On Image Theft and Your Actions
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It seems that the topic of image theft will never cease to be relevant, with constant reports emerging about someone discovering their images stolen or used without payment.
The first reaction in such cases should be an attempt to contact the infringer directly. There is very little information about image licensing online, and many people simply do not realize that images are sold under different types of licenses, while some such thieves are completely unaware that microstocks exist, officially selling images.
If we inform the infringers on time, we can not only stop the unauthorized use of our images but also potentially attract a new client for microstocks.
By the way, including your referral link to microstocks when writing to infringers, as this way you can not only earn from image sales but also receive additional referral commissions from attracting a stock photo buyer.
Not long ago, Shutterstock contacted a company that had purchased the wrong type of license to use downloaded images. As a result, such a step by Shutterstock led to an increase in the number of extended licenses for many microstockers.
In general, most people are quite honest and want to do the right thing. Our task is to help them learn and understand what is right and what is not!
Guilty of Theft or Not?
Okay, I admit that sometimes people are not so innocent and frankly steal images to share, sell, build, and increase the number of their images on Flickr or another site specializing in photo sharing.
If you do not receive a response after your first contact with the infringer, it’s time to take more decisive action.
Complaints Through Stock Sites
If the stolen image was sold through a microstock, contact the stock site and explain the situation.
Provide links to the image that you created and to the image of your opponent, which you believe has been stolen from you.
Most microstocks have a support button at the bottom of each page for contacting support or sending messages. Microstocks are quick to deal with infringers, so a copy of your image will be removed very soon.
Content Theft Complaint on Flickr
Most websites hosting user-uploaded photos and illustrations will be happy to cooperate with you and will remove illegal content from their resources, and Flickr is no exception.
Here is an excerpt from Flickr’s rules:
Copyright Infringement.
If you find photographs or videos that you created in other users’ portfolios, do not panic. This is likely a misunderstanding with no malicious intent. It’s best to try contacting the author whose portfolio contains the disputed image and politely request the removal of that image.
If this does not work, please submit a copyright infringement complaint to the Yahoo! Copyright Team, which can remove the image.
You may want to write about this infringement in your profile or on our public forum, but this is not the best way to resolve potential copyright issues. We do not encourage such identifications of individuals on Flickr.
If Flickr confirms that the stolen image was yours, which is usually the case, Flickr will remove the image from its site. If the author’s portfolio predominantly features questionable content, the entire account will be deleted.
In the letter you send to Flickr, include page addresses and any other necessary information for the investigation; you can find this information from Kevin Hasley.
Content Theft Complaint to Google
If a website is hosting your images without your agreement, report it to Google. While this will not remove the site or image from the Internet, Google will remove the infringing site from its search results, which, given the search engine’s prominence in the world, will significantly reduce the site’s traffic.
To obtain a link to support and a list of necessary information for communicating with Google, as well as to clarify the approximate content of a copyright infringement letter, you can again refer to Kevin Hasley’s site.
Content Theft Complaint to Web Hosting
Most websites are hosted on web hosts. To find out which host is hosting the site, you can use online services to check the website’s ‘whois’ information.
After you have found the information about the infringing site, send them a letter informing them of the violation.
Different hosts have different policies regarding copyright compliance, but if the content that belongs to you is hosted on the site, the host should assist the rights holder as much as possible in removing that information.
Also, remember that the host needs a “reasonable time frame” to respond appropriately.
Do you know other ways to protect intellectual property? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Source link:
Author: Tyler Olson
Link: blоg.microstockgroup.com/help-my-image-has-been-stolen-what-next/
I wonder where the author got the photos for this article…
Well, you can ask him the question. There’s a link to the original article at the very end.