Advice needed before confrontation..."stolen" image.

[Zerin Dube]

I guess it happens to everyone at some point or another, but someone emailed me saying a radio station in DC is using one of my photos from an event last year. Not only did they take the image, but they cropped the water mark, using a second image below it from my site, and blatantly ignored the basic copyright statements on the site it came from.

So the question is, how should I go about handling this? This is obviously being used for commercial purposes, and has been up a couple of weeks at least. I've got the original files in unmolested format, and would be easy to prove that I'm the owner of those images... how should I approach them?

http://www.dc101.com/pages/chicsnwings.html

http://www.dc101.com/timages/page/chicsnwingssplashpage1.jpg

[Morgan J Segal]

Ahem, erm, uh..... what was the question again?

[Jacob Leveton]

email the webmaster. attach a copy of the flier / photos. Attach a screenshot of the copyright notice. Attach an invoice.

follow up with a phone call in 1-2 days.

[Mark Delbrueck]

I would contact the ad. department via phone and establish a relationship with an actual person rather than e-mailing them.

[John Thawley]

email the webmaster. attach a copy of the flier / photos. Attach a screenshot of the copyright notice. Attach an invoice.

follow up with a phone call in 1-2 days.

Brilliant.... send your complaint to a geek sucking on Red Bull and eating Doritos. What the hell is a webmaster going to do?

REALITY:

Always communicate with parties that are capable of making decisions and affecting the outcome.

First make a screen grab.. or saved file of the page. Email the page contents to yourself... something.

Call, the station manager. Make him aware of the ERROR. Assume it was an ERROR and that he is NOT AWARE of it. Express a desire to resolve the issue. He will probably be embarrassed and want to resolve the matter as well.

But... something along the lines of, "I wanted to bring your attention to unauthorized use of an image that belongs to me. You are currently displaying an ad for.... on our stations web site. I'm guessing that what of your staff took it upon themselves to use the image... but you should know, they knowingly removed my copyright statement. I'm not looking to make a big deal out of the matter.... but I would like to receive fair compensation for commercial use of the image. How can we work this out?"

Don't go in there assuming your dealing with "bad guys." Chances are, some dummy took it upon themselves to expose their company to liable.

You might also go a step further and see who owns the station. I'm sure they're an affiliate of one of the majors.
They can be pretty anxious to right a check before running up their lawyer's hourly rate.

See how that goes, though. I mean, it's just a couple hundred bucks. Then again, though... are there releases signed for those models? You may end up just pulling it down.

JT

[Jacob Leveton]

looks like event coverage from the bikini contest at NOPI Nationals. Which can be used for editorial, but not commercial use (IIRC)

[John Jovic]

Owning the copyright doesn't give you permission to use the image any way you like!

Each one of the girls in that image 'may' also have a right to claim a fee, depending on the waiver they signed to be in the contest in the first place. They may also come after you (Zerin) instead of the radio station.

I don't know the details of the situation but unless you are certain that you can legally sell the image then you should prevent it being used at all.

Just something to think about.

JJ

[Dennis Murray]

Having previously lived in the Washington, DC market I can tell you DC101 is a Clear Channel station.

[Chris Pearson]

I've also been through this before. First off do you own the official copyright to the images, or has it been copyrighted through the U.S. Copyright office? If you have done this prior to them using it you will get more compensation. You can copyright it now, but you will get less for the usage. You do own the rights to them as soon as you shoot them, but in a lesser, not so legal way. Check out this site http://www.copyright.gov/

The best advice I can give is call the radio station and work your way to the highest person in the advertising or art department. They will likely recommend that you talk only to one of their lawyers once they know what you want. Above all be NICE:), but firm, it will get you further. Try to work out a deal with whoever you talk to and have a price in mind, I'd say start at $2,000 a piece. There are a number of ways to come to a number. The cost of the advertising space they used it in, or the money they will be making off of what ever they are using the images for, among countless other ways. They will probably want to negotiate, hold your ground. If it's a Clear Channel station they obviously don't want a big spectacle and will probably pay you after a futile attempt to negotiate by their lawyers. Don't send a lawyers letter threatening to sue unless they refuse to listen to you and keep using the images. Trust me, they will come back at you hard, and then you are dedicated to a case where you will spend more getting out than you would have ever received through out of court negotiation.

Good Luck