Finding an attorney has been easy for me. The infringement is never in question since it is my image and both parties know that permission was not given. The only question that needs to be answered is how much is needed to settle the infringement.
For an attorney the small cases (less than $10,000) is usually only a matter of a few letters to the infringer or their attorney. For that they get a third. Any opposing attorney worth their salt knows that the court can award up to $150,000 and court costs so settling early is a pretty good scenario.
For me it has gone pretty well. I am also amazed at the number if people who settle without my involving my attorney (and losing a third of my money).
Scott
Scott Sharick Photography
www.scottsharickphotography.com
On Mar 10, 2011, at 11:51, J Bryan Kramer <codeburner@gmail.com> wrote:
> Yeah I think it is different in the US as I noted in the original.
>
> Yes in theory you are instantly covered by copyright the moment you click
> the shutter. But unless the infringer is within your local court (small
> claims court in the US) jurisdiction that 'protection' is worthless. If he
> is at any distance you will never get an attorney to take the case unless
> you pay him upfront for all his legal charges. Even if you can use small
> claims the recovery problem remains.
>
> If you register your work formally then of course you might get an attorney
> if the infringer has deep pockets and an attorney is willing to take a
> gamble that he will win and recover. You can get a $50,000 judgment against
> someone but since we gave up debtor prison you might well never see a dime
> of it. You can imagine what your chances of recovering from some psych major
> in college are.
>
> BK
>
>
> ""Only the print contains the artist's meaning and message." "
> ----- Ansel Adams
>
> J Bryan Krämer North Florida, USA
> photos at: http://pbase.com/photoburner
> blog at: http://www.photoburner.net
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 12:32, Andrew Mills <ajmills@ajm.me.uk> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>>> And there is a further 'free' protection that you can add to your work
>>> published on the net. Just add the standard copyright statement:
>>
>>> ©2011 by Joe Photographer all rights reserved
>>
>>> And if that is altered or removed then THAT act activates the DMCA and
>> you
>>> can sue under that and recover legal fees and statutory damages with no
>>> formal copyright office registration. In the US only so far as I know.
>>
>> I didn't come across any extra legalities with DCMA and removal of the
>> copyright notice when I was last looking. But I am in the UK and the US
>> may be different.
>>
>> If the image was created after April 1989 it is automatically covered by
>> the Berne copyright convention and image should still be covered by
>> copyright laws regardless of whether or not it has a copyright
>> notice on it. But it does no harm to "remind" the viewer that it is
>> copyrighted.
>>
>> The "all rights reserved" is no longer legally needed in most places,
>> but there's no harm in including it.
>>
>> And make sure you do use the word "copyright", or the proper copyright
>> symbol "©" (alt-0169 on Windows) and not "(c)" as that is not "valid".
>>
>> Without looking, there was the orphaned works bill that someone was
>> trying to get pushed through. I can't remember if it was UK, US or
>> worldwide now. It seems to have gone quiet, so I don't know what
>> happened with it.
>>
>> That would have meant any image without a copyright and/or author info
>> either visible in the image or in the meta data would be considered an
>> orphaned work and open for anyone to use.
>>
>> Obviously people seem to have forgot that these are often easily removed
>> or altered.
>>
>>> I just run an action to add it and my email address to the white frame
>>> border I have on all my work on the web. The email address is protection
>>> against the orphan works act if that ever gets rammed thru.
>>
>> I use breezebrowser pro, which easily allows me to batch add extra IPTC
>> tags and text or image watermarks.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Andrew Mills
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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PLEASE READ....PLEASE TRIM POSTS!!! Keep quoted material short.
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