patrick Hilferty on wed 21 aug 96
A couple of days ago, I did a search to see if my page had been indexed
in the various search engines (this was done primarily for the benifit
of my ego) and discovered that some of my images had been reproduced,
along with my name, though no link, on another group's page. While I had
asserted my copyright on my own page, I had not included language
prohibiting reproduction without my expressed written consent, something
that my page DOES include now.
I am bothered by a number of things:
The reproduction of work without my permission or notification, and,
its re-presentation on another page in a manner that implies (I think)
that I am associated with this page in some sort business arrangement.
Now the actual presentation of my work doesn't necessarily misrepresent
me horribly and it does give some more exposure, But-
I still remain disturbed by this experience and am not sure what action,
if any, I should take to address this occurence.
Patrick
--
Patrick Hilferty
Belmont, CA 94002
E-mail:
philferty@earthlink.net
Web page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~philferty/
Karl David Knudson on thu 22 aug 96
According to my SO who just finished writing a paper about infringment of
copyrighted images electronically for her Journalism Law class, if you
included "Copyright (The c inside a circle) year, owners name"
on the page containing your image where it can be seen, you have a valid
copyright and the person infringed upon your work. This is however
assuming that your image is copyrightable in the first place, and that
the infirnger's use of your image is something beyond 'fair use'.
IF you have a valid copyright notice on the page according to the law you
do not need the warning, although since virtually no one is really
familiar with the USC, having it there is not a bad idea.
However, if the page reproducing your work credits you as the originator
of the work, and his reproduction has no market affect on your market
rights of the copyright, a court would decide most likely that there was
no infringment and that the person coying your work was evoking "fair
use". (a simple example of fair use is quoting Ahab in book report your
kid would write on "Moby Dick", as long as Melville and the publisher are
acknowledged, your child does not have to contact the copyright holder
for permission to use the quote in the paper.)
Electronic copyright laws are still being decided upon in the courts.
There are a few cases that seem to be almost opposing each other. Your
best bet would be to contact the page owners. IF you were really hurt(
ie financially) by this usage, you'd probably need to officially register
your copyright with the US copyright office (paperwork, 2 copies of the
work and $20) and file a complaint in Federal Court. Who knows in the
current infant state of electronic copyright laws your case might set
precedent, you might even get your case in a few textbooks....
Karl
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