Photographers based in the UK now have an easier and cheaper legal path to take if they discover someone infringing upon their copyrights. Chris Cheesman of Amateur Photographer writes that photographers can now receive do-it-yourself justice without having to hire a lawyer: Intellectual property disputes can now be resolved using the ‘small claims track’ in the Patents County Court (PCC), following a Government announcement of a ‘simpler and easier’ system last month. Photographers can pursue damages for breach of copyright, for up to £5,000, without even appointing a solicitor, unlike before where they may have been put off by a potentially long, and expensive, legal fight. Furthermore, the damages limit may rise to £10,000 under Ministry of Justice proposals, possibly as early as next year. Crucially, under the new system, photographers can avoid the prospect of a lengthy court battle and the fear of having to pay the legal fees…
MT. CLEMENS, Mich. — A woman sued Best Buy, alleging employees obtained explicit photos of her from her cell phone and posted them on UGotPosted.com, once again putting the revenge porn site under fire. Identified only as Jane Doe, the plaintiff said that she dropped off her phone at Best Buy to be repaired on March 22 and picked it up five days later. When Doe awoke on the morning of April 5, she said found she had 67 new friend requests. By the end of the day, the number of requests reached more than 300. A friend called the plaintiff and told her she was on the website UGotPosted.com, the complaint says. “Plaintiff went to the website, where she found the six suggestive photographs of herself, including a nude photo of her breast, which had been on her phone,” the complaint says. The website’s owners, Eric Chanson, his parents…
A new court test of fair use on the Internet appears likely due to a lawsuit filed June 7 by photographer Kai Eiselein against BuzzFeed. Eiselein, who is demanding damages that could total over $3.6 million, claims that BuzzFeed infringed his copyright in a photograph he posted on Flickr in 2009 showing a soccer player heading a ball. According to Eiselein, BuzzFeed included the photo without his consent in a collection titled “The 30 Funniest Header Faces” published in June 2010. After he sent BuzzFeed a takedown notice in May 2011, the company removed the photo and renamed the collection “The 29 Funniest Header Faces.” By that time, however, Eiselein alleges that the set of images including his photo had spread virally from BuzzFeed to dozens of other websites. Eiselein asserts that BuzzFeed is liable for contributory infringement for the photo’s use on those sites—and on sites that published it after…
Georgios Kollidas - Fotolia.com What is the Copyright Infringement Finder and is it worth it? Photographer Jason Wilder had a problem common to nearly everyone who creates intellectual property: His work was routinely being used online without his permission and without payment. So Wilder did something about it, creating the Copyright Infringement Finder (CIF) add-on for the Firefox browser. I have been a professional concert photographer for about 10 years now, and no one ever really wants to pay for concert photos, Wilder told CorpCounsel.com. Theyd rather take them without licensing them and hope no one finds out, instead of paying a small licensing fee. The CIF add-on uses Googles image-searching technology and allows owners of images to right-click on an image in the Firefox browser window to find other sites that are using that same image. All my images are copyrighted, Wilder notes, and because I know which…
Internet mogul Kim Dotcom said Thursday he was considering taking legal action against tech giants such as Twitter, Google and Facebook for infringing copyright on a security measure he invented. Dotcom, who is on bail in New Zealand as US authorities seek his extradition in the world’s biggest copyright case, said he invented “two-factor authentication”, which many major sites have adopted as a security feature. Twitter became the latest major player to introduce the measure on Wednesday following a series of cyber-attacks which saw hackers take over the accounts of high-profile targets such as media organizations and send out fake tweets. “Twitter introduces Two-Step-Authentication. Using my invention. But they won’t even verify my Twitter account?!,” Dotcom tweeted. “Google, Facebook, Twitter, Citibank, etc. offer Two-Step-Authentication. Massive IP (intellectual property) infringement by U.S. companies. My innovation. My patent,” he added. To back his claim, the 39-year-old posted a US patent describing the…
Snippets from issue 1, 2013 volume of The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter: Publishing and distributing content in today’s environment means working within a variety of models. An article or a series of articles published in a newsletter or website may become a mini e-book, the basis for a webinar or online course, or part of an online subscription-based database. These various models of monetizing content presume one thing—that ownership of the original content is clearly established when that original or first version of the content is written. - Editorial by Lesley Ellen Harris Orphan Works: Because museums operate as stewards of collections with a mission and responsibility—on the one hand to educate and communicate with their public and, on the other hand, to care for their collections—museums hold a unique perspective on rights issues. One of the most significant legal issues facing the contemporary museum is the orphaned works…
Copyright for Publishers Publishing in today’s environment means working within a variety of models. These models may entail the use of original content and may use republished, repurposed, adapted and recycled content. What does this mean in terms of copyright law? Since content is a key common denominator across models, publishers need to understand how copyright law protects that content. Key copyright issues include the nature of protected content; ownership of content; how that content is legally protected and what rights protect it; how to license and assignment content in order to monetize it and monitoring unauthorized uses of content. Proper copyright knowledge will ensure that you have maximum protection in the one constant in your various publishing models. Three important copyright issues for publishers are: ownership of content using third party content protecting publications The issues affect both print and electronic publishers of all sorts of content. Copyright Ownership…
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Today, our nation faces domestic and foreign piracy of a different sort: the illegal duplication of software, music, DVDs, and other digitized information. This piracy comes with a high price. Your online digital content is at risk! Last year U.S. copyright industries reported losses of nearly $22 billion due to piracy just from overseas. Today, copyright owners are faced with the challenge of adapting to the digital revolution. The ease of making and distributing perfect copies of virtually every kind of work protected by copyright is putting strains on traditional modes of doing business. To stop thieves from stealing your work now, go —->HERE
Know your rights! Read about the DMCA Act DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1998. What is copyright? Copyright is a form of legal protection automatically provided to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. U.S. copyright law generally gives the author/creator or owner of an original creative work an exclusive right to: Reproduce (copy) or distribute the original work to the public (e.g., create and sell copies of a film) Create new works based upon the original work (e.g., make a movie based on a book) Perform or display the work publicly (e.g., perform a play) Violation of one of these rights is called copyright infringement. However, the use may be authorized by copyright limitations (such as fair use) described below. What types of works are protected by copyright? Literary works Music and lyrics Dramatic works and music Pantomimes and choreographic works Photographs, graphics,…