cfmonk Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 Hello everyone! I was having some fun the other day trying to optimise my website up the Google local business results which meant I was browsing through websites linked to my competitors who appear there. I found this website: http://www.goodevents.co.uk/ and noticed the top left hand image on their homepage. This is really rather similar to picture 10 in my gallery http://www.marquee-tent-hire.co.uk/gallery.htm but appears to have been flipped in the horizontal axis. I was suspicious and so dug a little deeper and it appears the goodevents website is partnered with a company called Florey and Sons (through whose website I found GoodEvents in the first place) and it looks like all the marquees provided by GoodEvents are actually provided by Florey and Sons. With a little bit of closer inspection all the windows in the marquees on the Florey website have four top sections whereas the one in the suspect photo and in all of my photos have three. I came to the conclusion that these monkeys have stolen my photograph. What is my legal position? I have emailed them instructing them to remove it within 7 days and have chased them today but with no response. This must happen all the time to you guys with other people using your pictures. What to do? Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p.k.roberts Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 A quick 'whois' search shows that the registrar for the site is streamline.net. Their website has a their contact details and a 'report misuse' facility. Might be worth a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indyld Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 A quick 'whois' search shows that the registrar for the site is streamline.net. Their website has a their contact details and a 'report misuse' facility. Might be worth a try. Although there is no harm in reporting copyright infringements to a hosting provider (not the domain registrar) it's usually pretty ineffective. I won't even go into my experience of dealings with Streamline as it will just wind me up. Any hosting provider will usually tell you that you need to obtain a legal order, which then forces them to suspend service for the offending website. Part of their T&C's is that you will not use their servers for illegal activity, including copyright violations. If you publish anything online, you have to face up to the fact that people will nick it. I spend some time chasing up my own copyrights with most being resolved by an contact with the (often unwitting) offender. Out of interest Chris - Are you trying to optimise for "localised" search or the Google Local listings? I assume you know that Google Local depends on submitting your details and confirming an address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfmonk Posted October 18, 2008 Author Share Posted October 18, 2008 Out of interest Chris - Are you trying to optimise for "localised" search or the Google Local listings? I assume you know that Google Local depends on submitting your details and confirming an address. Hi Rob, It is the Google Local am aware of the requirements to verify an address but we seem to be a long way down the local results for "marquee hire berkshire" whilst we are top of the natural listings. A bit of digging on the internet suggested that a good way to bump yourself upwards is to get listed on specifically local business listings, to find out which ones would work best, a quick linkdomain search on Yahoo for the websites of my competitors gives a handful which I thought I would try and hence I stumbled across this. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indyld Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 A bit of digging on the internet suggested that a good way to bump yourself upwards is to get listed on specifically local business listings Interesting, I haven't done much testing with Local but would be interested in the theory. It would make sense that a link from a locally orientated page such as a business directory area listing would push some decent juice of the right flavour. PM me if you find anything that you think genuinely makes a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sound In Gloucestershire Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 thanks for the tip on the local website thing, come to think of it, I dont have many local links, ill give it a go thanks :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreatBigHippy Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 Just a thought. You'd need to do a little research but if the photo is yours then it is a copyrighted work and as such you can order a takedown notice using the DMCA. This would cause their host to remove the site until the infringing material is removed or an appeal is launched.There are templates for this thing all over the place. Seems relatively easy.Hope this helps,theHippy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 The copyright design and patents act puts the rights firmly with the photographer at the start, however these are tradable assets and may get sold to the job client, or to other buyers. However unless the image is watermarked the it is sometimes difficult to PROVE the origin of the picture. However (again) MOST hosting companies have a contract term that forbids illegal material. If you are certain then a note to the site owner may get the image removed, a complaint that the image is stolen from you to the hosting company should get either the site pulled or the image pulled by the hosting provider. For pirated text I know people who use "Copyscape" a web based copy detection system for a subscription. If you register your site with them they will keep looking on the web for excerpts of your site occuring elsewhere. If the image comes from your site by link, then replace the pic at that link! Someone had a pirate link directly to his site for a pic (of a disco setup) so he changed the pic to a naughty one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indyld Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 If you are certain then a note to the site owner may get the image removed, a complaint that the image is stolen from you to the hosting company should get either the site pulled or the image pulled by the hosting provider. As I mentioned I am always dealing with this and quite often contact with the site owner does the trick. However, the hosting provider will only consider the matter if issued with a legal takedown order as mentioned by GreatBigHippy. BTW If you can get any kind of service from Streamline, I am sure thousands of website owners would love to know about it. I love the idea of replacing hotlinked photos to catch out copyright thieves but there can't be many webmasters stupid enough to both pilfer AND rely on a linked image from another server. Only real spammers do this because the consequences (having an image replaced by a sheep in suspenders etc.) don't matter to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamharman Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 I heard recently of an am-dram group who used a picture of a glass of wine which they'd found on the internet for the programme for their show. Getty Images sent them a bill for £1200 for use of a copyright image. They took legal advice and eventually negotiated it down to £300 on the basis that they were a charity and didn't have the money, but still had to cough up. I assume you would be legally entitled to do the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnomatron Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Getty will have a pretty big legal department though; legal fees might make doing something similar unfeasible for an individual or small business. Threats can go a long way though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.