Information On Reporting Copyright Infringement

Sticky worthy post. Thank you Rebecca!

I agree Alison

ON FAA/PIXELS

If you find work here that is infringing on your copyright;

In order to process your takedown request, we need some information

If You believe that Your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide a Notice with the following information to the Website's Copyright Agent:

Fine Art America
ATTN: Copyright Agent
2202 Main Street
Santa Monica,
CA 90405
E-Mail: dmca@stites.com

1. An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
2. description of the copyright work that You claim has been infringed;
3. A description of precisely where the material that You claim is being infringed is located on the Website;
4. Your address, telephone number, and email address;
5. A statement by You that You have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law;
6. A statement by You, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in Your Notice is accurate and that You are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Abbie
------------------
Abbie Shores
Site Manager, Fine Art America | Pixels.com

Thank you, Rebecca and Abbie! This has been such a learning experience, however unwanted it may be. It helps to have some of the confusion sorted out like this.

Much-needed information...thank you!

Thank you Rebecca and Abbie for taking the time to share that information with the rest of us. It's helpful to have the information concentrated in one place!

Thank you Rebecca and Abbie! Great information to have as a reference!

Thank you Rebecca for taking the time to post all this helpful information! Much appreciated!

And thank you Abbie for the specific info for the FAA/Pixels site!

Thanks so much Rebecca

Well written up!

If in a Google Search, Google Image Search or YouTube or other Google related property you can send notice to Google per the specific feature.

Registering images helps.

Question how does this work for people who have not registered their images? What is their protocol?

David:

I highly recommend everyone register their images with the copyright office.
However, in the case of sending a DMCA, you do not have to have your images registered.

Thanks for the great information!

I had a painting stolen by a company that curated art for all of a certain celebrity's businesses. When I found my painting hanging in one of those establishments, I contacted the celebrity, who had the company contact me. For some reason, they thought I should have been flattered. In the end, my copyright hadn't come back yet, so I settled for $1,500 and gave them the right to continuing using the one print in that single location. Had I had the copyright, I would have hired an attorney for copyright infringement. Most important....ALWAYS copyright your work.

Deborah is correct. In order to pursue cases of copyright infringement in court, your artwork must be registered.

Thank you Rebecca!

Thank you Rebecca and Abbie !

Thank you, Rebecca and Abbie :)

Thank you for posting this. I used to watermark all my photos with my signature when I joined FAA I having been posting with my logo. All mine I taken either with my camera or phone. Are my photos safe?

Great info! I'll add to it:

If your DMCA is ignored by the site and the hosting company (for independent websites, not marketplaces), you can also report the infringement to the payment processors they use such as PayPal, Stripe, MasterCard, Visa, etc. Here are some helpful links:

Paypal:
https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/infringementrpt-full
https://www.paypalobjects.com/webstatic/ua/pdf/US/en_US/infringementreport.pdf
( Fill this form and send it to infringementreport@paypal.com )

Stripe:
https://stripe.com/files/legal/IP_Notice.pdf
( Fill this form and send it to notices@stripe.com )

Visa
https://usa.visa.com/Forms/report-ip-abuse-form.html

MasterCard
https://www.mastercard.us/content/dam/mccom/en-us/documents/mastercard-anti-piracy-referral-form-9.17-electronic-signature-1290.pdf

------------------------------------------------------------

Also, if you find an infringement on Google Shopping, use this to report it:

Google Shopping infringement DMCA form:
https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_dmca?product=productsearch&uraw&hl=en


I hope this is helpful!

Hmmm, weiß es jemand von Euch vielleicht - gibt es ein "Copyright office" auch für deutsche Gemälde oder Fotos?
Danke im Voraus.
Liebe Grüße
Petra Wenzel

Thanks for the info!

Thank you

Petra

Am besten suchen Sie bei Google nach Adressen, die auf Ihrer Regierungswebsite enden. Sie werden über die richtigen Informationen verfügen

I am missing the part where you contact a copyright layer and sue the offenders
I have made some serious "sales" in this manner

@Nikki Marie Smith - Yes I forgot to include that, great information thank you!

Excellent information, and long overdue. We should have a popup box appear for anyone starting or posting in an infringement discussion:

[_] I have read and understood Rebecca Wang's and Nikki Marie Smith's posts in the "Information On Reporting Copyright Infringement" thread.

Thank you!

This is a great post. Thank you, Rebecca!


Olivia, there have been some changes over the years in registering copyrights.

In the USA, there was a time when you could register an unlimited number of unpublished works together under one fee.

Currently, if you are registering artwork, you can only register 10 unpublished works under one collection. You can learn more about it:
https://www.copyright.gov/gruw/

Photographers can register 750 unpublished photographs as a group. https://www.copyright.gov/eco/help/group/gruph.html

Many photographers make artwork from their photographs. So, for example, if you compile images together in one piece using photographs I imagine that would be considered artwork. (just guessing). Long story short, it can be costly to file all of your copyright in advance if you create much artwork.

Sue, I think you are mostly covered if you register the original photographs before you create any derivative artwork from them. Not an expert, so please double check. But I think you can just do the group photo registrations, as I do regularly, and the copyright should apply to your derivatives of the original.

Hi Tom, I think it's great that you are doing that if you can register 750 at one time it certainly makes sense!
Sadly artists can only register 10 for an unpublished group. many artists create countless images and versions of images.

I wonder though when photographers edit the photography in such a way that it starts to look like a painting or a piece of artwork. Would they then be limited to that 10 restrictions? I have no clue..just guessing it might.

Perhaps it is a gray area.

I have a question and I don't know if this is correct discussion thread for my question.

I just now received an email through my FAA official website, a donotreply- at - fineartamerica.com, sent to my email used for my FAA account. The subject was stated as DMCA Copyright Violation Notice. Using my photography email that I use to contact customers, I sent an email to the email address from this person. However my email to her came back

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

(her email was listed here, but I am not showing it)
Your message wasn't delivered because the recipient's email provider rejected it.

I was unable to download the link that was sent to me, requesting that I download it and check it out for myself. Hence why I emailed her with the email address that was given to me.

My question is, could this be a bogus email, attempting to send malicious information to my computer. I only post images that I shot with my camera. I have no one else's work but my own. I really don't need this kind of thing in my life right now, and it makes me very depressed. It seems that someone is always trying to take one’s joy away.

Thanks so much.

Yes it could be

Run a computer check on the link, or send to me

Thank you Abbie. I will send the info.

Great information in here. Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for the info

Wondering why the link
https://hostingchecker.com/
currently keeps showing up with "Error establishing a database connection"?

Artropica: I am not sure; I have used that site for years. You can try https://digital.com/best-web-hosting/who-is/ as an alternative.

Thank you so much, everyone, for all of the information and discussion!
Extremely helpful!

This is VERY HELPFUL!! also worth noting. I don't think you can claim copyright unless you actually go thru the Copyright office and register your work. and it's like $65 for each image. I recently paid for an image I drew for a children's book idea. . it's a good feeling.

Ann: (At least in the United States) You can file a DMCA takedown notice without the work being registered. Copyright is established at the moment of creation, with or without registering the work. The work has to be registered in order to file a lawsuit, however. Copyright registration for "One Work by One Author" via the United States copyright Office is currently $45 per work.

Sticky worthy post. Thank you !

UK people may not be aware but over here we do NOT have to have our work registered to bring a lawsuit

Copyright protects your work and stops others from using it without your permission.

You get copyright protection automatically - you don’t have to apply or pay a fee. There isn’t a register of copyright works in the UK.

You automatically get copyright protection when you create:

original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including illustration and photography
original non-literary written work, such as software, web content and databases
sound and music recordings
film and television recordings
broadcasts
the layout of published editions of written, dramatic and musical works
You can mark your work with the copyright symbol (©), your name and the year of creation. Whether you mark the work or not doesn’t affect the level of protection you have.

https://www.gov.uk/copyright

US people need to be very aware of how important registration is though. You might have your copyright, but there is little practical you can do if it isn't registered before the work is infringed, other than send DMCAs.

As I mentioned, in some situations, if dealing with a real company (not users) posting your content, simply sending DMCAs probably NOT the recommended option. You may be missing out on valuable compensation and doing the value of your work a disservice if all you do is send a DMCA.

Please, register your copyrights, do your own research, and consult with an intellectual property attorney to understand when to take action beyond just sending DMCAs.

Thank you this info is super helpful!

Thanks @Rebecca.
Yes, I did end up using the second one with never any problems, unlike the HostChecker site.

Thank you so much for this info. I'm in Canada. I just found a site using my work, and I found it by searching my own name on Google.

This is now unstuck but linked in our FAQ

Thanks

Bump

Great info!

I was thinking about the opposite thing here. I'm seeing a lot of artists copying album covers and straight images. Some of wich are just slightly changed digitally. They are printing it on everything and selling it as their own. Be careful guys you have to make an image your own or it's infringement.

There is also a group on FB Pirate Busters you can join https://www.facebook.com/groups/PirateBusters

Great post, thanks!

It also happens to me from time to time.
For quick response from the websites using my work illegally, I first send them a courteous email asking to take down my items, and let them know that if they don't remove the items, I report the website to their payment processing company, typically Visa or Paypal. Usually it works.

https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/ua/infringementrpt-full
https://usa.visa.com/Forms/report-ip-abuse-form.html

@ Sv, I personally wouldn't send someone a polite note if they're selling your work or using your work for their business. If they have a payment processor, then they're a business, and they have not been polite to you and it was not just an honest mistake.

You're entitled to compensation, and I hope you will seek some professional advice on how to obtain it.

At the very minimum ever, if applicable, I would send a DMCA notice so they get a strike against their account.