Copyright infringement, what can I do?

May 3, 2006 7:36 AM

I discovered over the weekend that someone has taken a photograph and an article of mine and published it in a book on cafe press without my permission or acknowledgement, what can I do?

There is more to the story than that. I used to do work on a hobbyist web page, and when the web page was sold to another party, I didn't get along with him and quit. I left a lot of my work there - with my name attributed, because I still wanted to help the people involved with the hobby.

This weekend, I was at a conference, and low and behold, that web page owner had published a book via cafe press. I looked at the cover, and one of my photos from a forum thread was on the cover. Flipping through the book, one of my articles was turned into a chapter - except one paragraph was changed.

This was especially upsetting because I've been working to sell some of my photography, and often use my own photography for web design jobs. So he not only stole from me but stole from something I could potentially be using to make money, or at least refering to in a portfolio.

I'm broke, I can't afford a lawyer. I know I still own the rights to the copyrighted matterial and I never gave him permission to use it beyond what is on the web page. I have a sorted history with him where after I quit helping out with that web page he denied I ever helped (fortunately some long standing members remember). So he'll likely deny that its my work. The article is still online with my name though, and I have the original photograph as well as the series of photographs it came from.

Oh, and to complicate matters further, he's located in the UK, I'm in the US.

Is there anything I can do without a lawyer, or am I SOL?

posted by [insert clever name here] to law & government (15 comments total)

I don't have an answer for you, but, what would be your ideal outcome? Do you want the publishing stopped, or a share of any profits, or something else? That will help you identify any options you have.
posted by sohcahtoa at 7:43 AM on May 3, 2006

Are you looking to recoup financial losses (which would, in all honesty, likely be meager for something like this) or are you looking for revenge on someone you think has wronged you? If you're looking for revenge, it's probably best to just let it go.

If you're looking to just stop the continued sale of the book, your best bet would be to write CafePress with supporting documentation, and they may take care of it for you.

I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me that the small amount of dollars in question and the fact that he's in the UK would make most forms of restitution impractical, not to mention that you'd probably lose money on the deal.
posted by BackwardsCity at 7:45 AM on May 3, 2006

Cafe press has an intellectual property agent. You won't get any money back, but you will be able to terminate the account.
posted by Alison at 8:04 AM on May 3, 2006

Call 1-866-999-HALT (1-866-999-4258), ask for copyright, and chat things through with them. It is run by the US government and staffed by intellectual property lawyers. They were immensely helpful with a recent problem where I work that involved someone in China, and they didn't ask for money. I believe the govt. pays the bill. Better though - if the legal angles don't work out, they have an Enforcement division.
posted by jwells at 8:04 AM on May 3, 2006 [1 favorite]

I'm not really looking for monetary reembursment because as stated, it would probably be next to nothing. I just either want the use of my work to stop or to at least be credited. I don't want to "shut down" the printing of the book out of spite, just to have my materials removed. There are others in the hobby I'm sure that would benefit from the book.

I don't want revenge, but I do feel a bit spiteful about it, it was MY work that I put time and effort into and that I shared out of good will. I feel like I'm being used all over again. My name was removed and its being published under his name/organisation. The person that did this is well known in the hobby to be a user, taking credit for other peoples' work. I wouldn't doubt the rest of the book is other information he stole from other people. I guess my primary goal is that I just want to stop him from taking advantage of me.

I'll try that Halt number, that seems pretty promising.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 8:20 AM on May 3, 2006

Well, if you do want revenge (or a damper on this) one method is to go into online communities that best align with this book and call him out on it.
posted by hodyoaten at 8:22 AM on May 3, 2006

From CafePress' Intellectual Property Rights Policy:

If you believe that your intellectual property rights have been infringed by a user of our service, please provide our Intellectual Property Rights Agent with a notification that contains the following information:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other rights that have been allegedly infringed.
   
2. Identification of the copyright, trademark or other rights that have been allegedly infringed.
   
3. The URL or product number(s) used in connection with the sale of the allegedly infringing merchandise. Note: A store URL is www.cafepress.com/storeid. Simply including www.cafepress.com is not sufficient to identify what you are objecting to; we use the "storeid" part of the URL to identify the user.
   
4. Your name, address, telephone number and email address.
   
5. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the rights owner, its agent or the law.
   
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other right that is allegedly infringed.

Our Intellectual Property Rights Agent is Candice Carr, who may reached by mail, email, telephone or fax as follows:

CafePress.com
Attn: Candice Carr
Intellectual Property Rights Agent
950 Tower Lane
Suite 600
Foster City, CA 94404

Email: [e-mail]
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

posted by WCityMike at 9:06 AM on May 3, 2006

Contact Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (or the equivalent organization) in your state.
posted by andrewraff at 9:56 AM on May 3, 2006

sordid, not sorted.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:35 AM on May 3, 2006

These are all great suggestions (even yours FFF - oops on the whole sordid affair).
The next question is - for those of you that have gone though something like this or similar, should I tried to write him a letter requesting he remove the matterial on his own? Or should I go straight to cafepress and report this issue. My goal is not to get him shut down, just to have my materials protected.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:50 AM on May 3, 2006

If you want to be nice, contact the author and demand credit ans/or token compensation.

If you want to be less than nice, go direct to Cafe Press.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:57 PM on May 3, 2006

check out writersweekly.com as well. They often intervene on behalf of writers whose work has been stolen/unattributed. ... At very least you could see what other writers have done to help themselves (check the archives and the "whispers and warnings" pages.
posted by mdiskin at 1:38 PM on May 3, 2006

I don't know if this is a derail here, but if you were being paid to do this work, then it might not actually be yours.
posted by MrZero at 2:07 PM on May 3, 2006

Nope, never was paid to do the work.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 2:55 PM on May 3, 2006

The danger we were working with was term papers sites and a specific person's works. We were afraid that if we "took down" one site, it would just reappear elsewhere since the thiefs could just rehost elsewhere. In that vein, the person could easily just sell the book via lulu.com or some other site. This is the angle you need to worry about, and why I think the HALT # is a good idea. They were very up front with us that the goal was essentially to convince the thief that stopping the activity was much easier than anything else, and also takes care of the potential for the material to spread elsewhere or remain online.

A C&D letter will certainly help with that, but a polite request to the person to remove your image from the cover and works from the book, (and material from the website?) might actually accomplish the objective without you having to upgrade to legal options that could backfire. It worked for us. That said, don't write anything that'll jeopardize your legal avenues if you need to take them... so you sort of need to have the legal folks review your "polite" letter anyway.

Definitely don't just run out and do what I'm saying - get in contact with a few of the folks mentioned here, review your options, and then decide. The book has already been published and there isn't an impending threat to you. Letting it sit isn't a good idea, but [hopefully] you can afford to take a few weeks to get perspective and then act.
posted by jwells at 5:52 PM on May 3, 2006