How To Handle Web Thievery

Question: If I find that someone has used my photographs without permission on a Web site, what should I do?

Answer: Assuming you own the copyrights, you may have grounds for a copyright infringement suit against the owner of the Web site. Under copyright law, a copyright owner has the exclusive right to reproduce, modify, distribute, publicly display, and publicly perform the copyrighted work. When someone other than the copyright owner exercises one or more of those rights without the owner's permission, that's usually copyright infringement (there are some exceptions to the copyright owner's rights that I can't go into here because of space limitations).

If someone has posted your photos on a Web site without your permission, they have exercised your reproduction and display rights. You might want to start by sending the Web site owner and Email or letter explaining that you own the copyrights and asking that the photographs be removed (or that you be paid for their use). Sometimes this letter will do the job (many people do not realize that copyright law applies to posting material on the Web; they just need to be educated).

If you don't get a satisfactory response to your letter, you may want to consult an attorney about filing a lawsuit (this could be expensive, so start out by asking the attorney for a one-hour consultation, free or for an agreed-upon price). If you want to read up on your rights as copyright owner first, check out the "Primer" on my Web site, www.laderapress.com. Soon, you may have a new remedy available for this situation: The U.S. Senate has passed a bill which will make it easy for you to get the photos removed simply by contacting the Internet Service Provider for the Web site that posted your photos. That bill is likely to become a law. If it does, I'll discuss it next month.