Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/24

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Subject: [Leica] Web Image Theft on EBAY
From: Bill Erfurth <m6rf@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 22:04:52 -0700 (PDT)

- ------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Gandy wrote:

<P>Ebay has done nothing, their standard of ethics so
far
seems to only
be a song and dance.

<P>all ten images as well as the text are clearly
marked as
copyrighted
at my site.

<P>I sent him a bill for $10,000 each for each
unauthorized
one time use,
for a total of $110,000

<P>at the moment I am searching for my options...not
sure
if I have to
hire a lawyer to sue, or if I can just turn it over to
some
Federal law
enforcement agency.

<P>Stephen Gandy
- ---------------------------------------------------

Stephen,

I have good news and bad news for you.

The Good news is that the Congress of the United
States pass the copyright laws to protect
photographers and other artists.

The Bad news is that the federal government will not
enforce those laws.

Seriously, I was told by an FBI agent (the FBI is the
agency that is suppose to enforce these laws) that
unless you have a guy with a warehouse full of
conterfeit videos or music CDs the FBI will not do
anything about it. (Unless of course if you made a
large CASH contribution the the Democratic National
Committee that is different).

In reality, if you 'registered' the copyright on those
images, and the person who stole them has substantial
assets, then you may get a lawyer's attention.

Maybe Marc can shed some more light on this.

Good luck.

Bill


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