MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Image Sleuth => Topic started by: picture5469 on August 06, 2012, 01:55
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Hi Everyone
Sorry to rant but I am absolutly fed up like everyone else of people just taking my watermarked images. I have now decided im going to start going after these people and if needed prosecute a few of them!
Today I found two of mine on one website along with someone elses photos. Im not going to discuss where these are as I intend to deal with the offender in a harsh manner.
Ok rant over back to editing photos now.
Mark
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Good luck with that. Not much you can do but ask to take down. I am not being a wise ass just stating the truth. Suing them? Where? How much? Small Claims? Sick Getty lawyers on them or Corbis. They only chase down the massive infringements. It's like stopping snow flakes from hitting the ground.
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First check with the stock agency that they are not genuine customers, and that I have there permission to prosecute. This stage is to protect me. Then send them a bill, I have the back up of imagerights. I am aware of their min case value. IF they dont pay the bill image rights/lawyer letter will prob scare them, then if not prosecute for costs +license fee.
I think most ppl will prob just pay the 10$ license fee once you get on their case vs 500$ lawyer bill
Im just not going to tolerate it any more.
Mark
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Let us hear what happens.
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I think i blew my top this morning. My apologies if i have offended anyone. Didnt intend to. I will try to deal with this and let you know what happens.
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I think i blew my top this morning. My apologies if i have offended anyone. Didnt intend to. I will try to deal with this and let you know what happens.
You didn't offend me. I'm behind you 100%. It's too bad more contributors don't blow their top and can afford to do what you are going to do. Everyone's getting away with copyright infringement because they know most people can't afford to take it on (time or money).
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Let's keep it real.
First you have to file in the correct jurisdiction for a small claims case since this is not a civil case. Then file a bunch of paper work and have them served assuming you can find out who you are actually suing. Then they have to show up which they won't. So you get some judgement by default for a few grand. Now you have to collect but you don't know their bank account number. And they have taken the images down and you've spent MANY hours of time pissed off and paying for court filing fees when you could be taking photos and making money.
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Let's keep it real.
First you have to file in the correct jurisdiction for a small claims case since this is not a civil case. Then file a bunch of paper work and have them served assuming you can find out who you are actually suing. Then they have to show up which they won't. So you get some judgement by default for a few grand. Now you have to collect but you don't know their bank account number. And they have taken the images down and you've spent MANY hours of time pissed off and paying for court filing fees when you could be taking photos and making money.
You're right, so let's just give up.
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I say GETTIM !!!
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Let's keep it real.
First you have to file in the correct jurisdiction for a small claims case since this is not a civil case. Then file a bunch of paper work and have them served assuming you can find out who you are actually suing. Then they have to show up which they won't. So you get some judgement by default for a few grand. Now you have to collect but you don't know their bank account number. And they have taken the images down and you've spent MANY hours of time pissed off and paying for court filing fees when you could be taking photos and making money.
You're right, so let's just give up.
And your effective course of action is?
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Unless it is a commercial site why worry? They have a watermark so maybe you could regard it as advertising. Not worth the effort. You can download 60gb of non watermarked from pirate bay. Bound to have some good stuff there. Unless they are selling your images I do not think it is worth the effort.
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Unless it is a commercial site why worry? They have a watermark so maybe you could regard it as advertising. Not worth the effort. You can download 60gb of non watermarked from pirate bay. Bound to have some good stuff there. Unless they are selling your images I do not think it is worth the effort.
Apparently the OP does. And I say go GETTUM too. :)
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Yup, go get em.
There's people on here that have never tried to go after an infringement, yet seem to know that it is never worth the effort.
While it is true that you will never stop everyone from stealing your work, keeping the amount of your content stolen in check is actually not that tricky, as people are normally trying to monetize it in one way or another, if you can knock them financially they will comply.
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Good luck with that. Not much you can do but ask to take down. I am not being a wise ass just stating the truth. ...
Wasn't there a case of a photographer getting a settlement out of a blogger recently, discussed in this very forum? What makes you think this stuff can't happen? Sure it's not easy, but it happens all the time.
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Barristers, Attorneys, lawyers, Old-Bailey, wigs, prosecutors, etc, etc, etc. Calls for a fat wallet indeed. ;D
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All im asking is for people to buy a license its not too much to ask but if i need to enforce that i will.
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If you can make an example with this crook, maybe others will think about taking what does not belong to them a little better...if you got the means and time! GO GET THEM!...BEST OF LUCK.
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All im asking is for people to buy a license its not too much to ask but if i need to enforce that i will.
Good for you! I agree totally. I don't care whether it's watermarked or not, it's NOT free.
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What you want to do (get money for infringement) IS the right thing to do. No question there.
My point is it is unlikely you will get anything unless you use scare tactics and that is iffy.
Show me ONE full case-study where a microstock photographer won an infringement case and collected money for some images on a small website.
and then I will shut . up ;D
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If Your photos were watermarked then you can file a case against them and sue them. If you need any kind of guidance or the way to sue them you can contact to our copyright lawyers online .
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First you cannot prosecute them, prosecution is done by a DA or equivalent law official. Next you have to show how much damage you have suffered. If it a low quality small image, your damages maybe less than the time that it is worth.
Read this website to find out to get your image removed from the website.
https://www.nppa.org/page/5617 (https://www.nppa.org/page/5617)
But if the website and the website owner is out of the country your out of luck
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What you want to do (get money for infringement) IS the right thing to do. No question there.
My point is it is unlikely you will get anything unless you use scare tactics and that is iffy.
Show me ONE full case-study where a microstock photographer won an infringement case and collected money for some images on a small website.
and then I will shut . up ;D
Well since someone brought this thread back from the dead.
Show me one case and maybe more of us can follow the same path and prosecute more people for image theft! I'd like that.
When there was a law proposed that would allow us to take this to small claims court, without all the lawyers and paperwork, people just said "oh it will never work, you can't collect" Maybe so, but at least it's doing something, instead of rolling over and playing dead.
The thieves who do this intentionally, know that almost no one does anything. The people who make an honest mistake will remove the content upon notice. In either case, we get used and get nothing in return?
It's not right and we need to fight.