Just a word of warning about posting images. I am always hesitant about posting large images for this reason as well as others. Please forgive me for putting my copyright on my images but this is why. I never gave permission to these people nor did I know this existed till I googled my name last night. A very controversal sight indeed and not one I want my prized image to represent. Check out the link. I have asked them to remove it ASAP http://jdstone.org/cr/files/unconditionalove.html
Posted by Austin Booth on October 6, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Its amazing what goes through some peoples heads. Do they think just because they credited you on the image they have covered all their bases and it is ok to use it free of charge?
Posted by Larry Fischer on October 6, 2009 at 1:49 PM
Cheryl,
Very disappointed in the stealing of an image.
They attributed the quote to a posting, also. Was that true/false?
the fisch
Posted by Jim DeWitt on October 6, 2009 at 2:20 PM
Everything on the site seems to have been stolen from somewhere else (except, possibly, the incredibly annoying sound effects). At least he didn't attach his copyright to your work...
Posted by Luke Ormand on October 6, 2009 at 3:44 PM
You should let the website owner know what they did is a sin and broke a commandment. Pretty sure that will get the point across
"This site is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws and by U.S. Trademarks and treaties."
Your photography must be under the same protection. justremind them. they are not aware of the laws:)))
web site content and idea of stealing a photography is not concordant. !!!!
Posted by Kathy Odiorne on October 6, 2009 at 8:10 PM
Cheryl, I just went to the site, and your photo is still there. If it were mine, and they don't take it down, I'd contact an attorney. Personally, I would not want one of my photos on an athiestic web site, with my name attached. I wonder if your state Attorney General could be of help to you? I hope you are able to get this resolved.
Kathy
Thanks for the response. Does anyone know what this means? This is part of the reply I got back.......The use of this photo falls under Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 47, Sec. 1030 U.S.C., Section 107. This picture is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research & educational or criticism purposes only!
Posted by Dan Borzynski on October 6, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Fair use also covers limited redistribution of the copyrighted materials. The last time I checked, a website is not limited redistribution (not a legal opinion). Unfortunately, this exception to copyright law is badly misunderstood and as I understand, not applicable in this situation.
Here is the domain hosting info. I'd contact them and inform that they are illegally hosting copyrighted photos. It is Canadian so guess what - the are not covered by US fair use laws. Canada is pretty good about respecting copyright and it is pretty safe to say that the hosting company does not want to deal with these issues. It also looks like the person who owns the domain name is Canadian so guess what again? Yep, US copyright law does not apply to those living in Canada.
Wow Dan, you did your homework. Thankyou so very much although I guess I'm still stuck. Perhaps they will kindly put a disclaimer that I'm not affiliated with the sight if I request it..
Posted by Jim Sabiston on October 6, 2009 at 9:47 PM
Cheryl,
I just sent the site owner a note politely requesting he respond to your removal request affirmatively. He does not do the photographer or the atheists any favors by using material against the owner's wishes. Hopefully they will realize the error and comply.
Thanks Jim. I compromised with a disclaimer of no affiliation to the site.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on October 6, 2009 at 10:00 PM
Cheryl -
You are not completely stuck.
Here is an email address for the website hoster of contactprivacy.com:
customer.support@tucows.com
If the image does not come down in a day or two, email the tucows people them and let them know that contactprivacy.com has a customer who is illegally hosting a copyrighted image and they have been unwilling to deal with the matter.
OK friends after a whole lotta back and forth with whoever this was... They now have asked me kindly to use the image to 'show unconditional love" so I considered it only with a disclaimer that I have nothing to do with the site. soooo we will see.I really don't want to fight with anyone but was totally offended by the lack of respect to contact me first.
Hey, it's great how all of you went to bat to help Cheryl!
And now they're trying to sweet talk themselves out of a determined violation of copyright by asking nicely! Boy that makes me mad.
Cheryl, your photo is absolutely a treasure. I wish you would fight for it. But I hasten to say I understand your reluctance. OTOH, I bet they're counting on it.
Geez, i hope you dont mind Cheryl, but im gonna send an email too. Maybe if enough folks remind them how hypocritical they are they'll get the point! I'm disgusted by it, and i actually have a lot of sympathy towards the fight against irrationalism, pseudo-science, and extremism. This was wrong, pure and simple, and it's also illegal, pure and simple. Take it from this Juris Dr, it aint fair use!
EDIT: mail sent, i requested they take down the photo.
Posted by Wick Smith on October 7, 2009 at 9:09 AM
The WHOIS info that is posted by Dan B. above shows that the domain name is probably registered privately. Contacting Tucows (the domain name registrar) is probably useless. If you need to pursue it further, the site itself is hosted at HostMonster the address is http://www.hostmonster.com/. They have a toll free number that you could call. They should be responsive as they don't want the liability...
I'm in the web design business & run into this sort of thing all the time.
You guys are all so awesome for helping me out and I can''t tell you how much I appreciate it. I think we have worked it out as I have said before I just don't want the turmoil of the fighting and blah blah blah.... So they put in my disclaimer as well as a link to my site so who knows giving back to the world is a great way of life and it does come back to you. Although I'm not a supporter of the site I felt this was a fair way to give me the respect I wanted (as far as asking permission )and I'm cool with that. Thanks so much again and again.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on October 7, 2009 at 6:06 PM
Wick - thanks for the correction! It looks like I read it too fast
Cheryl. I'm glad you came to terms with them. " Mrs. Molennor, though not affiliated with this site, has graciously permitted her exquisite photo to be used to illustrate "Unconditional Love."
Having been through a similar situation recently, it's really galling to me that people just take without asking. My infringer wouldn't give me the time of day, but at least they removed the photos.
Posted by Jim Harris on October 8, 2009 at 11:21 AM
ya know, seeing things like this really make you think, it makes you wonder just how much of this stuff (our stuff) is robbed and used without us knowing, I once read an article that was published in a newspaper about an editor taking peoples photos off the internet and having them enlarged and framed and hung them on his wall, this editor actually encouraged people to do this ( free for all ) he called it ( free art ) the thought of people taking, enlarging and then displaying your images without you knowing is something to think about and probably happens more than we all would like to think,
Cheryl you were very cooperative under these circumstances, that seems to be a controversial site there
I'm glad this situation has been dealt with Cheryl. I'm jumping into this conversation a tad late, but I wanted to belatedly add there are pretty powerful things you can do should a webmaster refuse to remove the image. Just mentioning these should be persuasion enough, but if not you can take action:
1) Contact google and file an infringement notification (http://www.google.com/dmca.html). This has the implication that they can be removed entirely from google searches.
2) If available, contact the service provider and notify them of copyright infringement by finding this through whois (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp)
3) Go to yahoo, and type in "linkdomain:www.thedomainhere.com". Select inlinks "except from this domain", and contact each and every domain that links to the infringer notifying them that the link goes to a page that breaks the law, infringes on copyright, and indicate that doing so does not benefiting their site, and may in fact hurt their site in search engine indexing.
4) Find any advertiser on the infringer website, and contact them notifying that the advertising site is breaking the law.
5) If you have not, copyright your photos! This gives you much more credence when contacting all the folks above.
Discussion
22 repliesVery disappointed in the stealing of an image.
They attributed the quote to a posting, also. Was that true/false?
the fisch
Your photography must be under the same protection. justremind them. they are not aware of the laws:)))
web site content and idea of stealing a photography is not concordant. !!!!
Kathy
http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/copypol2.htm#test
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
Fair use also covers limited redistribution of the copyrighted materials. The last time I checked, a website is not limited redistribution (not a legal opinion). Unfortunately, this exception to copyright law is badly misunderstood and as I understand, not applicable in this situation.
Here is the domain hosting info. I'd contact them and inform that they are illegally hosting copyrighted photos. It is Canadian so guess what - the are not covered by US fair use laws. Canada is pretty good about respecting copyright and it is pretty safe to say that the hosting company does not want to deal with these issues. It also looks like the person who owns the domain name is Canadian so guess what again? Yep, US copyright law does not apply to those living in Canada.
Domain ID:D78522366-LROR
Domain Name:JDSTONE.ORG
Created On:11-Oct-2001 19:05:42 UTC
Last Updated On:14-Aug-2009 21:03:11 UTC
Expiration Date:11-Oct-2012 19:05:42 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R11-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:tuQGAU0dpnwhTUaQ
Registrant Name:contactprivacy.com
Registrant Organization:Contactprivacy.com
Registrant Street1:96 Mowat Ave
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Toronto
Registrant State/Province:ON
Registrant Postal Code:M6K3M1
Registrant Country:CA
Registrant Phone:+1.4165385457
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:jdstone.org@contactprivacy.com
Admin ID:tuQGAU0dpnwhTUaQ
Admin Name:contactprivacy.com
Admin Organization:Contactprivacy.com
Admin Street1:96 Mowat Ave
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Toronto
Admin State/Province:ON
Admin Postal Code:M6K3M1
Admin Country:CA
Admin Phone:+1.4165385457
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:jdstone.org@contactprivacy.com
Tech ID:tuQGAU0dpnwhTUaQ
Tech Name:contactprivacy.com
Tech Organization:Contactprivacy.com
Tech Street1:96 Mowat Ave
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Toronto
Tech State/Province:ON
Tech Postal Code:M6K3M1
Tech Country:CA
Tech Phone:+1.4165385457
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:jdstone.org@contactprivacy.com
Name Server:NS1.HOSTMONSTER.COM
Name Server:NS2.HOSTMONSTER.COM
Name Server:
Toronto is in Ontario - try looking at some of Ontario's consumer protections.
I just sent the site owner a note politely requesting he respond to your removal request affirmatively. He does not do the photographer or the atheists any favors by using material against the owner's wishes. Hopefully they will realize the error and comply.
You are not completely stuck.
Here is an email address for the website hoster of contactprivacy.com:
customer.support@tucows.com
If the image does not come down in a day or two, email the tucows people them and let them know that contactprivacy.com has a customer who is illegally hosting a copyrighted image and they have been unwilling to deal with the matter.
And now they're trying to sweet talk themselves out of a determined violation of copyright by asking nicely! Boy that makes me mad.
Cheryl, your photo is absolutely a treasure. I wish you would fight for it. But I hasten to say I understand your reluctance. OTOH, I bet they're counting on it.
EDIT: mail sent, i requested they take down the photo.
I'm in the web design business & run into this sort of thing all the time.
Having been through a similar situation recently, it's really galling to me that people just take without asking. My infringer wouldn't give me the time of day, but at least they removed the photos.
Cheryl you were very cooperative under these circumstances, that seems to be a controversial site there
1) Contact google and file an infringement notification (http://www.google.com/dmca.html). This has the implication that they can be removed entirely from google searches.
2) If available, contact the service provider and notify them of copyright infringement by finding this through whois (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp)
3) Go to yahoo, and type in "linkdomain:www.thedomainhere.com". Select inlinks "except from this domain", and contact each and every domain that links to the infringer notifying them that the link goes to a page that breaks the law, infringes on copyright, and indicate that doing so does not benefiting their site, and may in fact hurt their site in search engine indexing.
4) Find any advertiser on the infringer website, and contact them notifying that the advertising site is breaking the law.
5) If you have not, copyright your photos! This gives you much more credence when contacting all the folks above.
For more information on the topic, see my article on image protection, and see Lorelle VanFossen's article on what to do when someone steals your content