Another copyright question

[Scottpat]

April 12, 2012 at 11:22 am

Hi guys

A photo of mine has just been used without my permission on one of the big voucher code/deal discount websites. I have spoken with them and told them I want it taken down. They just copied it from the website of the company who are offering the deal. That company also does not have permission to use the image. They are a competitor of the company I run, and obviously just took it from our website. It seems they are using it on their website and social media. They have also got a copy of our logo on their website. I have just written an email to them and told them they do not have my permission to use this image and that I want it removed.

Just putting it out there to see if there is any feedback for me on what steps I might/should take.

Thanks!

Scott

[GrahamR]

April 12, 2012 at 11:29 am

Straight away I would say take screen shots of the images to have a record, to include date and time.

I would mention in the email that compensation is accrewing by the hour, also if the page has a ‘hit counter’ take note of how many people have viewed it too.

Graham

[Scottpat]

April 12, 2012 at 11:38 am

Hi Graham

Thanks for the reply. I’ve already taken screen grabs of all the relevant pages. I’ll have a look now to see if there are any hit counters on the pages

Thanks
Scott

[Scottpat]

April 12, 2012 at 3:55 pm

Well, the deal site has taken down the image (and replaced it with one from another company in the US, for which I am extremely doubtful that they got permission for either). Do I have a case, is it worth my while? I just think that for a large corporation, as they are, to be engaged in such practices is wholly unethical. I guess their defense would be that they just took it from the website of the company who are offering the deal, without knowledge that they too were using it without permission. With the company, it is not just about the image. They are a competitor and have been using an image of our facility, passing it off as their own. The one that ran on the deal site today has been a bit butchered in PS, but is clearly the same image. They have the actual image, unchanged, running on their own website.

Any advice? The competitor company is very small, but the deal site is a large corporation. I have no experience in these things, and don’t know if it is even worth the legal costs to pursue.

Thanks
Scott

[GrahamR]

April 12, 2012 at 4:21 pm

I am no solicitor or copyright lawyer but I doubt you would have any case with the deal site because your competitor probably told them to take what they want from their site and it would be a fair assumption that they assumed the company owned it in the first place and since they did take it down in a timely fashion when you brought it to their attention.

But if your competitor stole your image then its theft and if they are using it to make a profit however small it may be then I would say you might have a reasonable strong case. I am not sure if you would make millions over it but I would at least hope you would get ‘something’.

It sounds like a common case, maybe someone else here has been through the motions before??

[Scottpat]

April 12, 2012 at 4:36 pm

Thanks for the feedback Graham. I agree with your comments about the deal site.

I’d really like to hear if anyone has been through the same kind of thing before, and what their experience was like.

Scott