Ebay and protecting people infringing copyright - my story

[mandoman7]

The prints have been removed from eBay. I contacted the seller through the eBay system direct and read him his rights.

The seller has sold the images and has made money from them. Person non commercial use, no big deal but when they sell them it's a big deal. I want financial compensation. A friend found a liquor store using my images on a billboard. I forced them to pay and now they understand the copyright laws. I did the same for a other companies using the images on a billboard.

This isn't all small potatoes. Some are making good money. In any case I made the images and invested the time and money and registered the copyright. I should have controll of who and how they are used ( in a non Internet prrfect world).

The thing that really pissed me was them putting their water mark on them. How bold!!! Also one of the images had never been on the Internet. It had only been shown in my touring museum show. That's bold!!! To walk into a museum, copy work, put their water mark on it and sell it.

Kudos to you for taking up this battle. Clearly, there's a disturbing trend towards abuse of creative property rights these days. I'm curious about how you've been able to track down those using your images?

[Sdrubansky]

Marvin 'Popcorn' Sutton was a bootlegger. You're stealing his soul.

[Don Dudenbostel]

Popcorn would have shot you for calling him a bootlegger. He was a moonshiner not a bootlegger he always said.

As to tracing them down, friends in the area let me know when they see them and I google Popcorns name and come up with many. For example I google Popcorn Sutton shirt or cards and come up with items quite often. I go to YouTube and search his name also. eBay is a common ond I search. If someone used it for an avitar or personal use that they're. It making money it's no big deal but when they make money it be ones a big deal. If they're selling it there's always a means of tracking them down either through a site like Zazzle AF eBay or direct sales in some cases.

It's not just my documentary work. I do X-ray images of flowers and have found that work for sale on other sites.

I license my work and make a good part of my living from it and want to be compensated for my hard work and the time it took to learn what I know. I don't want the value lowered by cheap reproductions. You get the idea.

[sun of sand]

Steven Seagal just starred in this movie ..Picture Of Death. Why don't YOU stop stealing other peoples work. Dude.

[sun of sand]

This time I'm not only going to inflict pain I'm going to bring blood

:haha:



Picture of Death would be pretty accurate given his latest movies





This reminds me of a naming contest for RB Thurman Thomas lounge at a local racetrack/casino racino

My name for it
AND I BELIEVE IT TO BE A GOOD NAME FOR A SPORTS BAR/LOUNGE especially given he was a running back

CUTBACKS


unfortunately
especially given the reputation of this little country city "cutbacks" would be way too open for jokes

WOW, this place sucks! ...CUTBACKS.

[sun of sand]

Popcorn would have shot you for calling him a bootlegger. He was a moonshiner


lol


how come he didn't shoot the person who gave em that nickname then?

[ic-racer]

I'm not good at reading through all the posts in a thread but is this thread about finding Popcorn Sutton images and having them removed because Popcorn does not want photographs of himself for sale on ebay?

[welly]

I'm not good at reading through all the posts in a thread but is this thread about finding Popcorn Sutton images and having them removed because Popcorn does not want photographs of himself for sale on ebay?

No, apparently Popcorn Sutton is dead, so probably has no opinion on his photographs being on ebay now or otherwise.

[Michael_4514]

Let me preface this by saying that Don is entirely in the right and I hope he shuts down anybody illegally making money off his work. (Also, Don, your work is really good!)

But there is another side to this issue.

A few years I took on a pro bono assignment from the federal court in Manhattan. The Calder Institute was suing the owner of a small gift shop in Connecticut because it was selling some miniature Calder like mobiles. The owner was a middle aged woman of modest means, and she had bought these mobiles from her wholesaler in the normal course of business. They sold for a few dollars each and she might have sold a dozen of them. She couldn't have made $100 profit on them, probably much less.

Anyway, the Calder Institute was claiming that these mobiles infringed on the copyright that it held on Calder's mobiles and it hired one of these huge international law firms and dropped this giant lawsuit on her. The court papers alone weighed a few pounds. The thing with copyright violation is that if you win, even a few dollars in actual damages, the other side has to pay your "reasonable" legal fees that that would have run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This woman was facing financial ruin for something that may or may not have violated some copyright but which was totally innocent and utterly harmless.

Copyright is an important right and serves a useful purpose, but Calder has been dead for 30 years, and not for nothing, but anybody can make a mobile that looks like something Calder might have made. There are abuses at both ends.

[jnantz]

good luck don, and good job reminding people to register their work !
there are too many people ( even big million dollar corporations )
who make a good living by harvesting work that others have done
and saying it is their own. it is understandable that some people don't know
the law ( and it is easy to spot them as you have ), but shame on the people that do!

i know i have been in your shoes before, not with stealing images the newfangled way
but with a large company i was working for ( on assignment / contract ) harvesting all my work, duping it, and then
deciding (after they had it all duplicated on their hard drives) they no longer wanted my work, nor to keep me on contract
nor to pay me .... and then publishing the images on their website ... claiming it was their own and it was all done 'on spec' ..
companies get very good ( from what i have been told by lawyer friends and news reporters ) at being very vague
in their contracts, and then denying that contractors actually were working for them after robbing them blind..

i hope you are able to get back EVERYTHING that is owed to you!