First you need to be able to prove that you are the one who created the image.
It is a photograph made by me.You could also ask that you be credited as the photographer.
But whatever you do, you should raise your concern with the site using the photograph.
One niggling question - which may be particularly important for someone in Quebec, where the law is different than the rest of Canada.
When you say "my image", are you referring to a photograph you made, or a photograph made of you?
It is a photograph made by me.
As they are already using the photo for commercial purposes, I would send them a bill.
The likelihood is they did a Google search and your image showed up, so they copied it - wouldn't even need to visit your website.
The problem with photos on the internet is Google's image search makes them practically anonymous. Most people don't give a second thought before copying and using anything they see.
You won't get a cent from them. They'll delete your image and go steal another from someone else.
She said it's her photograph, and that's good enough for me. Photographers are pretty good at identifying their own work.I don't see how we can make any meaningful comments on what case you may have in law unless we know what makes it your photograph
Probably true. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't tear into them and be a royal pain in the arse.
I believe this happens more than people realize. Some have argued it falls under "Fair Use Policy" as the image is not being sold or connected to actual sale of a specific product for monetary gain. You should have a copyright on all images as well as your website stating "all content" . Also something I was told to do is update the copyright year as each year goes by. example: image posted for first time 2024= © 2024, when next year comes (tommorrow) © 2024-2025 and so on as the years go by. If this had happened to me I would send them a nice email thanking them for using my photo and advising I will be including their advertising in my work history and if they have interest in any other images to please contact me. You may want to include a small thumbnail size of the photo as reference. It is not worth getting into it with them as they will remove it and you get nothing.
And if I could prove it, I'm wondering if it's worth it to pursue it.
The real answer to that question is: "It's worth pursuing if I feel like it's worth pursuing."
You need to decide if it's worth the trouble to ask them to either pay for the use of it, or remove it from their promotion page. You will almost certainly arrive at some sort of resolution without involving a lawyer.
So what do you want from this situation? Do you want payment? Acknowledgment/credit? Do you just want it removed? What would be the most satisfying outcome for you? You can see the various reactions some of us on the forum have about this kind of copyright infringement/IP theft (and make no mistake, this is theft) but only you can decide for yourself what you want to see happen and how you feel about it.
I've dealt with this exact scenario many times over 20 years and one thing I can tell you is this: if you express your displeasure to them and inform them that they are using your intellectual property on their site without permission, payment or attribution, the most likely result is that they remove the photo fairly promptly, and most often it happens without any response from them. IE: don't expect an apology. You can bill them for the usage rights, but it's unlikely they will pay to continue using it (I had the company actually pay such an invoice only twice in 20 years). They might send you a two or three sentence apology, and chances are, they will make an excuse for their infringement, like "Oh, sorry, We just found it on the web and didn't see any copyright" or "Our ad agency provided the photo for us - we have no idea where it came from" or maybe "Our web designed told us he/she used only Fair Use materials they sourced". But there's a very good chance they will make an excuse, if they respond at all. Don't be afraid to tell them you will file a DMCA Takedown on them if they say they don't want to comply.
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