Website stealing and selling images

480sparky · Jul 14, 2015

TomOScott said:
........while an unregistered image, while still copyrighted, will only get you .............

......... absolutely nothing. If the image is not registered (at least per US copyright law), you cannot pursue in court. Copyright law states specifically that the image must be registered for a federal case to be filed. And a federal case it must be, as the law is federal as well. There is no 'small claims' court for copyright suits.

Braineack · Jul 14, 2015

and what stops you from registering it just before a lawsuit?

480sparky · Jul 14, 2015

Nothing. But that may make a difference on the dollar amount of any judgement.

Braineack · Jul 14, 2015

Okay so before you sue some random person in a foreign country who runs the world's worst website (that he probably coded in a day) which stole your image using google search results, spend money to register it first in the US, then spend money on a lawyer to whip up a suit, curse at yourself for trying to sue someone outside the US in US court, spend money to hire a PI to find thief, spend money on plane ticket to fly to said country after the PI finally tracks him down, spend money on local laywer of said country to whip up a suit to said theft, spend money living there for months while your case works through the legal system, spend money flying home empty handed when you find out said country of said theft doesn't recognize national copyright laws of a foreign country and don't even have any of their own--and regardless turns out said theft didn't even have a rubel to his name--spend money on alcohol to self-medicate, because it makes a difference on the dollar amount of the judgement.

480sparky · Jul 14, 2015

Sorry. I don't imbibe.

Braineack · Jul 14, 2015

you can spend your last few quarters shocking yourself here:

creative commons

Overread · Jul 14, 2015

Of course in cases like this registration is unlikely to yield a result. However it is there as a protection when/if such a situation which can be viably legally challenged arises. As such it's good form to register your copyright if you are based in the USA so that you do get full protection over your creations. Otherwise if that music band who you took photos off that one time that then published them as album cover without permission - yep they can get away with it with minimal payouts to you.

Websites like this get attention, but at the end of the day international legal action is very hard to carry out and you have to start dealing with hundreds of thousands of £/$ before police really start to take notice. A few tends of thousands just isn't enough; esp if you've got multiple countries involved. Chances are if you look you'd find a good number of websites that operate like this; though most try to be smaller scale and fly under the radar for longer - those who run them are already prepared to close bank accounts and use false addresses to shut-up-shop and move on to start again. They run as long as they can to make as much as they can and then close up once/if they get enough attention that they become unprofitable/the target of legal challenge. Most will continue for quite some time because they know most legal threat is al bark without bite.

Note if you are in the UK you don't need to register copyright - you get full protection from the moment of creation

Leslie C · Jul 15, 2015

Thanks, Tom. I realize that if someone really wanted to go through the trouble to steal (save, download, copy) an image they could do it, but if I can learn how to prevent some of the easier ways to do so I would feel much better.

Leslie C · Jul 15, 2015

Overread said:
Note if you are in the UK you don't need to register copyright - you get full protection from the moment of creation

Makes me want to live in the UK!

TomOScott · Jul 15, 2015

Leslie C said:
Thanks, Tom. I realize that if someone really wanted to go through the trouble to steal (save, download, copy) an image they could do it, but if I can learn how to prevent some of the easier ways to do so I would feel much better.

Personally, I hate right-click "protection", because it interferes with any browser add-on that uses swipes for navigation. So you end up aggravating a user and protecting nothing -- not a win-win situation in my book.