencies does NOT allow for the reproduction and resale of an image as a POD canvas wrap, but please correct me if I am mistaken.  Wouldn't a company be required to have some type of  extended license to resell and distribute a microstock image as a canvas wrap?

I guess my next step would be to contact Epic Art to determine if they purchased a license for my image, and if so exactly what type of license.  One interesting aspect is that my name is listed on each site as the artist, so I suspect they did indeed buy a license, but probably not the correct one.  So now the next step: Should I contact them directly, or would it be wise to have a lawyer contact them?  If this were simply some blogger ripping me off, I'd just ask for an image takedown, but as this involves the selling of prints through some pretty big name outlets, there could be some significant money involved.  Then again, perhaps my image has sold poorly, although one of the sites in question had it listed as "Sold Out" (although that seems a bit meaningless for POD distribution). 

So what do you think?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Perhaps someone on MSG has had a similar experience.  It's worth mentioning that I'd never considered this image to have any sales value as a stand-alone art piece.  I'd always thought of it as just a simple abstract background.  It'll be very interesting to see how this case is resolved!

Thanking everyone in advance!

[cuppacoffee]

Many POD sites legitimately purchase an image but only purchase the print license when the product they are displaying it on sells. Make sure you can identify which agency they purchased it from. They are allowed to display the product but only have to purchase the license for the image when and if someone buys the product. It is hard to prove when or if a product has sold. Lots of legwork has to be done on your end and they may only ultimately take it down with no license purchases to you as they are the only ones with the sales records. In other words, they can purchase a simple RF license to display the product but only have to buy the proper license if the product is sold. It is hard for a contributor or an agency to track this. There are many cases of legitimate cases of this, so not all companies are not doing this incorrectly. If you have already tracked it to Epic Art start there. They may have gotten it from an artist who did not follow the rules and Epic Art may not aware of that. That's one of the pitfalls of our images being easily found everywhere but not so easily tracked after they are sold. Good luck.

[etudiante_rapide]

removed. sent PM.