Copying and posting images

[FastbackJon]

What is the name of your state? Washington

So I run a vehicle registry with a website, and on the website you can view the list of all of the registered vehicles. Vehicles are registered by people who send them in, and I go out and look for VINs and such to register those vehicles.

Pictures are also included next to each vehicle if there is one. The pictures either are sent to me by the owner, or if the car is registered from somewhere else (like eBay), the picture is copied and posted to my site next to the car's listing.

I don't ask anyone to have the picture if I take it from the internet, and if people send me pictures I'll put them up too, but I'm also happy to remove pictures if people want them taken down.

I don't list owner names, addresses, serial numbers, or contact information unless the owner explicitly says that it is okay. And even then I will just list the owner's first name and email address.

Recently one person got angry with me and threatened to take legal action if I did not remove their vehicle and all info/pictures from the online listing page. I even took a couple of the posted images of their car at a car show a couple years ago, so I'm the copyright holder there. Seems like I should be able to do what I want with an image I took. With the other images of their car that I had posted, they sent them to me with full knowledge that they would go online. They even registered their car and all information that went along with it.

I was happy to remove their information, and I didn't even have to be threatened with legal action. But now I'm just wondering what someone can do, or whatever, about me keeping an online list of stuff I am sent and information I see on the internet. How much am I in the wrong for doing this? Do I need an official cease and desist letter before I can be sued information?

 

[mandeeuk]

What is the name of your state? Washington

So I run a vehicle registry with a website, and on the website you can view the list of all of the registered vehicles. Vehicles are registered by people who send them in, and I go out and look for VINs and such to register those vehicles.

Pictures are also included next to each vehicle if there is one. The pictures either are sent to me by the owner, or if the car is registered from somewhere else (like eBay), the picture is copied and posted to my site next to the car's listing.

I don't ask anyone to have the picture if I take it from the internet, and if people send me pictures I'll put them up too, but I'm also happy to remove pictures if people want them taken down.

I don't list owner names, addresses, serial numbers, or contact information unless the owner explicitly says that it is okay. And even then I will just list the owner's first name and email address.

Recently one person got angry with me and threatened to take legal action if I did not remove their vehicle and all info/pictures from the online listing page. I even took a couple of the posted images of their car at a car show a couple years ago, so I'm the copyright holder there. Seems like I should be able to do what I want with an image I took. With the other images of their car that I had posted, they sent them to me with full knowledge that they would go online. They even registered their car and all information that went along with it.

I was happy to remove their information, and I didn't even have to be threatened with legal action. But now I'm just wondering what someone can do, or whatever, about me keeping an online list of stuff I am sent and information I see on the internet. How much am I in the wrong for doing this? Do I need an official cease and desist letter before I can be sued information?

Do you have terms of use on your website? You should explicitly state that by posting a picture or sending a picture to be posted, the user is granting you a copyright license. Also, you should include a term in which the user warrants that they own the rights to their images and are authorized to post them on your site. It's important as well that you include a clause in which the user indemnifies you for any claims asserted by third parties in relation to the images.

With regard to the threat you described, my guess is that any claims that they may have had would have been more grounded in privacy rights than intellectual property rights.

Finally, it is not necessary to send a cease and desist letter before filing suit.

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? Washington

So I run a vehicle registry with a website, and on the website you can view the list of all of the registered vehicles. Vehicles are registered by people who send them in, and I go out and look for VINs and such to register those vehicles.

Pictures are also included next to each vehicle if there is one. The pictures either are sent to me by the owner, or if the car is registered from somewhere else (like eBay), the picture is copied and posted to my site next to the car's listing.

I don't ask anyone to have the picture if I take it from the internet, and if people send me pictures I'll put them up too, but I'm also happy to remove pictures if people want them taken down.

I don't list owner names, addresses, serial numbers, or contact information unless the owner explicitly says that it is okay. And even then I will just list the owner's first name and email address.

Recently one person got angry with me and threatened to take legal action if I did not remove their vehicle and all info/pictures from the online listing page. I even took a couple of the posted images of their car at a car show a couple years ago, so I'm the copyright holder there. Seems like I should be able to do what I want with an image I took. With the other images of their car that I had posted, they sent them to me with full knowledge that they would go online. They even registered their car and all information that went along with it.

I was happy to remove their information, and I didn't even have to be threatened with legal action. But now I'm just wondering what someone can do, or whatever, about me keeping an online list of stuff I am sent and information I see on the internet. How much am I in the wrong for doing this? Do I need an official cease and desist letter before I can be sued information?

First off, a cease and desist letter is meaningless. You don't have to send one -- the first correspondence you have with an agrieved party could be the filed complaint. A cease and desist may be used to warn you of an impending lawsuit if you don't comply; it could be used to try and scare you into complying even if the sender has no intention on suing you. But a cease and desist is never required.

Just as an aside, a cease-and-desist letter, or some form of it, may be used when threatening someone with patent, trademark or copyright infringement in order to start the "damages clock" running. But even then, it's not required, it's just common practice.

Back to your question: if you own the copyrights to the pictures, or if you have permission to use the pictures from the copyright owner, then nobody can force you to take them down. Of course, there are a few exceptions, such as the use of a person's image commercially -- but pictures of cars don't count.

That said, somebody can potentially make you miserable enough so that you want to take them down, but what you are describing appears to be 100% legal, if you own the pictures or have permission to use the pictures.

As far as pulicly-available information is concerned, that too is perfectly legal to post, so long as it doesn't cross the line into "identity theft." Each state defines indentity theft a bit differently, but usually it involved some combination of name, mother's maiden name, date of birth social security number, birthplace, those types of things. A name and address is certainly insufficient to be "identity theft" -- especially if it was given to you for the purposes of posting, but even if you merely searched the internet or Yellow Pages and found it yourself and posted it. That sort of public information is okay to display.

Again, there may be an exception in some states if the person is a minor or a child, but for adults, there is no prohibition against posting publicly-available information on your website -- name, address, phone number, etc.

Again, that said, somebody may threaten to sue, or actually sue, or otherwide make it so uncomforatable for you that you WANT to remove the materials, but they cannot compel you to remove them. Based solely on what you have written, this sounds completely legal. Of course, if you want an complete legal opinion, you'll need to take all of your information down to a local attorney, who can review all of the facts and advise you accordingly.