Ok, I got one of my images in eight sites (4 in Brazil, 4 abroad) with DT watermarked. I posted comments in all of them saying that the watermarked image is for evaluation purposes only and putting a link to the image at DT so they purchase a license (I can dream!).

One reply so far, the image was removed.

The BR sites are blogs hosted at Blogspot and Wordpress. I will wait a few days before reporting them to the admins. One of the is the blog of a politian.

I wish we had a set fine for this copyright infringement.  I really can't be bothered spending time chasing down these people if I'm not going to get paid for it.  I would just send them all an invoice for $50.

I wish we had a set fine for this copyright infringement.  I really can't be bothered spending time chasing down these people if I'm not going to get paid for it.  I would just send them all an invoice for $50.

That's what I came up with as the simple solution.

Start fining them, something reasonable, not $250,000 for downloading a song, and start enforcing it, so people get the news and become aware. Heck I'd even go with $20 per infraction and make it easy to file, easy to collect, because it would be like a parking ticket. Or like you suggested $50 and but have some Govt. agency (I know that sounds really dumb!) But have them enforce it and collect and take a percentage, like 20% of the $50, so they have some teeth and have some motivation.

Doing it ourselves hasn't worked because there's no fine, no penalty, nothing but a weak take down, which provides no remedy for the illegal use. If we do want to file a charge, it costs more than the recovery. What's the use? The legal system is not useful in protecting rights of small artists. I'm not so sure it works for the big Corps. either at this point?