[Usuqa]

Hi there..

I was wondering if anyone here could help me get into contact with a no win, no fee lawyer that is good at dealing with copyright infringement? One of my images has been stolen, defaced.. water marked by a popular website and I could do with help/advice and if the lawyer thinks I have a case then to also peruse it.

Thank you in advance.

[SpecialK]

What did the popular website say about it? How are they using it?

[Adam]

Step one is to contact the site administration, as there are laws that protect site owners from legal action as long as they remove the content upon request and weren't the ones who uploaded the content. Now if they used it for commercial purposes without your permission, that's another story.

[Usuqa]

I don't know much about all this stuff to be honest that's why I was asking if anyone had a link to a lawyer

I did contact the site and asked them to get back to me regarding the unauthorized use of my image but being the holiday season I expect a delay in them getting back to me.

Here is the site site and my image Cheezburger.com - All your funny in one place.

Advice would be greatly appreciated...

*note* I currently sell this image as prints through the whitewall.com art market

[JinDesu]

Cheezburger is usually a user submission site - someone else took that picture and modified it and uploaded to Cheezburger. They should remove it if you let them know it is your image and you have copyrights on it.

So to be clear, someone else is doing it and putting it onto the website.

[interested_observer]

Morning,

There are a lot of copyright attorneys out there. There is one that has a blog that specializes in photography...

• Photo Attorney

Obviously, I have never used her and know nothing about her (other than her blog), but she is a pretty good photographer, and the blog is a pretty good read. It is interesting that she - well her blog site received a DCMA take down notice concerning a picture that she had posted (it turned out to be her picture that won a photo competition). She has blogged about it and also posted everything that was received and what she did (she took down the photo, in order to get here site back up, and then inquired to the person who issued the take down notice - it turned out to be a mistake). It was an interesting read about the subject.

• Photo Attorney Receives a DMCA Take Down Notice! – Updated | Photo Attorney

I would think that any attorney would give you an hour to understand and outline the case and your options.

Also, I have seen your images before (and I believe that they were here or something about them was posted here?) - they are absolutely great! I am absolutely sure that any attorney is going to recommend that you copyright (register) them with the Copyright Office (it is cheap from what I understand). Also, I do know that you have copyright coverage even if you do not register them. Also, if you issue any DCMA take down notices in the future, you can indicate that you as owner of these images have them registered with the US Copyright Office. I would think that it provides a bit more leverage in terms of proving that you are the owner.

• U.S. Copyright Office

Actually you can whois the site to find the owner, and issue your own DCMA take down notice - just see the above blog. Cheeseburger is registered at GoDaddy.com

• Whois Lookup - Domain Names Search, Registration, & Availability | Whois.net

You can send the DCMA take down notice to GoDaddy and they will take it from there. If Cheeseburger profited from printing the images from the various folks, you should be able to request their profit. Also the folks who posted the image with the modifications and possibly paid to have them printed, there might be a way to have them compensate you for using the image also. However, I am NOT an attorney.

Also, GoDaddy is a 24/7 operation, you can call them about this and there will be someone there to take care of it....

• GoDaddy customer support phone numbers

[HockeyDad]

That site also has a policy page with recommended instructions for notifying them: Copyright Infringement*Notice – Cheezburger Company Blog

[Usuqa]

Thank you for the post's, since I have contacted them I will give them a few days to reply.

I realize its a user submitted site but they have my image on there servers with there own watermark as well as allowing people to modify my image using the tools on there site and from what I can see making new versions of my image as well as sending links to peoples emails to where they can get this.

I don't think this is right (They could buy images from people.. use creative common images instead of stolen images) also this isn't the only site that as taken my image, there's an Australian site that has used it in a post about organic tea (without my permission or a link back to me), and I'm sure I will find more.. just using Google images brings up tones of my image all over the place

As for registering the copyright of my image, I thought that was more a USA thing and being in the UK I wasn't sure that applied to me, but I have the raw file of that and similar images taken at the same time as well a video on how I took the photo so proving its mine is easy.

Thanks all for the information.

[interested_observer]

Thank you for the post's, since I have contacted them I will give them a few days to reply.

I realize its a user submitted site but they have my image on there servers with there own watermark as well as allowing people to modify my image using the tools on there site and from what I can see making new versions of my image as well as sending links to peoples emails to where they can get this.

I don't think this is right (They could buy images from people.. use creative common images instead of stolen images) also this isn't the only site that as taken my image, there's an Australian site that has used it in a post about organic tea (without my permission or a link back to me), and I'm sure I will find more.. just using Google images brings up tones of my image all over the place

As for registering the copyright of my image, I thought that was more a USA thing and being in the UK I wasn't sure that applied to me, but I have the raw file of that and similar images taken at the same time as well a video on how I took the photo so proving its mine is easy.

Thanks all for the information.

Any owner of copyrightable items may register their work with the US Copyright Office. Since there are a lot of providers here in the US, it might just provide you with a bit more protection - or leverage, if and when this happens again (hopefully not).

If Cheeseburger placed their watermark on your image, then I would think that they are fair game, since they are essentially exerting ownership of your image. I might suggest that you print their webpages, showing their watermark on your image, before you do anything, and place it in a safe place. If you wind up contacting an attorney, that may prove to be very useful. You can even use the [alt][print screen] key to grab the screen and put it in a word document also, there by having a soft copy of it for future use.

[Usuqa]

I have taken several screen shots, Also my image has been used on there site and posted to a forum with there own watermark.. so they are getting advertisement from my image :/
http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/65105-the-wt-invades-lolcats/ (scroll down around 2/3's).

I have also found it with the watermark nr99.com but I can't understand the website :/

[OutOfFocus]

The Summer 2012 issue (no 66) of Better Photography magazine (Australia) has 4 page article on finding infringing photographs on the net, and some steps to take when you find them, including advice on initial and follow up emails. You can purchase the entire issue as a PDF from their website.

[Usuqa]

The company has got back to me and asked if I would like to licence the image to them, I have no idea about pricing for this sort of thing? any ideas?

[interested_observer]

Congratulations on having the company recognize that you have a wonderful image. As you have written, the quandary is what to charge. A few ideas do come to mind....

First a story. Back in the 1800's one of the founders of Seattle, Washington was up in Alaska, saw a Totem pole, and one night made off with it. It wound up in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle. In the 1980's a drunk burned it down, so the city fathers went back up to Alaska, and commissioned a replacement for something like $5,000. When it was done, the tribe notified the city that it was ready. The city came up and paid the tribe, who promptly told them that they were $5,000 short. The city officials dumbfounded said that was the agreed upon price. The tribe said - yes, but you just paid for the first one - stolen from us a 100 years earlier, you still need to pay for the replacement - the one we just carved.

Some items to consider:

• Regardless of how Cheeseburger came across the image, they see value it it - which is good.

• What is their business model - apparently they sell prints. They must have an estimate of how many per year that they would sell and for what price. You could ask for a commission per print, and hope that they will be fair in documenting the actual number they sell.

• Are they asking for an exclusive - if so then you could not sell the print on your own website, hence you would need to charge them much more - since they would essentially wind up owning the image.

• I would suspect that they would go for a non-exclusive one time fee, and that may tend to limit the sales you see on your website.

Here are some websites that have some royalty calculators...

• image license pricing calculator - Google Search

... the problem is that it appears that none of them really address your specific need. It looks to be 120 units of your image from their website (over what time frame is uncertain).

I would ask them for some additional information, as in...

1. Ask for an explanation of their business model - as in how they make money?
2. How many prints do they sell per year?
3. What is their average price?
4. How many prints for their most popular image per year?

I would compare their information against what you are selling your prints for (and your costs).
Ask them if they would consider a per item royalty?

It might also be interesting to talk with some lawyers - in terms of what a copyright infringement settlement may bring you. They may be thinking that licensing the image from you would be a much cheaper way to essentially settle (since the agreement would probably include you forgiving them on the infringement issue).

I would think that they are essentially in the business of retail selling items that can carry a picture (clothes, stuff - coffee mugs, etc), that will move their merchandise. Maybe a $1 per item may be reasonable - with $2,120 payment upfront ($2,000 hand caught in the cookie jar fee included).... You have some experience off of your website selling the image. You probably have an idea of the margin you clear after costs - charge a percentage of your profit margin per image.

They may indicate that a one time fee would be preferable - then its a question of how high is too high, vs how low is too low.

The problem for you is that you don't know what is reasonable and customary within their business model and with the type of image you have.

• Three British newspapers (The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Mirror) stole my mother's photos from facebook. What should I do next? : photography

[mattt]

licensing the image from you would be a much cheaper way to essentially settle

an idea of the margin you clear after costs

The nail struck squarely on the head.

[Usuqa]

I don't think they actually sell items, more just allow people to upload photos or use photos on there site and deface them with words and stuff using the tools provided but I could have missed something.

It looks to me like they make there money through advertisement, also drawing people to there site with images and people sharing there "creations", its part of a bigger network of sites.

I am waiting for there licensing department to contact me still, but in the mean time I have posted the image to getty images.. if they accept the image I will just let them deal with it, although to get the image into getty I can't have anyone else have rights to use the photo (as they deal with all that) and they actively protect there investments and I always get a percentage.