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Hi guys! I read the forum sometimes, but i have never had reason to post until now. I would like to hear from you some advice about my case.

 

Recently I fell on few online newspapers that were using one of my photos. I have it only with Alamy and i havent shared it online, so they have taken it from a site that have paid for it.After checking with google images- it appeared in a lot, a lot of sites.

 

I wrote to Alamy and they said they will check it. Meanwhile I sent to some blogs request to remove the photo- they apologized and did it. Then i sent mail to few sites. One of them was as it claims philanthropic etc, taking donations to fight the world poverty. Actually it looks more like advertising the company of the person who has it- famous research stock company in the USA, but it's not the point of the topic.

I sent him email explaining that i have found my photo on this website and if he has any licence from Alamy. That i will be grateful if he has, to send it to me, and in case that he doesnt have- i require to pay for infringing the copyrights and using it up to date (don't imagine some big amount, I asked 45$ as if he has bought it from here) and if he wants to use it for the future, just to buy it from Alamy.

I dont know if it is ok- but i can post my letter. It wasn't threatening or something, just clear and serious statement whatto do if he is using the image without licence.

And here the BAM came! Instead to apologize, this person starts cursing me and calling me in his letter names like " cocksucker", " piece of shit", " bastard" etc. Sorry for the language, I was also stunned reading all this. That he hasnt made any cent of it etc.

I agree- personally he may not have made a dime, he is famous and rich. But! Anyway, he uses my image on a site taking donations. And most of all- this was what made me angry- the way he writes. I dont know if i have legal right to copy/ paste such a correspondence, so that i show it, I would if it is not prohibited by some law.

 

And now my question- what would you do in my place? What steps would you take?

 

Normally if he hasn't "spoken" to me like this, i would just forget.  I already said to few other sites ( non profit but educational), that i don't insist to pay for using the image, just to remove it, so that the bad practice of copying stops. I contacted the Alamy membersevices and they confirmed twice that for this site the image is not licenced.

 

Thank you!

 

Sorry for the long post and maybe my bad english- this is not my mothertongue.

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No-one has the right to use your photos without permission, for whatever cause. I think it's fairly safe to say that if this guy had bought a licence legitimately he would have politely said so, not hurled abuse at you. A man who behaves in that way doesn't deserve to get away with it, and the fact that he has used such abusive language would surely weaken any case he might have if you were to pursue the matter further - it's not exactly charitable language for a supposedly charitable site!

 

Personally I would not let this go unchallenged, but I do think you need to hear from Alamy about it just in case he does have a licence. If he doesn't, I would send an email politely pointing out that he does not have the right to use your photo for any purpose without permission and that you will take legal action if he doesn't pay. I'm not a lawyer so I can't give any specific advice. I suspect he may try to claim 'fair use' and without knowing the exact details of how and where the picture was used I'm not sure how to argue against that.

 

I'm sure someone else on this forum will have something to say.

 

Alan

 

PS Your English is perfectly good.

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Thank you Inchiquin!

 

I already asked Alamy if there is a chance that he or his company or some employee has bought from them the photo to use it for the site. They said "no".

 

Like you say, i also think that he may claim, it is a "fair use", but from what i have read, fair use is with educational purposes. In our case he has this site for his company and donations.

I am not a monster and if he has answered in a polite way, i would not bother anymore with this case, as i did with few other sites that really may have used it for educational purpose.

Despite that i can't understand how someone can ask money for some cause and preach for more morality if he (even not personally maybe) acts like that.

 

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The name of the person who sent me all these " kind" words is Ronnie Moas, a person that seems to like to speak about morality

 

And is apparently a founder of Philanthropy and Philosophy. I think he just contravened the Trades Descriptions Act!

 

Alan

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