Photo from website with copyright footer

[ProfessionalInC]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Los Angeles

I work in a very controversial research area, so I am accustomed to people posting negative junk about my science. However, one blooger has gone personal. He now has an incident reported for harassment. The latest is he took a photo of me off my website, which has an active copyright footer, and included it on a diatribe about my work. The photo was of me and taken by a friend who also does not give permission for it to be used by him (she gave me rights to it verbally...I asked to post it to my web page).

I believe there is sufficient legal standing to force him to take it down? This seems so far outside far use, and it did hav the copyright statement.

 

[justalayman]

the copyright statement is no longer required and as such, irrelevant. You have rights automatically upon the creation of the work.


as to whether his acts are infringement or not would depend on the exact purpose of his use. If he simply took the image so he could show people who you are, it is likely to be infringement as that would not be an acceptable use under the fair use doctrine. Regardless, claiming fair use is an affirmative defense available to those charged with a copyright violation. It is not a means to make a claim of allowed use outside of a court with result being continued use of the image.

you mention a friend in the picture. Do not confuse copyrights with some other situation that might require permission to use an image. The copyrights are likely owned by the photographer so, depending on who actually took the picture and other details, you may not even own the copyrights to the picture in question.

So, who took the picture? Where did you obtain the picture from?

 

[ProfessionalInC]

The photograph was taken by a friend with my camera, so given directly to me. The person did not appear in the picture and would be willing to make a statement that the photograph was given to me.

 

[quincy]

The photograph was taken by a friend with my camera, so given directly to me. The person did not appear in the picture and would be willing to make a statement that the photograph was given to me.

Your friend, the photographer, may have given you the photograph of yourself but the rights in the photo remain with your friend, absent any written agreement to the contrary. If the photographer has a problem with the photo appearing on the website, a DMCA notice could be filed and the photograph removed in that way.

Any text included on the person's website could potentially result in a legal action, depending on what was written about you. You would need a legal professional in your area to personally review the website content, however, to determine if this is an avenue worth exploring.

Otherwise, contact your photographer-friend and have the photographer file a takedown notice. The photo should be removed upon proof of copyright in the work and its unauthorized use.

Good luck.