Legal Question

[Subdriver]

Would appreciate a little help from any legal experts on the forum.

Another forum member found a picture of my car plastered all of a non-forum vendor's website next to brake pads, rotors and fluid that I don't use. The original photo was taken by an official U.S. Navy Photographer who gave me rights to use it. I posted the photo on this forum and it is on this forum's gallery. To the best of my knowledge, I have not posted that photo anywhere else.

Can they use that photo without my permission?

I probably wouldn't care, but they are implying that I am endorsing a product that I wouldn't endorse.

Thanks.

[case2307]

No legal expert here but, I would think that the pic is copyrighted...so, no...they wouldn't be able to use it without permission.

[Subdriver]

That would be my guess as well, but what the heck do I know?

What I don't know is if I gave up rights to it by putting it in the gallery here.

[John Youngblood]

I think a better question is, can the Navy photographer actually give you permission to use an official Navy photograph? I don't think I would make an issue of it.

[Resist]

You did give up the rights by posting it here without a copyright statement attached to the pic.

What you can do is contact that vendor and explain things, requesting them to remove the pic of your car since you don't endorse the products. They may give you some of the product for free to keep the pic, who knows.

[MikesZ06]

Sub, I would tend to agree with Resist on this. You posted the photo on a public site without any warning about reprinting and I think that made you vunerable.

Now, the real issue would be/could be the misuse of that photo. By that I mean that the website/vendor who published your photo in his ad may very well be misrepresenting his products by presumption. The presumption being that your Z utilizes his products when in fact it does not.

I'm not an attorney but it would appear to me that this is where his vunerability is. I would think that the threat of lawsuit or even the issuing of statements to the major hi-po car forums denouncing his action would cause them to rethink using your photo.

Just my humble .02.....

Mike

[case2307]

I should stick to things I know...like what I had for breakfast.

[Richard Branca]

Sorry Subdriver, I wish I knew the answer, but I don't do that type of work. Try searching for "common law copyright" or something like that . . .

[Richard Branca]

also look for "misapproriation of image" (for a commercial purpose) -- its a tort.

I don't think you can use someones image or likeness to sell a product . . . E.g., you can't snap a picture of Trump and then use his image to sell wigs.

sorry I did not think of this before, but I'm spent from work and I still have more documents to plow through later . . .

[Richard Branca]

Mike is no attorney, but his thoughts were sure on point . . .

[IT L GO]

Email me them and tell them to take it down or send a check payable to you for its use.

[chrisj]

My wife and I had this problem before. Someone set up a corvette site and took a ton of photos from our site from car shows, etc and put them up on their site. I emailed them and they all came down. I imagine it didn't hurt to cite some copyright laws I found on the web.

We now "brand" our photos by putting our web address on them in the corner. Not hard to get around if someone wants to reuse the photo, but then we can show that they purposefully removed the brand to reuse the photo.

I'm not an attorney, but I would still think that you/photographer retains rights to that photo - even if you put it on the web. As for non-legal advice, a nicely worded email should get that photo taken down -- even if you don't have the firmest ground to stand on. They should take it down.

chris

[22655TD]

I would request free brake parts

[911response]

Subdriver,
Send a well written email that you, President of subdriver Corp. is requesting information as to why your copywrited photos appear on their website. Ask them to explain?? Tell them they have 15 days to reply or it will be turned over to your legal dept. for review. Make them think they are dealing with a large Corp. ( and just hope they dont frequent this forum). Tell them that all your sponsors are seeking legal action as well. Noboby needs this hassle over some photos, they will remove them unless they are just plain stupid in which case legal action wont help anyway. Just my 2cents.
Good Luck

[gresch]

here ya go subdriver:


http://www.pdimages.com/law/10.html-ssi


Be Careful - No Copyright Notice is Necessary on Images


Since October 31, 1988, works no longer need a copyright notice to have copyright protection. This means any image you find on a web page may be copyrighted. The traditional notice, such as "Copyright 1989 XZV Co." or " ©1989 XZV Co." is no longer required. Most web site content has been created since 1988, so beware.


Don't Copy, Modify or Display Images You Find
The Copyright act gives the copyright owner the exclusive right to reproduce or modify their work, and to exclude others from doing so. Copying includes copying or saving their image to your hard drive, or copying to other mediums, like scanning a photo from a book and turning it into a JPEG file.

Modifying a work, say by cropping, coloring, distorting, enlarging, etc. is not a way around this law. Creating a derivative work "or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed or adapted" is an infringement.

If you take a copyrighted image without permission, and put it on a web page, you are violating the exclusive right of the copyright owner to display his work. (See 17 U.S.C.A. § 106).

Don't Copy Images You Think Are Public Domain
An old image that is public domain may still be protected in two ways:

You cannot legally copy from another's copy. You must go to the source and make your own copy of a public domain image. (See Alfred Bell & Co. v. Catalda Fine Arts, Inc., 191 F.2d 99 (2nd Cir. 1951)).
In addition, their copy of the public domain image may itself be copyrighted.
See "How to Get Your Own Copy of Public Domain Images"below.