What to Do if Someone Posted a Picture Without Permission?
Web browsers make it easy to use an image belonging to someone else without receiving permission. You can right-click any image, save it to your hard drive and re-post it elsewhere in a matter of minutes. If one of your pictures has been stolen in this manner, you can take steps to get credit for your work or have it removed.
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Abuse Complaint
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If the photo has been posted on a service such as Flickr or Facebook, you may be able to have it taken down by filing a complaint with the service's abuse department. Social media and photo hosting services generally place "Abuse" or "Terms or Service" links at the bottom of each page, allowing you to quickly file a complaint about an abusive user or copyright violation.
Request Credit
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If you operate a website and one of your pictures has been used without permission, research the offending website to determine whether it receives substantial traffic. You may find that allowing the use of your picture may be worth your while if the offending website links back to your website. Search engine rankings are also determined in part by the number of links that websites attract; if you are able to convince many website owners to create links to your website, the traffic your website receives from search engines may increase.
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DMCA Takedown
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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, signed into U.S. law in 1998, gives an owner of intellectual property the ability to have infringing content removed by filing a takedown notice. It may be helpful to consult an attorney to learn more about the details of this process. Alternatively, you can download a free template from the Internet. You can file takedown notices with the company hosting the offending website and with search engines displaying your picture on their results pages.
Lawsuit
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If you are a professional photographer selling your work online, theft of your pictures can have a direct impact on your ability to earn a living. If you can put a dollar value on the reduction in earnings that the theft of your work has caused, it may be worth the effort to file a lawsuit and attempt to reclaim the damages.
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