Where to sue if I have to?

[johnguerin]

Illinois

I have a photo posted online of someone else's car in a collection.

I took the photo.

I granted the owner of the car a license to use the photo on his website.

Someone else grabbed that photo off the website and then used a Photo editing program to "block out" the license plate and submitted the photo to an auction house as one of the photos of THEIR CAR that they were planning to auction.

I emailed the auction house about this and they apparently forwarded my message to the person who submitted the image to them in the first place, representing it as an image of their car that they planned to sell at auction.

I received an email from this person where he admits he took the image, but doesn't see anything wrong with what he did.

So I plan to send him a bill. I have his personal info, address etc.

However- I don't expect him to pay the bill.
So I guess at some point I will have to take him to small claims court over this and since he is in another state, my question is:

What state would I file in for small claims court?
My state?
His state?
The state of the Auction House?

 

[seniorjudge]

Illinois

I have a photo posted online of someone else's car in a collection.

I took the photo.

I granted the owner of the car a license to use the photo on his website.

Someone else grabbed that photo off the website and then used a Photo editing program to "block out" the license plate and submitted the photo to an auction house as one of the photos of THEIR CAR that they were planning to auction.

I emailed the auction house about this and they apparently forwarded my message to the person who submitted the image to them in the first place, representing it as an image of their car that they planned to sell at auction.

I received an email from this person where he admits he took the image, but doesn't see anything wrong with what he did.

So I plan to send him a bill. I have his personal info, address etc.

However- I don't expect him to pay the bill.
So I guess at some point I will have to take him to small claims court over this and since he is in another state, my question is:

What state would I file in for small claims court?
My state?
His state?
The state of the Auction House?

What state would I file in for small claims court?
My state?
His state?
The state of the Auction House?


His state since that is where the incident happened.

 

[divgradcurl]

Illinois

I have a photo posted online of someone else's car in a collection.

I took the photo.

I granted the owner of the car a license to use the photo on his website.

Someone else grabbed that photo off the website and then used a Photo editing program to "block out" the license plate and submitted the photo to an auction house as one of the photos of THEIR CAR that they were planning to auction.

I emailed the auction house about this and they apparently forwarded my message to the person who submitted the image to them in the first place, representing it as an image of their car that they planned to sell at auction.

I received an email from this person where he admits he took the image, but doesn't see anything wrong with what he did.

So I plan to send him a bill. I have his personal info, address etc.

However- I don't expect him to pay the bill.
So I guess at some point I will have to take him to small claims court over this and since he is in another state, my question is:

What state would I file in for small claims court?
My state?
His state?
The state of the Auction House?

You should check with the small claims court to see if this issue is even okay to bring to small claims court -- what you are describing is a suit for copyright infringement, and the federal courts have jurisdiction over copyright claims.

 

[seniorjudge]

You should check with the small claims court to see if this issue is even okay to bring to small claims court -- what you are describing is a suit for copyright infringement, and the federal courts have jurisdiction over copyright claims.

I'd like to hear the conversation between the small claims clerk and writer on this one....