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Author Topic: Sending DMCA Notice to an Agency  (Read 4807 times)

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« on: December 27, 2011, 05:33 »
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Has anyone here ever had to go so far as to send an agency a DMCA take-down notice for copyright infringement and send them a bill?  If so, how much did you charge them?  And were your images registered with the copyright office or not? 


« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2011, 06:54 »
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Please, what is DMCA?

« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2011, 06:58 »
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Lol, sorry, you're not going to get anything by sending a bill.  A regular email with proof of ownership will normally result in getting the offending work removed.

« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2011, 07:07 »
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It's worth a try, Sean.  The agency owes me at least $1,000 in actual damages and counting.  I'm still adding up the total.  If I'd been smart and registered the copyrights, my bill/lawsuit would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  This infringement is that serious, and my attorney agrees.  I want to try on my own before asking her to step in.    

DMCA = Digital Millenium Copyright Act  The takedown notice is what you send people who infringe on your copyrights.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2011, 07:11 by NorthwestDreams »

« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2011, 07:10 »
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How can you "add up the total"?  Are you multiplying x downloads by $.25 or something?

Anyhoo, the Agency is not the infringer, the uploader.  You'd have to go after the owner.  That's why the Agency is not going to give you anything, $1000 or $1.

« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2011, 07:13 »
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I'm the uploader and owner.  I want my images removed from my own portfolio.  I stopped giving them permission to sell licenses almost a year ago, so they are profiting off my work without my permission.  Guess I should have been more specific.  LOL
« Last Edit: December 27, 2011, 07:16 by NorthwestDreams »

velocicarpo

« Reply #6 on: December 27, 2011, 08:33 »
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In this case I definitly would send them a bill. With registered copyrights and stopped permission they have almost no chance to win any case. What agency are we talking about?

« Reply #7 on: December 27, 2011, 08:37 »
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I'm the uploader and owner.  I want my images removed from my own portfolio.  I stopped giving them permission to sell licenses almost a year ago, so they are profiting off my work without my permission.  Guess I should have been more specific.  LOL

Oh, well, yes.  How do you "stop giving them permission"?  Did you close your account?  How do you account for losses?  You can't really say, because I sold X here at $.25, then I didn't sell it for $100 over on Getty.

« Reply #8 on: December 27, 2011, 08:50 »
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I would imagine that as a copyright holder, if I chose to pull down, say,  100 of my 900 images from Dreamstime, for example, but later had proof that licenses had been selling from Dreamstime for those 100 images, I would say that that is copyright infringement. I don't think I should be required to close my account but I do think I should have control over where and when my images are licensed. At DT, one must leave images up for 6 months, but other agencies don't have time requirements like that. For instance, at istock. If istock continued to sell and profit from a few of your images, even though you still had many more in your account that you wanted to license, would you not be p$ssed?

to the op: I hope you can recoup at least some of your money, though I think Sean is right about that...you will be lucky if you can get them to pull the images down, let alone see any $$...perhaps with the help of an attorney.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2011, 08:52 by cclapper »

« Reply #9 on: December 27, 2011, 08:55 »
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If istock continued to sell and profit from a few of your images, even though you still had many more in your account that you wanted to license, would you not be p$ssed?

Are you saying you think you're entitled to the percentage of royalties IS would have kept?  I'm just trying to figure out where the "damages" come from this situation.

« Reply #10 on: December 27, 2011, 10:41 »
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Yes.  Damages are the agency's cut on all sales for these images, multiplied by three (the industry standard).  If I had registered my copyrights, damages would have been calculated at a going rate of $1,000 per image (which is Getty's standard rate when sending DMCAs).

I'm not going to name the agency until this situation is resolved.

I stopped giving permission when I removed the images from the agency's website.  Their contract gives a deadline for how much time they have to remove the images, and they are well beyond their own deadline.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2011, 10:44 by NorthwestDreams »

« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2011, 10:46 »
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to the op: I hope you can recoup at least some of your money, though I think Sean is right about that...you will be lucky if you can get them to pull the images down, let alone see any $$...perhaps with the help of an attorney.

I think Sean's right, too, which is why I'm sending the DMCA in consultation with my attorney.  If they ignore me, I'll have to escalate it by retaining her full services.

« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2011, 10:47 »
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For example, IS says nothing about a time frame for deletion/removal of images upon request, unless you terminate the supply agreement totally.

« Reply #13 on: December 27, 2011, 11:40 »
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The omission of dealing directly with the removal of individual images in an agreement doesn't mean we're giving an agency permission to license individual images until our account is terminated.  Nowhere in any of the various agency's contracts does it state they have the right to continue licensing our images after we have removed them from their websites.  Some do allow for grace periods providing them with time to remove images upon termination, but none of them say they can do whatever they want with our images after we have removed them.  That's because we still retain the right to determine which images the agency licenses or doesn't license.

« Reply #14 on: December 27, 2011, 17:34 »
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to the op: I hope you can recoup at least some of your money, though I think Sean is right about that...you will be lucky if you can get them to pull the images down, let alone see any $$...perhaps with the help of an attorney.

I think Sean's right, too, which is why I'm sending the DMCA in consultation with my attorney.  If they ignore me, I'll have to escalate it by retaining her full services.

Please keep us updated on your progress.

RacePhoto

« Reply #15 on: December 27, 2011, 17:50 »
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The omission of dealing directly with the removal of individual images in an agreement doesn't mean we're giving an agency permission to license individual images until our account is terminated.  Nowhere in any of the various agency's contracts does it state they have the right to continue licensing our images after we have removed them from their websites.  Some do allow for grace periods providing them with time to remove images upon termination, but none of them say they can do whatever they want with our images after we have removed them.  That's because we still retain the right to determine which images the agency licenses or doesn't license.


Ask your attorney about the discovery period, to register law, upon discovery of someone infringing. Maybe too late now, but you can register images after the fact. Some people miss this, and if you have an attorney he should have known it. (odd I read it was 90 days in one place now I see 30 days on the US Copyright office pages?)

(3) are not submitted to the Copyright Office in proper form within the earlier of

(A) 3 months after the first publication of the work; or

(B) 1 month after the copyright owner has learned of the infringement.
[/u]

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap4.html

As for the $1000 based on what Getty sends out in their letters. Thanks for the huge laugh. Asking for $1000 and getting a cent are two far different concepts. Yes, some people may roll over and pay Getty but many just tell them where the door is. Someone on Alamy said she filed something like 2000 letters to people infringing and got responses from a tiny number, got payment from even less.

Some interesting reading on the infamous Getty Letters:  http://extortionletterinfo.com/

Good Luck. Please come back with the results of your expedition. If someone wins a case like this it will change the way agencies ignore artists requests for take down, and you can be a hero to hundreds of Microstock Artists! All it takes is some case law and agencies around the world will start to answer email and take down images that people have requested be removed for months and months. Add to that, that as soon as one agency loses one of these decisions in court, all the rest will follow.

Good Luck, Best Wishes!
« Last Edit: December 27, 2011, 19:12 by RacePhoto »

WarrenPrice

« Reply #16 on: December 27, 2011, 18:15 »
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I don't feel that NorthWest's expectations are such a Dream.  I know that digital and RF are far different than the 'WAY IT USED TO BE.'
But, I have been paid over a thousand dollars because an Ad Agency (Young and Rubicam) held a few slides longer than the agreed to review period ... and they never used an image.   :P

Again, that was quite a few years ago.


« Reply #17 on: December 27, 2011, 18:26 »
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Thanks, Warren!  That's what I needed to know!  :-)  I wouldn't think it's any different today.

My attorney said it's too late to register the copyrights for this particular situation, but believe me, I will be registering them ASAP before submitting them to anymore agencies.  Lesson definitely learned! 

RacePhoto

« Reply #18 on: December 27, 2011, 19:14 »
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Thanks, Warren!  That's what I needed to know!  :-)  I wouldn't think it's any different today.

My attorney said it's too late to register the copyrights for this particular situation, but believe me, I will be registering them ASAP before submitting them to anymore agencies.  Lesson definitely learned! 

Best part is unlike me or many others here, with opinions, you have a real attorney and the results will be welcome knowledge for everyone! THANKS!


 

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