Copyright Aid

Hi matthew and welcome to the forum. And thank you for your considered thoughts on the matter. And I agree that engaging with these claim management companies is necessary. It is important to remember that in most cases the people they target have in fact infringed the copyright of someone who ...

Hi snapperman, Thanks for this information. Since the IPEC small claims resgistry moved to Manchester I have not kept up with the outcome of more recent cases. The Ministry of Justice used to publish statistics about the number of claims and details of awards made, but as far as I can tell they no ...

Hi Julian, Your first question had me scratching my head. The principle is so axiomatic to civil law claims that it would rarely be stated in a court judgment, rather in the same way that everyone connected to the law knows that the standard of proof in civil matters is the balance of probabilities ...

Hi Julian and welcome to the forum. Yes under the terms of the CC licence paragraph 7a, it is correct that the point at which the breach occurs is when an image is first posted (published) without the stipulated credit. But that then becomes a matter of contract law, rather than copyright law. As ...

You only need to cite the author or creator of the work where the original publication has done so. And you only need to use the author's name. There's no need to cite where it was published unless you wish to.

Hi Cath3, You are right that reselling individual illustations etc from books or magazines does not infringe copyright due to the doctrine of exhaustion of rights. In this particular case, it is the distrubution right within copyright which is involved. In this context UK law is governed by Article ...

That is excellent news, and thank you for updating us all. It is heartening to hear that the police took such a positive stance, which restores my faith in the Action Fraud system. I had begun to think it was largely a method of compiling statistics on alleged fraud, rather a source of 'Action'

Hi Hermie25 amd welcome to the forum, There shouldn't be any problem with what you want to do. Reality TV show formats can be protected but that really only extends to other TV shows which try to copy them in major way. But the protection is far from well established. It lies mainly in the concept ...

Hi, yes that email to GW looks very sensible. It is a pity, and frankly slightly incomprehensible, that Etsy have this strange policy with regard to DMCA takedown claims and counter notices where one of the parties is based outside the USA. There is nothing in the DMCA that says that is how the ...

Hi Mike and welcome, You don't say where you are based so I will assume that you are in the UK. But even if you are based somewhere else, much the same principles apply. To file a counter-claim follow Etsy's guidance here . Don't worry about the references to US law etc. Since Etsy is a US company ...

Hi zxlmxltx1 and welcome to the forum. As you live in the US you have a strong advantage in that the courts there are more likely to accept your fair use defence than would be the case in Europe. That said, I don't think the VRG or anyone else is going to take you to court based on what you have ...

Hi sibbooks and welcome to the forum, Yes, you are right that copyright does not protect concepts and ideas. It is an individual's expression of the idea which attracts the protection. There can sometimes be a grey area where the idea and the expression overlap, when it is a matter of establishing ...

Hi Smudger, Thanks for the added detail. I assume that the image which you acquired in 2017 is still in use on your site. It is arguable that the statutory limitation period of 6 years would prevent a copyright owner from taking any action even if you weren't able to produce evidence of your licence ...

Hi Smudger, As I am sure your are aware, this has very little to do with copyright or protecting the photographer's interests, and is more about these claims companies making a profit based on few overheads and seemingly no system in place to check if these images are concurrently being made ...

Hi Smudger and welcome to the forum, Although I am aware that this problem exists, this is the first time I have heard of an individual or company being targeted more than once or twice, to the point where it has become so problematic that it requires the sort of defensive action you have outlined ...