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Sincere Thanks
I truly appreciate the comradarie between photographers here. To really need something and have a fellow photographer respond so quickly is VERY appreciated and valued, and I hope I can pay it forward. I asked randomly if anyone knew how to do a screen capture on a Mac, and Terry Breedlove was kind enough to tell me exactly how it is done. (and Nocturnal Publishing helped too) I also want to thank Brian Diaz for alerting me (again) to this annoying issue...... Because as some of you may or may not know, I'm battling with the schmucks at Templatemonster.com who to this day have my stolen swimsuit photograph on their website http://www.templatemonster.com/flash-te … /9824.html (bottom left thumbnail in grid of 9 rectangles) I asked them last January to take it down, and after a half dozen e-mails and my valuable time to "proove it my image" (lol!) they said they would take it down. I guess they were arrogant enough to not take it down or move it somewhere else, or simply put it back up. Words cannot describe how angry and resentful I am that this company is so brazen to display and SELL my work illegally without any credit and/or compensation to me, and refuses to remove the image. I've spoken to my civil attorney about this, but do any of you know of a GREAT copyright lawyer ?  Thanks to EVERYONE who assisted me with this or any other issue in the past. At the end of the day, it is this assistence and thankless help that reminds me of the positive side of the internet, and networking among us photographers, near and far. Thanks MM! Jun 29 06 11:19 am Link Unless your photos were registered with the US Copyright office, it may cost you much more to get the offender to cease using your unauthorized images than it's worth. While all photographers work is automatically and immediately copyrighted, the photographer must show proof of damages to be awarded financial compensation. In addition, the photographer will have to pay their own legal costs and attorney fees. If the image was registered, no proof of damages would be neccessary, and the defendant would be ordered to pay ALL attourney fees if found guilty. If the image was created less than 90 days ago, you may still be able to register the photo in question and retain the rights listed above. Otherwise you can register the photo, but it would only be protected for future offenses. You can also contact the website host and inform them of the copyright breach. At that time the hosting site will probably remove the complete website. Website registration companies (such as GoDaddy) will also remove offending websites from their registry as well. Jun 29 06 11:31 am Link Do you know I can get the host's info ? I tried Who-Is but didn't see any host info..... and thanks for the info, that's pretty much what I figured... Jun 29 06 11:33 am Link SayCheeZ! wrote: While I agree with you about the cost of recovery.....to create a legal copyrite all you need do is put the little copyrite mark anywhere on an image and it's legally copyrited....after which you can register it anytime..... Jun 29 06 11:41 am Link I've worked with Jordan Meschkow (Phoenix, AZ) in the past. Good guy, no drama. Full contact info - JORDAN MESCHKOW Meschkow & Gresham, P.L.C. 5727 North Seventh Street, Suite 409 Phoenix, Arizona 85014-5818, 602-274-6996, fax 602/274-6970 Hope you can hang the buggers and get paid. bt Jun 29 06 11:44 am Link direct from web-models thread on a similar topic: Quote: My advice would be... For every use of image look at the BAPLA rates and double them this should give a figure taking into account the copyright infringement or alternatively invoice laptastic for £4,001.00 If they do not pay you can issue a winding up order, normally if you advise them to take legal advice they will come back with a counter offer. Do not allow them to get away with this breech of copyright or it will set a precident and they will continue to do this to other photographers and models Simply removing images should not be acceptable. Claire- louise Jun 29 06 11:45 am Link Jun 29 06 11:46 am Link How exactly do you register an image and is it expensive? Jun 29 06 11:46 am Link Eric S. wrote: I just did a 'who is' search using "Godaddy.com" and came up with the following: GoDaddy.com wrote: The provided information indicates that the domain is registered, but the personal information is being redirected through Domains by Proxy... which is sort of like having a P.O. Box for website registration. Domains by Proxy is a division of GoDaddy.com. Jun 29 06 11:58 am Link FKVPhotoGraphics wrote: Actually, the copyright mark isn't required in any situation, the copyright is immediately granted when the camera shutter is pressed. As stated, you can almost always register a copyright at a later time, but you will not get the added protection and benefits received from registration until it's actually registered. If the copyright theft occurs before the registration occurs, the added benefits and protection wouldn't apply. Jun 29 06 12:08 pm Link I'm so sick of hearing about stolen images. It's happened to me enough times that I put an Ass Kicking disclosure on my main portfolio  I wrote this short email on behalf of the OP to try and get their attention: Greetings, A colleague of mine claims your image seen in this forum here:http://www.modelmayhem.com/posts.php?thread_id=57641 is stolen from his library. Please remove this image or clear up any errors immediately. Thank you I hope that other MM members copy and paste the same message to this email address: [email protected] Good Luck! Jun 29 06 12:09 pm Link Another thought: the domain is listed on easydns.com. That's a Canadian company, which makes it harder, but they do recognize US copyrights. They will know where the domain is hosted (since they are the ones pointing to it). Their site says, "Toll free support in Canada and the US: 1-888-677-4741". You could ask their assistance. Jun 29 06 12:11 pm Link Colford Studios wrote: I really gotta run so it's gonna be a short reply. Jun 29 06 12:12 pm Link i dont know how much this will help. but i hope it does.... in philadelphia there is an organization called philadelphia volunteer lawyers for the arts. its a bunch of lawyers and law interns/stundents. that offer pro-bono (read free!) legal assistance. maybe your town has something similar? i called them once, and though my income bracket put me out of the free range. it was still way inexpensive. and they sent me a TON of info. legal rights, how to "go after it". a copyright lawyer called me. and gave me a free 30/45 min phone consultation. you would be amazed how differently people react when they hear....hi, im a lawyer representing insert your name here. an im contacting you on a copyright violation issue. please remove the image, or we will persue this further in litigation. do a local search for volunteer lawyers for the arts. i bet there is something around you. and its a wealth of info. good luck! Jun 29 06 12:14 pm Link SayCheeZ! wrote: Thanks SayCheeZ! I was wondering if you could do entire collections. Good to know and I'll have to a disc together and register my images properly. Jun 29 06 12:15 pm Link I just pointed out to a fellow photographer here in Colorado recently that this very same website was using one of his images in a template ad on their site. I think the primary problem may be proving damages since they are not actually marketing your image, rather they are using the image as an example within one of the templates that they sell. It would be interesting to know if when one purchases the template, are the sample images delivered with it as well. In which case, damages might be easier to demonstrate. At a minimum it shows poor judgement to not get permission to use an image, whether there is infringement or specific intent may be tricky to prove, but best to get strong legal council if you decide to go after those folks. I will be curious to hear how this turns out for you, and will check with my friend to see if he pursued any action with templatemonster.com. Hope it works out to your satisfaction. Regards, Carl BTW Nice Image! Jun 29 06 12:40 pm Link Jun 29 06 01:00 pm Link Carl Snider wrote: Nope, they are selling those templates with the photos embedded in them, they DO include the photo in the template when they sell it. Some schmuck bought that same template and was a member here and was showing off his "great website" (with my photo on his main page) Jun 29 06 01:09 pm Link I do hope you get them and make them pay, Eric! Best Regards, JAY carreon PHOTOGRAPHER Jun 30 06 07:20 am Link Today I got a response from them, and it was the exact same cut & paste e-mail reply that I got months before, from a different name. (chances are its the same schmuck) They are pulling my chain and with everyone's help here, I'm hope to make an example of these losers. Jun 30 06 09:07 am Link Well this may help... and then again it may not... BUT they appear to be operating illegally in NY State from the corporate filings standpoint at the very least. 1st] If you track their webiste and server/service location it leads back to Brooklyn NY; so far so good... 2nd] The corporate name for the operator of templatemonster.com appears to be Artvertex, Inc. 3rd] Artvertex, Inc is a Deleware corporation which has been registered [as a foreign corporation] to do business in NY state but shows a current status with the NYS Department of State as "INACTIVE" - meaning that, as far as NYS is concerned, they are not currently [or perhaps even legally - if they are doing business] conducting business in that state. 4th] I can not trace their Deleware roots [and corporate officer's names] as that requires a fee - they do, however, have a listed registered agent in Deleware [not their business address]; but the NYS [public records] filing shows the following business address: Artvertex, Inc. 1618 Sheepshead Bay Rd. 2ndFl Brooklyn, NY 11235 5th] Their telephone numbers seem to be mostly in the 518 area code which is eastern NY state but excludes metro NYC areas; HOWEVER; 4 of their numbers are in the 917 area code and that IS in metro NYC... including the number for their HR department; one customer support number; one billing number; as well as one fax number. 6th] A second corporate name is associated with their website: Callaway Alliance, Inc. this is not, it seems, either a NY corporation or a Deleware corporation. If it exists at all it is in another state yet. It is not, however, a corporation registered to do business [as a foreign corporation] in NY state. -------- Now, all that being said, their website does not operate in a vacuum it is hosted somewhere... and that somewhere is ev1.net. If they won't directly cooperate with you on a takedown you can nuke them via a DMCA notice to ev1.net [Everyone's Internet, Inc.] and see what happens. If they don't protest the take down then the stuff is gone; if they do protest then they have to reveal their contact information... and you have a limited time to file suit agianst them for the infringement. DMCA notices must be sent to the US Copyright Office's registered ISP agent. In this case to: Everyone's Internet, Inc. [dba EV1.net and EV1servers.net] 390 Benmar Suite200 Houston, Texas, 77060 DMCA agent: Chris Newcomb T: 713 579 2850 F: 713 554 5227 e-mail: [email protected] --------- ALL IN ALL - If you really want to pull their chain, the image aside, file a complaint with the NYS Department of State to the effect that they are doing business as an unregistered [inactive] corporation in that state. Among other things that tends to indicate that they may be avoiding such things as filing fees; financial filings; corporate income tax; and even taxes on sales. OOOOOPS!  Studio36 Jun 30 06 09:36 am Link Eric S. wrote: Eric, Jun 30 06 09:40 am Link Whatever someone did it worked: http://www.templatemonster.com/category … pl_id=9824 "TEMPLATE 9824 HAS BEEN REMOVED" Studio36 Jun 30 06 10:56 am Link |
