Photo Copyright Case -- BNA's Internet Law News (ILN) - 2/7/02

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From BNA's Internet Law News (ILN) - 2/7/02

9TH CIRCUIT OVERTURNS PART OF KELLY V. ARRIBA DECISION The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has held that an Internet search engine named Arriba (now Ditto.com) infringed a professional photographer's copyright by displaying full-sized images of his work through inline linking. The court found that small, low-quality thumbnail images were covered by the "fair use" provision of the Copyright Act, but reversed a lower court opinion, which found that displays of larger high-quality images were also protected. Decision at http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0055521P.pdf Coverage at http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/078264.htm

-- Donald Brewster (dpbrewster@prodigy.net), February 07, 2002

Answers

Thanks for posting that decision. I would think that all who have web sites and jpg files find this very distrubing. I would think that any unauthorized use of an image would be unlawful, no matter how, where or even a low quality thumbnail. If someone else is benefiting, profiting from your image, they should pay, no matter what it is!

I know what I am going to do on my legal notice on my website, is to include unauthorized linking to any part of my web site images etc. Not that I have a problem, at least none that I know of. Also make sure that image files are small enough so any downloading would be of very low quality. Watermarks would also help.

-- Rob Pietri (narrationsnlight@aol.com), February 07, 2002.


The most important thing for all of us to do is to REGISTER YOUR © ON IMAGES. Yes, you do technically own the © at the moment of creation of the image, but if there is an infringement, the best you can get is value of actual damages.

If you have a Registered © with the Library of Congress, Bureau of ©, an infringement can get you $150K in statutory fines, not to mention criminal prosecution of the infringers.

I've been registering © since 1982, and have forced $150K out of 2 infringers [cosmetics industry] without ever going to court when the infringements were discovered. Discovered by luck, as it turns out--finding infringements in print isn't always easy. Finding infringements on the web with Digimarc digital watermarking is easier, though not guaranteed.

Here's the link to register

http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

I send in JPG's on a CD along with filling out the forms as PDF's in Adobe Acrobat. I send hard copy of the forms, as well as putting the PDF files on the CD itself. The JPG's should be named with .jpg file extensions, and file names should only have alphabetic and numeric characters along with periods and hyphens only. This way, they can be opened with a PC or Mac.

I use Mitsui Gold CD-R media for this, as it's the most archival. Burning CD's at a slow 2X is also the optimum archival speed. I use a Mitsui CD marker on the top surface to identify the CD and my contact info, which with a URL and domain name e-mail address and 888 phone number are "essentially permanent".

REGISTER YOUR ©'s DO IT NOW!!!! Let's take the money away from the infringers!

Myco http://www.megasoidstudios.com

-- Myco Megasoid (myco@megasoidstudios.com), February 15, 2002.


"I know what I am going to do on my legal notice on my website, is to include unauthorized linking to any part of my web site images etc"

Um, THE WEB IS ALL ABOUT LINKING any place on the web that you want. Frankly, if you feel differently, password protect your website or TAKE YOUR WEB PAGES DOWN.

-- Annoyed (donotemailme@noemailhere.com), May 07, 2002.


Well, glad Annoyed is annoyed that someone doesn't like being linked to just anyone. With his attitude few will want to be linked to him/it. One should be able to choose who they will allow to link with their images. After all, if Father Fondle links his NAMBLA webpage to your images of young little league baseball or soccer players this could spell disaster for you. As the ownere of the images you should be able to stay away from any site you don't want to link with your images. No matter what those old farts on the bench say, displaying images without permission is stealing. Maybe if we all get pictures of their kids, wives & family & post them on the Arriba or some other similar site they will change their minds.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), May 07, 2002.

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