Photography Facebook Copyright Problem.

[dsmcguire]

I am a photographer and have a website where I post some photographs, I have recently discovered that some of my photographs are being uploaded onto facebook without my permission. What can I do to prevent people from putting my photo's on facebook without my permission. I disagree with facebooks terms and conditions when it come it Intellectual Property and do not want to see my photographs on their site.

[Yak]

It is my understanding that in order to qualify for the safe harbor provision of the DMCA the website is required to remove infringing materials.  Have you contacted Facebook and demonstrated that users are using your copyrighted materials without authorization?

http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

[artchain]

Yak is correct.

Under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a web hosting company is not liable for  copyright infringement IF they provide a "takedown" process to allow copyright owners to have their work removed.

Unfortunately, it's a PITA with sites like FaceBook, because you need to identify and flag each incident of infringement.

Here's the form on the FaceBook site to start the process:

http://www.facebook.com/legal/copyright.php?copyright_notice=1

[JSonnabend]

Well, you always need to identify the works being infringed and the infringing works to be taken down.  The DMCA does have some provision for making a blanket identification, but it still needs to be detailed enough to permit the host to take action.

- Jeff

[artchain]

Well, you always need to identify the works being infringed and the infringing works to be taken down.  The DMCA does have some provision for making a blanket identification, but it still needs to be detailed enough to permit the host to take action.

- Jeff

Yes, you're right of course.  The problem with sites like FaceBook is that they make it so easy for people to upload images, you can spend a LOT of time tracking down and flagging.

[Yak]

Additionally, it seems to me that it would be even more difficult depending upon the privacy settings of the possible infringing user profile.  If you, as the copyright holder, have restricted access to the user's profile; how would you even know. 

[Smokin]

Additionally, it seems to me that it would be even more difficult depending upon the privacy settings of the possible infringing user profile.  If you, as the copyright holder, have restricted access to the user's profile; how would you even know.

 

Then why worry about it? Its one thing to protect your work so that you can profit from it and to make a living from it, but its another to try and control every aspect to how it is seen or used.

Anyway, putting aside that point, if you don't know about an infringement, you cant do anything about it, its just logistically impossible. Best you can do is to make it difficult to download or copy your images, and or search for your work to make sure your copyright is not being infringed.

[brads]

If I took a photo of public property (such as a resort area used for advertising) and put it on my website and someone apparently used it in another ad, is my photo protected by copyright, even though the other person could have taken the exact same picture (or something very close) if they stood in the same place to take the photo?

[Smokin]

Depends.

Sometimes its a grey area, some courts will only compare what could be considered the creative contribution from a photographer, like composition, colors, style, what in the photo was not in public domain like a model, etc, and they will chose to avoid public domain items like an entire building. So if someone took that picture and re-cropped it, changed the colors, and added new content over it, it may very well be legal and ok by some court standards.

In other courts, if you can prove the image is yours and it was copied, thats enough to find infringment even though the subject might be in public domain (a building).

http://www.csusa.org/caw/caw_2006_teachers_articles_visual_art.htm

[brads]

Thanks Smokin.  I am almost certain it's a direct copy due to things in the photo, such as clouds that would not be there unless the person was standing right beside me at that exact time.

[Photography Background]

As a photographer, I stumble upon my images on the web all the time. It's really irritating but unless you want to spend an entire career scouring the web looking for violators, to me it's more profitable just to forget it and move on to a new client.

If you know the contact info for the person violating your rights...send them a bill.

[mactheknife]

If you want an automated way to do this, check out this company.

[Smokin]

TinEye is another

http://www.tineye.com/