I found an HID add on craigs list using a pic of my 300C.

[wanna300]

that HID company is in NY... one of the forum members on the LX board knows the guy personally.. i forgot which member it was though.

[DWINWARD]

This was the response I got.


if you can prove it then I will give you a discount. 30 bucks off.
Are you a car club of some sort?

[CUEBALL]

"Can you prove it".... who cares,

you can influence many auto forums not to buy his stupid products,,,,,,,

Throw that his way..

[Unibomber]

ill give you 30 bucks off my product

lmao

[omg_fast]

if they did service work to your car and you allowed them to take pictures but did NOT specify in a DISCLOSURE statement, how you want the photos used, well then I can help you out. go to www.toobad4you.com

[Stefan Tapp]

I had the same thing with a UK trader in all the Land Rover magazines. He had a picture of my LR Defender in his adverts for his chequer plate body panels, they weren't even his products fitted to my Defender!

He was convinced that a customer had sent him in the photo after fitting his products, until I proved he had ripped the photo from my website, arrogant little bar steward he was too!

Stef

[Rambit]

This thread is very similar and there are copyright's of intellectual property violations involved in both cases.

**wtf** Ebay Seller Using My Pics?????

Bernie

[FirstChrysler]

Originally Posted by DWINWARD

This was the response I got.


if you can prove it then I will give you a discount. 30 bucks off.
Are you a car club of some sort?

LOL. How about he pay you $250,000 (you'll never get that much though):

U.S. Copyright Office - Copyright Law: Chapter 5

See § 504. Remedies for infringement: Damages and profits and my favourite § 505. Remedies for infringement: Costs and attorney's fees

If you own the copyright (took the picture yourself not under any contract or employment to take the picture), then you own the copyright and they are publishing copyrighted material without permission. Repeat your demand for the take down, and tell them about the evidence that you own the copyright. Even if they didn't know about your copyright so that the infringement was unintentional, they know about it now, so continued use will be intentional.

Now, keep in mind that if they do not comply, you are likely not ready to spend the big bucks to start court action, so you may wish to use other pressure to convince them to comply.

Sorry, but I have to give this disclaimer as I am not authorized to practice US law: The above is not legal advice, and you should consult with a legal counsel to be aware of your rights and any limitations.

[Rambit]

Anyone contributing in this thread gets a cut!!!...haha.

Bernie

[FirstChrysler]

Since this seems to be a big problem, I recommend that everyone post copyright notices on their pics. It can be in the EXIF data, or even better (or in addition), put right on the picture. Just "(c) your name" in the bottom corner of the picture using your photo editing software. Then re-upload and replace your pics with these copyright notified pics.

It is also a penalty to remove or fraudlently place copyright notices. So putting your notice on the picture will go a long way to protecting you.

Car enthisiast sites are a great source of these products in action (rather than in the box), so as the market grows, you will find more and more of these resellers using your pics without permission.