I've discovered one of my best selling images being posted on a discussion forum site.  It's obviously a stolen copy (it still has my watermark partially visible although the thief tried to photoshop it out).

Anyway, I wrote an email to the site publisher and received a reply saying they would be glad to remove the image provided I could give evidence that I was the legal copyright holder.

What would constitute evidence in a case such as this?  I certainly don't want to send them the original RAW file as evidence since I don't know where that might end up...

Send him a screendump of the exif data.

Tell them you are being nice by contacting them directly and if they really want evidence you can instead serve them with a DMCA and notify their ISP. I am sure they dont like their site being taken down over one image.

When i'm asked for evidence, i usually provide a direct link to the image on sale in stock.
This should be suffice evidence should your stock username share a similar correlation to your name/email addy

Quote from: Ron on January 25, 2014, 08:11
Tell them you are being nice by contacting them directly and if they really want evidence you can instead serve them with a DMCA and notify their ISP. I am sure they dont like their site being taken down over one image.

Really. The image is stolen even if it's not yours. The watermark proves that.

I know, read between the lines. The guy is being difficult, so tell em there are other ways which might hurt HIS business.

I have't done a DMCA yet and I didn't really want to go through the whole rigmarole.  I guess it's time to learn how to do it.  Being nice doesn't seem to get me anywhere.

Dont send the DMCA, just tell him if he wants proof you will send a DMCA. If he wants to go down that road over one image on his website, he is a tool. And if he calls your bluff, then you send a DMCA to him and to the ISP. The ISP will shut him down in an instance. Its law.

A DMCA is really not that complicated.

http://automattic.com/dmca-notice/

Hey hey.

Everybody can claim copyright, and they do.
There are all sorts of wierd examples.

If you own a picture displaying website, you are of course interested in doing it right, and such ask the right questions to people who claim this and that.
So provide him with a good proof, so reasonable doubt is vaporized and he can take action.
Link to an online photo or exif are two good possibilities.