What to do

Hi Antonio,

I had my image stolen for web usage a few times last year. I live in the US now and had I registered the image in question prior to the theft, I could have hired a lawyer, but since it was not the case, I resorted to e-mail the highest possible official of the companies/businesses. I was able to resolve the issue successfully in two of the three cases. With the third, I felt it was too late as the image has disappeared from their site before I had a chance to do anything about. One of them was a site in Itlay, but the business originated in Scotland, UK. I exchanged a bunch of e-mails with the official in Italy to find an agreeable figure. I sent a PayPal invoice and when I ageed to their final price and sent the PayPal invoice to them at that price, they promptly paid.

With a US company in violation of my copyright, it took longer, but an agreed price was reached by exchange of e-mails although I also sent them a PayPal invoice. They opted to send me a check.

It seems that you need to be patient as well as firm about their paying for your image.

Before contacting them, be sure to copy their web image before they have a chance to take it down. E-mail them with their version of your image and your original.

Good luck!

Antonino

Also,make sure you save a screenshot of the page with your image in use in case they remove it.
Judging by the advertising,they are a commercial site and should,at the very least,be obliged to pay
the going commercial rate for use of your image.

Take a screen grab and send them an invoice.

As an Italian you don’t need to register any copyright. You own the images the moment you took the image.

As a courtesy I’D also send an e-mail to Magnum informing them that their copyright might have been violated. The website could have licensed the Majoli images from Magnum fria and square – you have no way of knowing – but if they have, then you have even more of a case to be paid, and paid promptly.

If they haven’t, then possibly Magnum’s leverage combined with yours will expedite a payment for both.

Antonino

If they have used your images without your permission that is a breach of your copyright. Don’t send them anything asking how they came to use your pictures as they may say they used them in good faith from a third party.

Contact them and be firm. Tell them the pictures were used without your consent and you will take legal action unless they make you an agreeable proposal for compensation. As Tomoko says make sure you get a copy of the offence and then contact them. Do Not under any circumstances let them bully you. They have used your images without permission and need to correct the wrong. I would contact Alex as well to see if he is aware that his images have been used. If they have done the same with his images you are in a very strong position as you will have moral support.

I had a similar situation last year where a freelance illustrator stole some of my images from my website and used them in an illustration for a well known glossy magazine. I sued both the magazine and the illustrator. The magazine denied knowledge of the infringement but they have a duty to make sure they are 100% certain that no copyright was infringed. I won and was awarded a good compensation deal. The illustrator paid me a derisory figure but his reputation is tarnished. The magazine severed all contracts with him.

If you need any info regarding the basic legal issues drop me an email via PM.

Good Luck

Mark

BTW An infringement of copyright can be resolved by issuing an invoice but I would suggest you threaten them with legal action.
You are likely to get a better deal by asking to be compensated for copyright violation then offering to send an invoice for a straight forward usage.
They have violated your copyright.
If you just send them a straight invoice they may then jerk you around.

If you do decide to send a straight invoice look into finding out what the increased % would be for unauthorised usage and add that to the standard fee.

Yes… a polite but terse letter from a lawyer could awaken their sense morality.

I think it won`t be a bad idea to find out how much a lawyer would cost.

My Italian copyright infringement case also involved the web usage of my image. I almost consulted an Italian lawyer, but was strongly adviced against it by an American photographer. This lawyer I found through the Internet would charge me 250 Euros for a solicitation letter and their hourly charge was 100 Euros. Acting on my own, I settled for 300 Euros. After I first invoiced in USD, I switched to the Euro toward the end.

Sometimes any lawyer…a friend, family member, friend of a friend, can work here . Just as long as it looks official is enough. Lawyers also want business so a simple letter on your behalf is a free and no brain opportunity. Ask anyone you know in business if they have a lawyer to recommend. Buona fortuna.

hi a

i would suggest an invoice at three times the standard rate and threat a letter from a lawyer as back up this is theft…

j

Hi Guys
First, I have took a video of the web page, I took some picture of it and than I created a PDF file of the page. I sent them a letter asking 137,00 euros for the published pictures as Italian journalists tariff. Now I wait to have an answer by them, and if they don’t reply me I’ll send a letter with my lawyer.
Thanks for all advises, and thanks for contacting Maioli.
Ciao