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I've just found this use of my image via google search: https://www.gumtree.com/p/sports-teams-partners/beginners-improvers-tennis-meetup-cambridge/1157257040

 

Is it more concerning that I had the only zoom for this image at the end of Jan so it may be a regular buyer on Alamy that has decided this is an acceptable use to not pay?

 

David

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The penalty for such an infringement should be much higher than the cost of a legitimate purchase would have been.

Registrant Organization: Gumtree.com Limited
Registrant Street: 91-93 Southwark Street,
Registrant City: London
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code: SE1 0HX
Registrant Country: UK
Registrant Phone: +44.2086053302

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If you can track down the poster go through the usual process. They may pay up- I had a cheque from an apologetic individual once.

Gumtree's liability is going to be very limited unless they don't take it down straight away.

Pretty good job of cloning out, though.

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The penalty for such an infringement should be much higher than the cost of a legitimate purchase would have been.

Registrant Organization: Gumtree.com Limited

Registrant Street: 91-93 Southwark Street,

Registrant City: London

Registrant State/Province:

Registrant Postal Code: SE1 0HX

Registrant Country: UK

Registrant Phone: +44.2086053302

 

Hi Don:

 

It's not Gumtree that has taken the image that I can tell. It is someone who has put an ad on their site. Unlikely to get anything, and Alamy probably wouldn't waste their time.

 

Missed the watermark in the middle.

 

Jill

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That disgusts me.  I've a mind to email her myself and tell her a few home truths.  But I won't.  Unless David gives me permission! ;):angry::ph34r:

Best not muddy the waters. However with the cloning it is pretty flagrant.

OP, there are ways of tracking down an individual. It's worth a short clickabout.

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I had contacted member services and I think this would be classed as a personal rather than business upload which isn't something they would chase, I'm slightly more concerned that it looks like this was registered as a zoom which would imply it is a regular Alamy customer (or just a big coincidence) and have gone back to member services with this.

 

Oh and the watermark is still there, just not very visible on this photo which is a different issue, but I did see on the forum that this seems to be updating to the new version slowly.

 

Email sent to the advertiser, I might check my shed just to make sure they haven't pinched my tennis racket as well!

 

David

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How about emailing "Jen" an invoice with a polite but firm note explaining why payment is now due following infringement of your copyright. Although her contact details aren't visible, there's a button to email her indirectly via the GumTree system.

 

I've tried the softly, softly approach and offered infringers an opportunity to buy a licence, but they decline and simply remove the image.

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I may be wrong, but I don't think the image has been copied. It has simply been linked to,  watermark and all as in:

 

http://c7.alamy.com/comp/EWP122/people-playing-tennis-at-the-public-tennis-courts-on-jesus-green-cambridge-EWP122.jpg

 

That makes it tricky as the image is in the "public" domain.

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I may be wrong, but I don't think the image has been copied. It has simply been linked to,  watermark and all as in:

 

http://c7.alamy.com/comp/EWP122/people-playing-tennis-at-the-public-tennis-courts-on-jesus-green-cambridge-EWP122.jpg

 

That makes it tricky as the image is in the "public" domain.

Image appears to be hosted here https://ssli.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDQ0WDY0MA==/z/M~0AAOSwUuFW0f7z/$_86.JPG, suggesting it has been copied.

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What is also quite worrying is that even with the watermark it's still an acceptable image for what it's being used for - the watermark isn't very strong.  

 

Not suitable for commercial use but bloggers etc wouldn't worry about it.    Many of them are under the false impression that as long as they leave watermarks and copyright notes in, it's ok to use.

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One question nobody has raised so far: for what purpose does Alamy allow low-res watermarked downloads?

All one has to do is click on the Save Preview Image link and it's automatically downloaded to your computer.

I can understand that some clients may need a low res image for layout purposes but there are no terms or conditions mentioned.

Does posting one of these preview images on another site constitute an infringement?.

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I may be wrong, but I don't think the image has been copied. It has simply been linked to,  watermark and all as in:

 

http://c7.alamy.com/comp/EWP122/people-playing-tennis-at-the-public-tennis-courts-on-jesus-green-cambridge-EWP122.jpg

 

That makes it tricky as the image is in the "public" domain.

Text linking isn't, but image linking, where the image actually appears on your screen, is still infringement in the UK.

I don't think it's what you mean, but  "public domain" is an American term. It has no meaning in English law.

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I've just found this use of my image via google search: https://www.gumtree.com/p/sports-teams-partners/beginners-improvers-tennis-meetup-cambridge/1157257040

 

Is it more concerning that I had the only zoom for this image at the end of Jan so it may be a regular buyer on Alamy that has decided this is an acceptable use to not pay?

 

David

On the plus side, it could be that the zoom in January resulted in a publication, which is where the infringer saw the image and traced it to Alamy.

Just trying to be positive.

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"public domain" is an American term. It has no meaning in English law.

 

I don't think so, this from the UK based DACS website "The phrase “public domain” refers to works that have effectively become public property and are no longer protected by copyright law. This occurs when the copyright in a work of art expires." https://www.dacs.org.uk/knowledge-base/factsheets/works-in-the-public-domain.

 

I guess I should also point out that I didn't use the phrase "public domain" I wrote "public" domain. Meaning the image was available for public viewing (on the Alamy website) and if someone drew attention to it by posting a link would that be an infringement? I don't know the answer to that, but I suspect it's not.

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I did say it had no meaning in law. It's a concept. The English term would just be 'out of copyright'. It's widely used but you won't find it in the CDPA.

The OP's image isn't linked, it has been copied and the watermark partially cloned out, but it doesn't matter. s20 (2b) of the Act says that

the making available to the public of the work by electronic transmission in such a way that members of the public may access it from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.

is an infringement. So as soon as it appears on your screen, it's infringed.

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As others have pointed out it's hosted here:

 

https://ssli.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDQ0WDY0MA==/z/M~0AAOSwUuFW0f7z/$_86.JPG

 

...might have been used in an Ebay advert?

 

I guess she got it from Google. Google image search for "cambridge tennis courts" brings it up on the third line down with the same watermarks so it probably has nothing to do with the previous zoom.

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The OP's image isn't linked, it has been copied and the watermark partially cloned out... 

 

Copied yes, but I can't spot where the watermark has been altered? The Alamy image and Gumtree images look identical to me. If the infringer has altered the watermark, I'd increase the requested payment accordingly as that would be more blatant infringement.

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The OP's image isn't linked, it has been copied and the watermark partially cloned out... 

 

Copied yes, but I can't spot where the watermark has been altered? The Alamy image and Gumtree images look identical to me. If the infringer has altered the watermark, I'd increase the requested payment accordingly as that would be more blatant infringement.

 

The As have been removed.

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The OP's image isn't linked, it has been copied and the watermark partially cloned out... 

 

Copied yes, but I can't spot where the watermark has been altered? The Alamy image and Gumtree images look identical to me. If the infringer has altered the watermark, I'd increase the requested payment accordingly as that would be more blatant infringement.

 

The As have been removed.

 

There are no "As" in this version I see here which came up on http://l7.alamy.com/zooms after a Google search today for Cambridge Tennis Courts. Maybe not Alamy hasn't updated their watermark yet on all the pages where this image comes up, or it's in an old cache on Google? What is l7.alamy.com? I think the infringer must have found and used this version as it would have been very difficult to remove the "As".

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