Copyright Infringement in Ad/Pricing

I came across a magazine ad for a sports supplement last week and noticed they were using a photo of mine. I was never contacted concerning it's use. Better yet they left the copyright with my name on the photo. They must have pulled it off the web (I was surprised it reproduced as well as it did. Ad is full page and photo is 1/4 page. The photo is also on their website, and there they have removed the copyright from the photo. I have registered the photo with the Library of Congress and a lawyer friend of mine that has handled these cases has constructed a letter for me.

Question, I dont really want to drag this out in court, but will if necessary. What do you think I should invoice them in hopes of ending this matter quickly? Thanks in advance to everyone.

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Charge them the highest price you've ever been paid for an image and then add on for the type of exposure they got: was it a nation print ad? find out how many hits they have on their web site and charge for each and every time someone viewed your image. Your attorney should have a pretty easy time since they left your copyright on the image. Have the attorney ask for $25,000 plus attorney fees and then settle for a few thousand (plus attorney fees).

Good luck...

Ed Mulholland said:

I came across a magazine ad for a sports supplement last week and
noticed they were using a photo of mine. I was never contacted
concerning it's use. Better yet they left the copyright with my
name on the photo. They must have pulled it off the web (I was
surprised it reproduced as well as it did. Ad is full page and
photo is 1/4 page. The photo is also on their website, and there
they have removed the copyright from the photo. I have registered
the photo with the Library of Congress and a lawyer friend of mine
that has handled these cases has constructed a letter for me.

Question, I dont really want to drag this out in court, but will if
necessary. What do you think I should invoice them in hopes of
ending this matter quickly? Thanks in advance to everyone.

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Click to expand...

The magazine it ran in is a national magazine, I dont have circulation numbers, but I dont think it is very large. Of course it could have been used in other magazines that I am unaware of.

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Zippy DooDah said:

Good luck...

Ed Mulholland said:

I came across a magazine ad for a sports supplement last week and
noticed they were using a photo of mine. I was never contacted
concerning it's use. Better yet they left the copyright with my
name on the photo. They must have pulled it off the web (I was
surprised it reproduced as well as it did. Ad is full page and
photo is 1/4 page. The photo is also on their website, and there
they have removed the copyright from the photo. I have registered
the photo with the Library of Congress and a lawyer friend of mine
that has handled these cases has constructed a letter for me.

Question, I dont really want to drag this out in court, but will if
necessary. What do you think I should invoice them in hopes of
ending this matter quickly? Thanks in advance to everyone.

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Muls
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Canon D-60
Sigma 28-70 EX
Olympus C-4040

I can imagine this happening with a small business that runs a small ad in a local newspaper, but a full page ad in a national magazine?

I don't know what the normal charge would be for this, but whatever it is I'd charge twice as much since they tried to steal it. I'm not a judge and I don't portray one on television, but if I was... I'd sock the defendant with some heavy punitive damages for this.

Ed Mulholland said:

I came across a magazine ad for a sports supplement last week and
noticed they were using a photo of mine. I was never contacted
concerning it's use. Better yet they left the copyright with my
name on the photo. They must have pulled it off the web (I was
surprised it reproduced as well as it did. Ad is full page and
photo is 1/4 page. The photo is also on their website, and there
they have removed the copyright from the photo. I have registered
the photo with the Library of Congress and a lawyer friend of mine
that has handled these cases has constructed a letter for me.

Question, I dont really want to drag this out in court, but will if
necessary. What do you think I should invoice them in hopes of
ending this matter quickly? Thanks in advance to everyone.

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Click to expand...

I was a bit surprised myself, apparently it's running in several Martial Arts and lifting magazines...I've only found one thus far, but heard they run others.

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Newk said:

I don't know what the normal charge would be for this, but whatever
it is I'd charge twice as much since they tried to steal it. I'm
not a judge and I don't portray one on television, but if I was...
I'd sock the defendant with some heavy punitive damages for this.

Ed Mulholland said:

I came across a magazine ad for a sports supplement last week and
noticed they were using a photo of mine. I was never contacted
concerning it's use. Better yet they left the copyright with my
name on the photo. They must have pulled it off the web (I was
surprised it reproduced as well as it did. Ad is full page and
photo is 1/4 page. The photo is also on their website, and there
they have removed the copyright from the photo. I have registered
the photo with the Library of Congress and a lawyer friend of mine
that has handled these cases has constructed a letter for me.

Question, I dont really want to drag this out in court, but will if
necessary. What do you think I should invoice them in hopes of
ending this matter quickly? Thanks in advance to everyone.

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Muls
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Canon D-60
Sigma 28-70 EX
Olympus C-4040

Ed,

Be sure you have a screenshot of the website and find as many examples of the ad as you can.

You could be in for a bit more than a couple of grand, but that depends on how well your laywer understands intellectual rights and how much they want to fight.

FYI- Ads usually remove the copyright notice from the picture and copyright the entire ad.

Kel 2K

Kel Tookay said:

Ed,

Be sure you have a screenshot of the website and find as many
examples of the ad as you can.

Click to expand...

I do have a saved copy of the screenshot and a copy of the print ad

MikeDitz said:

FYI- Ads usually remove the copyright notice from the picture and
copyright the entire ad.

Click to expand...

Kel, what do you mean? Do you mean physically remove it? They did on the website, but curiously did not in the print ad...

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Ed Mulholland said:

Ed Mulholland said:

FYI- Ads usually remove the copyright notice from the picture and
copyright the entire ad.

Click to expand...

Kel, what do you mean? Do you mean physically remove it? They did
on the website, but curiously did not in the print ad...

Click to expand...

he means it's rare that a photo credit is given in an ad. the copyright shown is usually for the ad itself, including all the design and copy, not the photo within the ad. so it would show as © Seagrams not © joe shmoe who shot the photo in the ad.

Newk said:

I can imagine this happening with a small business that runs a
small ad in a local newspaper, but a full page ad in a national
magazine?

I don't know what the normal charge would be for this, but whatever
it is I'd charge twice as much since they tried to steal it. I'm
not a judge and I don't portray one on television, but if I was...
I'd sock the defendant with some heavy punitive damages for this.

Click to expand...

it's pretty common to figure the highest amount you realistically would have charged for that usage and ask for triple that amount for the unauthorized usage.

try to find out where else they've run the ad also, and once you've got a handle on all the usage then calculate your fee as a stock usage, then triple it. you can use photo quote or other pricing programs or books like pricing photography or jim pickerell's negotiating stock photo prices, checking seth resnick's prices, looking at a few major stock agencies and pretending you're going to license a photo by typing in similar usage and see what they'll charge you. etc.

you probably have to be careful about how you approach them and ask for the info on possible other uses in terms of actually getting the info, and maybe even in developing a relationship with them if it ends up sounding like it really was an honest mistake and they might be decent ongoing clients, but that second part is unlikely.

if and when they object to a triple fee, you can explain that it's a commonly accepted practice in unauthorized use situations, and that the time to negotiate a fee they would have found more reasonable would have been before using the photo. when all else fails, they need to be aware that you're aware that the fee you ask will still be less then the cost of fighting a federal copyright violation claim in court, that this is an open and shut case, and that the penalties are up to $150,000 PLUS your attorney's fees for EACH violation! so they're getting off pretty light with just triple the normal fee

Ed,

As of now you have a decent ideas about the dollar amount you can "pull" out of this occurence - so contact these guys and ask them to offer you a satisfactory settlement first. Listen to what they answer and act from there.

Who knows, something better might as well come out of it for the highest good of all concerned!

Gleb
[email protected]

Ed Mulholland said:

I came across a magazine ad for a sports supplement last week and
noticed they were using a photo of mine. I was never contacted
concerning it's use. Better yet they left the copyright with my
name on the photo. They must have pulled it off the web (I was
surprised it reproduced as well as it did. Ad is full page and
photo is 1/4 page. The photo is also on their website, and there
they have removed the copyright from the photo. I have registered
the photo with the Library of Congress and a lawyer friend of mine
that has handled these cases has constructed a letter for me.

Question, I dont really want to drag this out in court, but will if
necessary. What do you think I should invoice them in hopes of
ending this matter quickly? Thanks in advance to everyone.

Ed
http://www.boxing-pics.com

Click to expand...

Since you know the law falls in your favor . . . I would let it run for awhile before you have an attorney contact them. Let it build up in time as their ad campaign, and you will have a better case and a more lucrative settlement.
--
Knox

Call, the magazine(s), ask for price qoutes for ads this will give you an idea about how much they spent on the ad. They probably ran it for more than one month. Charge them at the very least triple the amount they spent on the AD each month and in each magazine.

He may need to act now lest he lose it to public domain due to lack of action after being aware of such violation.

Knox / streetkid said:

Since you know the law falls in your favor . . . I would let it run
for awhile before you have an attorney contact them. Let it build
up in time as their ad campaign, and you will have a better case
and a more lucrative settlement.
--
Knox

Click to expand...

Nanook S said:

He may need to act now lest he lose it to public domain due to lack
of action after being aware of such violation.

Click to expand...

ugh, no, that's fiction. your photo only goes into the public domain 70 years after your death, it doesn't need to be "protected" like a trademark does, it only needs to be protected by registration (so that effective remedies can be inforced) and from being given away by a bad contract

nanook s said:

Knox / streetkid said:

Since you know the law falls in your favor . . . I would let it run
for awhile before you have an attorney contact them. Let it build
up in time as their ad campaign, and you will have a better case
and a more lucrative settlement.
--
Knox

Click to expand...

Click to expand...