Stolen! What would you do?

Pitpass · 7/27/08, 5:00 PM

Found two of his images from here:

http://nascarfz.com/photos/photos-ol...-to-the-dream/

one of Stewart and Miss Eldora in victory lane and one of Kyle Bush

Redwood17257 · 7/27/08, 5:45 PM

From the wording on the old Richard Petty description, it almost sounds as if this is is a collectibles dealer who is selling some sort of inventory of old racing photos. I agree that this is a load of crap that someone feels that they can steal Al's work and thinks that they can semi-anonymously make a profit off of it on EBay and no one would be the wiser. Once again the racing community makes me proud, standing up for one of their own!!

7/27/08, 7:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigmojo5

Al generously has posted some of his photos for us to enjoy on indianaopenwheel.com. Copying those images even for ourselves is theft. Most people do not realize that what is copyrighted is the actual image, not the physical reproduction of that image.
How many people on this board have copied Al's photos? Each person who did is guilty of theft.
There may be no good answer for the present, but maybe Al's solution for the future is to no longer share his photos with us.
Jim Morrison

That is not necessarily the case.

You can copy pictures from the net if you only use them for your own personal use. You can't sell them to anyone nor display them in public. If you did display them in public or sell them then you are guilty as that was the case with the entire Napster deal. It was the mass trading of copyrighted material.

I am more familiar with the music side of the law on copyright infringement. If you have legally purchased the songs you can rip them to your computer and you can burn them to a CD. If you trade music with a friend you are allowed to do that provided you are not doing it for money OR doing it to an excessive amount (typically more than three shares of the file).

That was the way it was explained to me by a student who was doing a study of the Napster fallout while he was in college. His info came from a massive amount of studying the cases and rulings that came from and still coming from online file sharing.

7/28/08, 1:15 AM

[QUOTE=Pitpass;54516]Found two of his images from here:

http://nascarfz.com/photos/photos-ol...-to-the-dream/
Just to make sure, you aren't saying that I stole images to put on my site, nascarfz.com?

Or were you saying that someone stole images from my website?

If someone stole images, I would appreciate it if you would send me an email to kyle@nascarfz.com. They may get in trouble with Getty cause I can turn them in directly.

7/28/08, 1:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al Consoli

I just discovered that someone has illegally stolen a photo from my website and is selling it on eBay. The picture was taken in 1999, I think, at Williams Grove of Kasey Kahne in the Zemco #1.
What would you do about it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/KASEY-KAHNE-RARE...3286.m14.l1318

Above is the eBay link and below is the photo from my website.

I would issue a Cease and Desist. If you want, you could get in contact with a lawyer. its gonna be hard to prove though. What he has done is cut off your name and added his trade on it. If you put them side by side its obvious to me that they are the same.

Here is a sample of a cease and desist letter.
http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/INTELLEC...ract/cease.htm

I would also email him and say that you could work something out where he would have to give you a certain cut and leave your watermark on the photo.

Jerry Spencer · 7/28/08, 1:49 AM

The Hasting Law firm is what you need, Thomas Hasting supports racers so we should in turn support him. Toll Free 1 866-686-1101 If he can not help he knows some one that can.

Jerry #66j
www.joshspencer.com

Kalvin · 7/28/08, 2:02 AM

Al I'm going through the same thing with a client of mine. One of the images we took is being used in a online article about USAC's weekly Regional series. The image we took is watermarked with our logo however it was cropped out, which really gets me going. I issued a Cease and Desist letter which the owner of the site claimed the photo was not the same, until I showed proof his organization visited the site, oops. All we ask for is credit, and its to bad that in this society people cannot give credit when credit is due. I cannot lock down, or watermark all my clients images because they need to be shared, however using them without permission is a violation.

Issue a Cease and Desist and hopefully the madness will stop, unfortunately though for every one letter you issue, there's probably hundreds more that need to go out.

Keep up the great work Al!

7/29/08, 2:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al Consoli

I just discovered that someone has illegally stolen a photo from my website and is selling it on eBay. The picture was taken in 1999, I think, at Williams Grove of Kasey Kahne in the Zemco #1.
What would you do about it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/KASEY-KAHNE-RARE...3286.m14.l1318

Above is the eBay link and below is the photo from my website.

Al! Contact a lawyer immediately... Once you take the shot its automatically copyrighted to you. However I'm assuming you haven't sent in any thumbnails to the copyright offices in order to get them registered. Registering them enables like a "super protection" essentially. If you don't your rights to prosecute and obtain reimbursement are limited to the value of the photo... not the value of work behind the photo, future, or past.

However, you have proof your watermark was edited off the photo, this would hold up in court... Anyways, contact a copyright/intellectual property lawyer ASAP!

To Everyone: Credit to a photographer does not pay bills... Your photos and time are worth something charge for it!

Alex
www.figzphoto.com

eagleyephotos · 7/29/08, 3:36 PM

Al...for future postings...don't put your pictures online so big....that makes it so much easier for people to take them off and print them up....i have seen so many pics online that i could make 8x10's all day long cuz the photog put a huge file online...
Keep Up the Great Work!!!

lazyifoto · 7/29/08, 5:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rex W.

How can anyone do anything? Al's name is no where on the pic. No proof that its his.

If you own the negative, you own the photo. These days this kind of stuff is so hard to police. I had a guy tell me one time that he only wanted a little picture so he could take it home and copy it enlarge it and pass it out to his sponcers . So I took the picture , tore it up into about a hundred "little" pieces and asked him if that was small enough, then I just dropped it on the ground next to him. I quit taking pics shortly there after.

7/27/08, 5:00 PM	#21 Re: Stolen! What would you do?
Pitpass Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 415	Found two of his images from here: http://nascarfz.com/photos/photos-ol...-to-the-dream/ one of Stewart and Miss Eldora in victory lane and one of Kyle Bush

7/27/08, 5:45 PM	#22 Re: Stolen! What would you do?
Redwood17257 Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 404	From the wording on the old Richard Petty description, it almost sounds as if this is is a collectibles dealer who is selling some sort of inventory of old racing photos. I agree that this is a load of crap that someone feels that they can steal Al's work and thinks that they can semi-anonymously make a profit off of it on EBay and no one would be the wiser. Once again the racing community makes me proud, standing up for one of their own!!

7/28/08, 1:15 AM	#24 Re: Stolen! What would you do?
fanzone Posts: n/a	[QUOTE=Pitpass;54516]Found two of his images from here: http://nascarfz.com/photos/photos-ol...-to-the-dream/ Just to make sure, you aren't saying that I stole images to put on my site, nascarfz.com? Or were you saying that someone stole images from my website? If someone stole images, I would appreciate it if you would send me an email to kyle@nascarfz.com. They may get in trouble with Getty cause I can turn them in directly.

7/28/08, 1:49 AM	#26 Re: Stolen! What would you do?
Jerry Spencer Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 3,869	The Hasting Law firm is what you need, Thomas Hasting supports racers so we should in turn support him. Toll Free 1 866-686-1101 If he can not help he knows some one that can. Jerry #66j www.joshspencer.com

7/28/08, 2:02 AM	#27 Re: Stolen! What would you do?
Kalvin Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 24	Al I'm going through the same thing with a client of mine. One of the images we took is being used in a online article about USAC's weekly Regional series. The image we took is watermarked with our logo however it was cropped out, which really gets me going. I issued a Cease and Desist letter which the owner of the site claimed the photo was not the same, until I showed proof his organization visited the site, oops. All we ask for is credit, and its to bad that in this society people cannot give credit when credit is due. I cannot lock down, or watermark all my clients images because they need to be shared, however using them without permission is a violation. Issue a Cease and Desist and hopefully the madness will stop, unfortunately though for every one letter you issue, there's probably hundreds more that need to go out. Keep up the great work Al!

7/29/08, 3:36 PM	#29 Re: Stolen! What would you do?
eagleyephotos Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 71	Al...for future postings...don't put your pictures online so big....that makes it so much easier for people to take them off and print them up....i have seen so many pics online that i could make 8x10's all day long cuz the photog put a huge file online... Keep Up the Great Work!!!