digital images copyrights

[DR2000]

First of all I wanted to say that this site seems to be a great resource. I always have a lot of questions in legal matters, and no right person to ask.

I've had this one problem for quite some time now.

I have a site which contains a library of car pictures. All those pictures I took myself. Do I have to do anything to copyright each one of them? I update the library often, and it would be hard to be filling copyrights or something for each one.

The problem is there is one site that likes to take images from my library, and I can't seem to make anything. I contacted the guy, and I guess he considered my requests to take it off a joke.

Then I contacted the owner of the server who hosts his site. He said that I should get over it, it's just a pic.

Also he told me that the only way he'll tell the guy to remove it is through court.

The I looked up the companies that provide internet connections for the server. Here are the statements in their policies:

"Compliance With Law.

Customer shall not post, transmit, re-transmit or store material on or
through any of Services or Products which, in the sole judgment of the
Company (i) is in violation of any local, state, federal or non-United
States law or regula-tion, (ii) threatening, obscene, indecent, defamatory
or that other-wise could adversely affect any individual, group or entity
(collectively, "Persons") or (iii) violates the rights of any person,
including rights protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other
intellectual property or similar laws or regulations including, but not
limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software
products that are not appro-priately licensed for use by Customer. Customer
shall be responsible for determining what laws or regulations are applicable
to its use of the Services and Products."

and another company:

"Illegal use
The network may be used only for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution
or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation
is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by
copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used
without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory,
constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws."

So what would be my next step? And do I have copyrights to my pictures? If not, how can I protect them?

Thank you very much for your help.
Brooklyn, NY

 

[HomeGuru]

On each photo and website frame you should place the word copyright or icon with your name and year.
Then read the copyright laws in its entirety.

 

[crazie4life]

i'd be pissed if i was you. They are your photos and no one should get credit for them other than you. I'm an amatuer photographer and i have photos on the internet but the first thing i did before i even placed a single one on the internet was to find out how i could protect it. First i tried the branding. Putting your name and a copyright symbol on it, but other people made me realize that if someone wanted it bad enough, they could edit it and use a paint program to take it off. So, on each and every one of my photos, i have a script on it that disables the viewer to be able to right click on the photo and copy it or save it. A box simply comes up and says that this photo is copyrighted by me. It's tedious, but if your photos are important to you, it would be worth the time to do this. I have a couple hundred photos on my page, www.geocities.com/crazie4life99/Wildlife.html , and every single one i have personal scripted. If you want the script, email me at [email protected]. Good luck.

 

[DR2000]

Thanks for suggestions, but I don't think that will protected the pictures too well. It would take me 5 seconds to go around the script. There are way to many ways to do this.

That guy has my pic on his site for about 6 months now, and it seems that there is nothing I can do to make him to take it off.

 

[crazie4life]

If you will that interested and wanted to spend that much time getting the picture, sure. But most people aren't going to waste their time with something that's more complicated then just copying. You could file a lawsuit on him for copyright infringement, because without your permission, he's not allowed to have it.