Copyright Aid

If you have been involved in an infringement case or other dispute, or licensing deal, etc. please consider posting templates of legal letters, agreements etc. here so that others may use them or refer to them as a guide.

Any letters, agreements, complaints, contracts etc. would be gladly accepted.


Please note the following conditions:

1. You should be the copyright owner of any material that you post (i.e. you wrote it). Please do not post other people's material.
2. Material posted should be in a depersonalised template form (i.e. remove personally identifiable names, etc,)
3. In posting, you agree that anyone can freely use or adapt the content that you submit without attribution.
4. You understand that Copyright Aid site owners or authorised representatives may edit the content for the purposes of correcting inaccuracies, formatting, depersonalisation, etc.. and that the material may also be moved to a more suitable page or otherwise republished by the Copyright Aid site owners for the purpose of providing an accessible resource for visitors concerned about copyright/legal matters or seeking advice on legal action.

Following events early this year (see my Theft thread) here's what I put at the foot of my invoices



The works detailed above remain my exclusive copyright until this invoice has been settled in full.

It's the equyivalent of thelittle business that says:

"Ownership of the goods remains withthe supplier until this invoice is settled in full."

No idea how effective it might be.

I can't add any documents as they have long since gone but the experience may be worth recalling for others.

A while ago i visited a website that displays photographic images, initially the site owner displayed his own images but the scale of the task led to him asking for images from other photographers.

Throughout the site and alongside each image used there are clear notifications that all content (in text or image format) displayed is subject to copyright. Each image displayed is also attributed to the individual photographer along with an additional copyright notice.

The site owner contacted me to say a company would like to use one of my images and forwarded a copy of their e-mail enquiry, i visited the company website (a firm of solicitors as it happens) only to find my image posted not only on the homepage but also on another page on the site.

I sent an e-mail to the company asking their intentions for the image, (size, quantity etc) and also stated they should display the image with a copyright notice both alongside and displayed on the image(s) if used. I also mentioned that until terms had been agreed that my image should not used and requested they remove the two examples displayed on their site.
This had little effect, the company refused to remove the image and declined to supply details or negotiate any payment. I advised the company via recorded delivery letter that the images at the stated sizes they were using would be subject to a specified fee (a high daily rate in this case), advised them of the current total due and that each additional day would be charged at the same rate. I also advised the web hosting company of the situation and requested they remove the images.

Six weeks after my request to the web hosting company the images were removed and a simple claim through the courts resulted in payment being received for the duration that the images were displayed.

Hi,
Do you mind if I ask what courts this case went through and if you had a solicitor or represented yourself?

Regards