So Richard Price was sued for copyright infringement after he used photos from another artist in a large collage style piece. From what we’ve discussed in class it would seem that this case would fall under fair use as the original work was taken without malicious intent and was used as a portion of a larger work which changed the aesthetic of the original.

The Court Case

The collage everyone is suing over 

While I was doing some research for my third portfolio, I came across this quote by Maya Angelou which I am actually using in my essay:

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

This quote reminded me of AR or Accelerated Reader, a program everyone in my middle school participated in.  AR gave points to books that could be accumulated. One could receive points after reading and taking a short quiz on a book.  At the end of a quarter, students were to have accumulated at least a certain number of points.  Students could choose any books they desired from the list.  AR was a means of encouraging us to make reading a part of our daily activity.  It definitely helped encourage my love of reading.

Here is the AR Book Finder website

After the plagiarism workshop we did in class, I searched around the internet to see what types of websites would pop up in regards to plagiarism.  I came across this one which even provides a link to check for plagiarism in your work. This reminded me of middle school where we used to have to submit works like essays to a website that would show teachers if plagiarism had been committed. I remember how nervous we all were when we went to submit our first essays.  I think that by having us do this, we all worked a little bit harder on our essays. I also think that doing this so early on led me to never even considered plagiarism.  I found the activities we did in class on Tuesday to be quite difficult.

so I just found an interesting piece of information on a Photography blog I subscribe to but first I’ll provide some background information so it all makes sense.

Unfortunately in photography theft is fairly common, amateur’s post their work on sites like flickr so others can see their work, comment on it and buy prints. Sadly a lot of really good work gets stolen off of flickr. flickr’s terms and conditions allow for you to request permission to use a photo from it’s original poster. So either companies aren’t aware of this  or they simply don’t care. The common practice if you should find your work has been stolen is to email the company an invoice and they usually pay because it’s cheaper than hiring a lawyer to settle out of court.

Thankfully an attorney specified step by step what exactly you should do should you find that your work has been stolen.

You’re sitting in your easy chair and surfing the web. You’re not paying much attention, until you see it. It’s your photo, but you did not post it there. You can’t believe they used your photo without your permission. Now what do you do? The steps you take may limit your ultimate remedies so be sure to first understand what your options are.

Make Copies of the Infringement
If you think that the use is likely an infringement, make copies of it – both in electronic and print forms. Once the infringer realizes that she is caught, she will do what she can to get rid of the evidence of the infringement. You may need that evidence later. Learn how here and here.

If the infringement is in print, then take a photograph of it, scan it, photocopy it, and/or show it to another person who would be willing to testify about it. If the infringement is on the Internet and/or in electronic form, make a paper print of it and/or copy a screen capture of it; both are better! (Snagit by TechSmith is a great program to copy web pages.) Determine whether your copyright management information (CMI) is included in or has been removed from the infringing use. Read more about why and how to include your CMI in your photos in one of my blog entries here and here.

Make Sure That the Use Is an Infringement
Not all uses of your photographs are infringements. Do you use a licensing agency that may have authorized the use? Could the user be related to an entity to which you authorized the use? Is the use a fair use? While only a court can ultimately decide what fair use is, the law gives us guidelines as to what may qualify. Read more about fair use in my blog entry here.

Research the Infringer
Next, find out what you can about the infringer. Research the infringer’s website to find his name and contact information. If the infringer is a corporation based in the United States, you can find information about it on the website of the Secretary of State for the state where the infringer is based. To find the Secretary of State’s website using an Internet search engine such as Google, search the corporation’s state’s name (such as “Georgia”) and the words “secretary of state.” The extension of the URL will be “.gov” or “.us.” Be careful – some sites attempt to appear to be the state’s website so that they can charge you for the information. Once on the proper Secretary of State’s website, look for “corporations search,” “business search” or similar language. You then will find the company’s registered or resident agent, officers, and/or official address.

You also may be able to find a contact name by searching the website’s “who is” information. You first do a “whois” search on the website name. Several websites provide free “whois” services, such ashttp://www.whois.net/. Conduct an Internet search to find them. After you enter the website name there, you may be able to find contact information for the administrator of the website.

Option #1 – Do Nothing
Now that you’ve documented the infringement and have some information about the infringer, you always have the option of doing nothing. If the infringer is in a foreign country where infringements are rampant and difficult to enforce or is a small website with little traffic, you may decide that it’s not worth your time and effort to fight the infringement.

Option # 2 – Request a Photo Credit
If the website would provide a marketing outlet for you, you may only want the infringer to give you proper credit. If so, write the infringer a letter officially giving her the right to use the image. Be sure to designate the parameters of that use, such as who, what, why, when and where – see my blog entry here for more information. Include the condition that the infringer post a photo credit with a copyright notice on or adjacent to the use. You may also require the infringer to add a link to your website. You may get subsequent work from the infringer or others.

Option #3 – Prepare a DMCA Take-Down Notice
Purusant to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) enacted in 1998, the Internet Service Provider (“ISP”) that hosts a website is not liable for transmitting information that infringes a copyright only if the ISP removes the infringing materials from a user’s website after receiving proper notice of the violation. The notice must: be in writing, be signed by the copyright owner or the owner’s agent, identify the copyrighted work claimed to be infringed (or list of infringements from the same site) and identify the material that is infringing the work. Additionally, the notice must include the complaining party’s contact information, a statement that the complaint is made in “good faith,” and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information contained in the notification is accurate and that the complainer has the right to proceed (because he is the copyright owner or agent). Check my article at here to learn more about how to prepare a DMCA take-down notice. Even if you don’t reside in the U.S., you may use this great tool to stop an infringer whose ISP is in the U.S. from using your work.

Option #4 – Prepare a Cease and Desist/Demand Letter Yourself
When you don’t want to alienate the infringer (the infringer is a potential client and/or appears to be an innocent infringer), you may want to contact the infringer to explain that the use is not authorized and either request payment of an appropriate license fee, a photo credit with a link to your website (as discussed above), or that the infringer cease use of the image. It’s best to do this in writing – a letter by surface mail seems to have more clout than email correspondence.

Photographers sometimes send an infringer an invoice for three times their normal license fee in an attempt to resolve the infringement issue. While the 3x fee may be an industry standard and some courts have used it, is not a legal right given by any court of law or statute. Instead, U.S. law states that you are entitled to actual or statutory damages for infringement as provided by 17 U.S.C. Chapter 5, specifically section 504. The damages that you can receive from infringement – especially if you timely register your photographs – sometimes can amount to a lot more than three times your normal license fee. So you may want to think 2x before you send the 3x letter.

There are some risks in sending the letter yourself. First, the infringer may attempt to preempt an infringement lawsuit and file a request for declaratory judgment that the use is authorized. This may involve you in a legal action for which you may need legal counsel in a jurisdiction (court location) where you don’t want to litigate. Second, your demand for payment may be admissible against you if an infringement case is filed. If you demand too little, then it may limit your ultimate recovery. To avoid this possibility, include in your demand letter that “these discussions and offer to settle are an attempt to compromise this dispute.”

Option #5 – Hire a Lawyer to Send a Demand Letter
When an attorney gets involved, the matter is escalated and tensions rise. While the infringer may be more defensive, the weight of your demand letter is dramatically increased if it comes from an attorney and the infringer generally takes the matter more seriously. Some attorneys charge a flat fee to send a letter; others may charge a “contingency fee” which is based on the percentage of recovery. Or the fee may be a combination of both.

Option #6 – File a Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
Your most aggressive option is to pursue your legal remedies by filing suit. Unless you created the work outside of the United States and in a country that is a signatory to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, you must register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, hopefully before but at least after the infringement. (If you created the photo in a country that is a signatory to the Berne Convention, you do not have to register in the U.S. to protect your copyright or to file an infringement lawsuit in the U.S. However, if you do, then you may be entitled to statutory damages and attorneys’ fees, as noted here.) If your photo was not timely registered for this infringement, you may want to register the photo for future possible infringements, as well, to be eligible for statutory damages of up to $150,000 per willful infringing use for each photograph. See 17 USC Section 504(b) and (c). Legal fees and costs also may be recovered from the infringer. See 17 USC Section 505.

In most jurisdictions you need to have received your registration certificate to file a complaint. Unless you have a breach of contract or some other state claim, you must file your infringement claim in a federal district court. To file suit, it is best to hire an attorney to help you because the legal procedures are complicated. Note that you have three years from the date of infringement to sue for copyright infringement.

When a photo is not registered with the U.S. Copyright Office prior to the infringement (or within three months of the first publication of the photo), a copyright owner may recover only “actual damages” for the infringement (pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 504 (b)), instead of statutory damages. Courts usually calculate actual damages based on your normal license fees and/or industry standard licensing fees. One source for standard license fees is a software program called Fotoquote. You also may recover the profits the infringer made from the infringement if they aren’t too speculative.

Additional Claims
While many photographers place “watermarks” including their name and/or their copyright notice on their images or in the metadata of the file to prevent someone from infringing them, it’s fairly easy to crop or clone over the mark, or to remove metadata. Fortunately, the DMCA section of the Copyright Act provides a remedy in addition to the infringement claim when the infringer removes your CMI to hide the infringement. More information is available in my blog entry here.

Additionally, when you can prove that the infringement was done willfully, then you are entitled to enhanced statutory damages. “Willfulness” means that the infringer either had actual knowledge that it was infringing the owner’s copyrights or acted in reckless disregard of those rights. Evidence that the infringed works bore prominent copyright notices supports a finding of willfulness.

What You Can Do to Best Protect Your Images
To be eligible for maximum damages for copyright infringement and violation of your DMCA rights, put your copyright notice on each page of your website and put your CMI on or at least adjacent to each photo as well as in the metadata of your files. Instructions for adding your CMI to your metadata are available in my blog entry here.

Further, register your photos with the U.S. Copyright Office ASAP! The Copyright Office recently made online registrations possible, too. Check my article to learn the details and for instructions on how to register your work.

Conclusion
Infringements are rampant these days, both because it’s easier for the infringers to find and copy your images and because too many people think that they have a right to use your photos when they don’t or think that they won’t be caught. Fortunately, there are many tools to battle copyright infringement. It’s up to you to use them.

“Music distribution has evolved so much in 35 years that a succession of once-thriving platforms including vinyl records, 8-track players, and cassette tapes have all been consigned to spots in our cultural history museum. Digital music in particular has squeezed almost all other forms of listening out of the running, even relegating CDs to the arts-and-crafts pile. But the introduction of MP3s and other digital formats did help to halt the success of CDS, which had plateaued in terms of sales in the middle years of last decade.”

I tried to plagiarize this passage, but I wasn’t able to do so easily. It ended up being very difficult to plagiarize.  I like writing my own thoughts and ideas. I also think it is morally wrong to take other people’s work and claim it as my own.  I know it bothers me even when people ask me for my notes because I took those notes and it is their fault that they didn’t pay enough attention in class to take notes.  This workshop that we just did in the library was interesting.  I never tried to plagiarize something before.  I realized that it was very difficult to plagiarize purposefully.

But what if someone plagiarizes accidentally? Should they still be charged with the same crime as someone who purposefully plagiarized? I don’t think so…

Plagiarism of Francis Bacon’s “Of Studies:” One example of a library making use of the digital age is the University of Virginia, whose Electronic Text Center fostered innovation through technology and set an early precedent for the creation and use of digital materials by scholars in the humanities. The goal of the E-text Center is to support the creation, dissemination, analysis, and preservation of digitized and born- digital works. The New York Public Library also offers access to e-books through Amazon Kindles. The Cushing Academy has discarded or donated all of their books in favor of computer kiosks, flat-screen TVS, and millions of virtual books. Some at the school see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology. Others, however, who cannot imagine a library without books, are going to miss them.

During our plagiarism workshop, for the third activity, all I did was copy and paste random lines from three different sources into a paragraph. This was my result:

If you’re on the go a lot, you know how heavy regular titles are, particularly if you intend to finish one book while you are out and need to bring another book with you. eBooks allow you to bring a whole library with you wherever you go. You can switch between titles with ease and the weight is lighter than a standard paperback. Bringing hundreds of books with you wherever you are means you never have to plan ahead for that long trip or even the bus ride across town. When you’ve finished one book, quickly browse your library and start another! Ebooks are delivered almost instantaneously. You can purchase, download and start reading them within minutes, without leaving your chair. You don’t have to go to a bookstore to buy them, neither wait for them for days, weeks and sometimes more to arrive in the mail. Those who own a lot of books know how much space they can take up, but with a reader, your bookshelf is located on a small handheld device, your computer or on both. This will save you a lot of storage space and also means you have a backup online if something happens to your books. With disk space quickly becoming a commodity, and the size of portable device hard drives getting bigger and bigger, it’s conceivable to think that you could have your entire library with you and have it accessible to your fingertips. When you buy an eBook, your reward is instantaneous. Whereas if you order a book online you have to wait for it to arrive before the fun begins.

Brooks Winchell offers one answer in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  Helpful?

I was reading an article today about a bookstore that is in the process of closing. I found a quote within the article that I found very interesting. It stated “Publishers make deals with Amazon that they don’t make with anyone else.” I was surprised by this statement because I never really realized how much Amazon has really stepped into the book market. Although I associate Amazon with the kindle, I never really understood just how much of a stake Amazon has in the electronic book market. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in the future with other bookstores and to see if Amazon continues to grow and be successful with the increasing popularity of e-books.

After reading this article and writing the blog post, I decided to do a little research on Amazon and I found that Amazon is actually a dominant contributor in the e-book world. I think it is so interesting how important electronic reading is to Amazon’s profit, yet I had no idea how much of a stake Amazon really had on the electronic book market.

I wanted to talk a little bit about Oprah’s book club in my blog post so I decided to do a little more research and I was surprised to learn that Oprah’s book club was actually discontinued for a year because Oprah could not keep up with the reading while still searching for novels she liked. This was extremely surprising to me because this is the reason why she started to book club to produce novels that encourage people to read yet she could not seem to do it herself? I think this is why I have such an interest in the idea of Oprah’s book club because it seems to just be a marketing campaign to me at times. When I thought about it a little deeper, I realized that Oprah was actually increase many authors books sales. I found it interesting to see how Oprah can just pick up a book and people suddenly feel the need to buy it and many buy the book in hard copies. I actually praise Oprah for her decision to start this club. This club goes back to the real impact books have on people. It represents the true meaning of picking up a book and flipping through the pages.