On 10/22/03 1:14 PM, in article
, "Bill Hilton"
wrote:

What does "go after" them mean, other than raising your neck hairs and
growling
at them? Have you taken anyone to court? If so, where do you sue, their
backyard or yours? Won any judgments? Very few people have been successful
in
court on these kind of cases.

I only recently put up my web-site full time. I would put images up but take
them down quickly to prevent theft. So I don't have any experience from it
yet. Put I do try to limit my exposure to theft by, heavy watermarking,
small Image size, and low resolution.

In a previous life when I used to sell prints at Outdoor Fine Art Shows, yes
I did file a copyright infringement lawsuit against a nationally know
painter for using two of my spoonbill photos in a painting and then limited
edition prints. It took a couple of years and a lot of hair pulling but we
did settle out of court for a heck of a lot more than if he would have
licensed them from me in the first place. That is why some say, I am overly
protective of my photographs on the web.

For the most part about all you can do is get them to remove the images, I've
found. I've taken it to the lawyer stage twice but both cases it wasn't worth
pursuing in court. Are you able to get these cases prosecuted?

Wasn't worth pursuing? Are these legitimate business's using them? Are your
photographs registered with the copyright office? Copyright Cases aren't
prosecuted (criminal), but civil cases. If you have your photographs
registered they have to pay attorney fees plus, statutory and punitive
damages. A pretty big club against legitimate business's. And attorneys
should be interested if they know they can charge the infringer with all
their fees. Of course if you do NOT register with the copyright you lose
this big carrot for attorneys and club against infringers. If we don't
pursue cases it seems to me that we might be just slapping their hands and
it won't stop much. I'll let you know when it happens to me, and I find out
about it.

Just wondering ... image theft is a real nuisance. A generation that thinks
nothing of downloading music or movies also feels images should be free game
too I guess.

Agreed. But when a legitimate business has an attitude like that it is a
different matter.
--
PWW (Paul Wayne Wilson)
Over 1,000 Photographs Online at,
http://PhotoStockFile.com