Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/05/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The copyright office is big, and registering all the photos outside the agency sounds like outsourcing to me. If a legitimate user is paying you for use of your photos, then with or without the law, he will continue to pay you. If he is not paying you now, he will not pay you in the future. It is an issue of ethics, not dollars. My point was that it standardizes registration, declares that your image is registered in a place, date, and with an independent "agency" that is not subject to any interpretation. They used the photo, without looking up the registration, and they did that without your permission. All you ( generic you) have now is a cute symbol on the photo. So let's say that someone used your photo without your permission. You catch them. How do you collect? You send them a bill for use. They do not pay. You get to hire a lawyer ( money spent), sue them officially ( money spent), and win. How do you collect beyond even the use costs? The focus is on a) getting some cash out of them and b) getting them to stop doing it. To be honest, I think the emphasis should be on getting them to stop. BTW, has anyone actually successfully sued and collected over this issue? From a legitimate user, I suspect the answer could be yes,. From a slimy operator? I doubt it. You are better off with some meat in your registration. My point. Now you have none. Oh, except the cute symbol. For Ted..... as I understand it, if you could register your life's work for $45, wouldn't you do it? To legally protect your $1.2M of value? How much do you spend in a year maintaining the location and contents of your image files ( before your donation to the Canadian University (?) that you donated your work to)? Overall comment..... If the illegal user of your photos is a real publisher, editor, or image agency, only the legitimate and honest agencies would care if you registered. The slimy ones would use, and continue to use your images without payment. Spend your efforts getting some meat into the adjudication and payment phase...... Frank Filippone red735i@earthlink.net