Copyright Aid

Hi Andy,

Many thanks for taking the time to write such a comprehensive answer. I will investigate the options suggested.

In general I'm very much in favour of enforcing IP where it is warranted. But these companies seem quite predatory and in this case just plain wrong!

Several years back I licensed an image via iStock, which is now part of Getty. Fast forward to a few weeks back and I receive a demand for nearly £400 from Visual Rights Group acting on behalf of Alamy.

Firstly I told them it was licensed and figured they would back off. They didn't so I told them ...

Something I have often wondered about old postcards (or photographs) is how the copyright is effected when they are republished, possibly as derivatives.

For example, if a collector of old photographs were to publish a book. Would it be legal for someone to scan these photos and repurpose them for ...

Hi Andy,

Many thanks for your reply. Some very interesting stuff there, particularly the "database right" which I hadn't heard of before.

Actually the awarding body isn't the MCS - it is the "Green Coast" award. This is somewhat different to the MCS data - whose source data is freely available via ...

Hi Andy,

Wondered if you might be able to lend me some expertise.

I have an article that describes an award and then lists all the beaches which have received this award. The awards are made by a "charity" and are tourism related - so one would assume the more publicity the better.

However, I ...

I replied to Atradius, clearly laying out my case. It seems to have gone over their heads - I think the mention of reverse proxying* to disguise URLs might have done that.

Anyway apparently I will be hearing from their legal representatives in due course.

Now I'm beginning to enjoy myself!




*I ...

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the info on dealing with Atradius. I'm not entirely convinced about the licensing argument. A little digging suggests, as far as I can tell, that they do have an some kind of interim license:

https://register.fca.org.uk/shpo_searchresultspage?search=atradius

Also as they refer ...

Thank you so much for yet another informative reply. I am learning...

I have drafted a response to Atradius Collections (Getty's stooges) setting out the legal precedence and telling them to prove infringement or cease their claims.

I'd imagine I'd be the last person they would want to take to ...

Andy,

Just another quick question:

Would unwittingly using an image provided by a third party software solution / database (to advertise their customer's hotel) be counted as secondary infringement?

Whilst I recall lack of knowledge not necessarily being a reliable defence I recently read ...

Hi Andy,

Many thanks once again for your help.

As you say Getty will not want to fight a case like this for £500 if they are on the wrong side of the legal precedence. And I will try and point this out to them as eloquently as possible along with pointing out exactly where the image resides ...

On a (now defunct) website I run there are hotel listings. The info and photos are supplied by a large, established hotel booking company. It turns out that one of the photos for one of the hotels is a Getty Image.

Now, I realise there is such a thing as secondary infringement, and that in some ...

Thanks Andy,

I thought I'd correctly understood the DMCA / safe harbor principle correctly, it just struck me that Google were taking a particularly strange position. I.e. admitting knowledge of two identical cases but refusing to act on the third.

I have a lot of trouble with Google DMCAs when ...

I recently sent a DMCA takedown notice to Google concerning several Blogspot websites (which Google own and host) that were using a photo of mine without permission.

They agreed to remove all of them except one giving the following explanation:
At this time, Google has decided not to take action ...

The PDF is from the www.legislation.gov.uk site:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/198 ... 048_en.pdf

It says it was amended in 2003, so I guess it would be advisable to cross reference the sections with the 'live' version.

Thanks for another great answer Andy.

From what you've said this is actually far more significant than I realised. It would actually be fairly difficult for me personally to prove damages. All my profits are through the company and any paid photographic commissions have always been charged through ...