Copyright Aid

Hi again Jon, Provided that the admins and moderators of the site do not pre-moderate* postings on the forum, they will not be liable for any copyright infringement perpetrated by a user. This is on the proviso that once the site admin is informed of the alleged infringement, they remove the item 'e...

Hi scruffy, Quite a bit to unpick here. As you are probably aware, software is treated as if it was a work of literature when it comes to copyright protection. In the modern age this is clearly nonsense, but it goes back to a time when all the instructions in a program were typed out manually so the...

Hi Dave, First all I don't think you need to worry about whether the promoter and or the concert was in the UK or USA. The law is largely the same in both jurisdictions, except that the US doesn't have the typographical layout provision I mentioned previously, and the fair use doctrine in the USA wo...

Hi artemisclark, Assuming that you produce the designs yourself or have permission to use someone else's work, this should be OK. However be careful to base your designs on a number of source materials, as copying a single photograph, for instance, would infringe the copyright of the photographer. T...

Hi Dave Practically speaking I don't think you need to worry about copyright here. As you indicate, the tickets are not literary works because the information printed on them is entirely factual; since they do not appear to have any artistic content they would not qualify as arttistic works. At most...

Hi Jon, The dates have no real significance. There is no legal requirement to provide a copyright notice, but doing so at least reminds anyone who encounters your software that copyright exists and it may deter some people from infringing your copyright. Where a copyright notice is displayed, you ha...

Hi Jon, Whether or not your site itself was or is for commercial purposes, (ie offering content which needs to be paid for) is less relevent than the purpose of the illustration. You mentioned previously that the image was used as a filler and in fact any similar image would have done just as well. ...

Hi Caroline, Thanks for the extra detail. This product appears to be made in China. I suspect that a single anonymous factory produces the product and then licences it to multiple sellers who use different brand names. One of the brand names which came up on Amazon was Winomo. I couldn't find the sa...

Hi Jon, I think your intended way of approaching this issue is the correct one. Assume that, in the hypothetical situation, you would have sought a 2 year licence rather than 2 x one year licences. If you submit your counter offer at the same time as asking for a breakdown of the sum in their demand...

Hi nuttyspice, The shape and conformation of an item like this would only be protected by copyright if it was a work of artistic craftsmanship, such as a one-off piece of hand-thrown pottery or a sculpture. Anything which has been mass-produced will not be subject to copyright, but it may be protect...

Hi Pat,

Thanks for the update. It is fairly rare to get this sort of report on the outcome, so it's much appreciated in this case.
Glad you can now put this experience behind you.

Andy

Hi Dave, Sorry about the delay in replying, I was away for the weekend. They tend to use bots to find infringing images in the first place and I doubt if the bots distinguish between commercial and private sites. It may be that a human then filters out the personal sites if they think they will have...

Hi Dave, I am surprised by the level of the Getty licence fees. However since they are that high, I agree that settling now makes sense. If they have said there's a letter coming you might as well wait for that to arrive as it may contain more details of their conditions for settling the claim. Obvi...

Hi Dave, Taking your last question first, it depends on your appetite for hassle, but I would not recommend just ignoring the claim. It sounds as though there may be a valid basis for a claim, although the amount being demanded is disproportionately high. If you found the image on AFP and Getty then...

Hi Pat, Well done in establishing the true market value of this image. That figure should certainly form the basis of your counter-offer. I suggest that you do not specifically state that you are prepared to offer the same amount for the omission of a credit. You could say that as you know the actua...