Recently I noticed a link to my website from some political blog. After digging around I found that the blog writer took one of my photos and modified it for one of their posts. They posted a link to my blog saying where they got it along with "the image is basically unaltered", which is untrue since they blurred the edges thus removing my watermark.

My photos are covered by a CC license, the details are here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.1/jp/deed.en Specifically others are NOT allowed to modify my photos. On the About page of my blog I wrote: "About the photos on this site: they are all my work. You may NOT use them for any purpose at all without express written permission from me. ..." and then linked to the CC license information.

My question is, the CC license is under the jurisdiction of Japan, does that mean it's only good in Japan? Also, what are my options? I posted a comment on the entry stating that I had NOT given permission to use the photo, I did NOT want to be associated with the blog and to remove the photo within 24 hours. 12 hours and counting and I haven't heard a word from them and my comment has not appeared under the relevant entry.

This is exactly why I didn't want to post photos on the web in the first place :( :mad: Any advice appreciated!

You need to read up on this (assuming they are in the USA); http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

You can threaten them with a "digital millenium copyright act take down notice".

If they are not in the USA, I don't know...

In any event, you can write their ISP demanding it be taken down and present your evidence.

Are they linking to your image? If so- why not modify your image to reflect your copyright? If not- well, then you'll have to either pester them into removing your image or just relax & let it pass like a couple too many prunes... life's too short to worry!

No, he's not linking directly. He took the image and modified it. What really gets me is a link on their site talking about "journalistic integrity". I guess that includes stealing other peoples work, eh?

I've emailed the person and am awaiting an answer.

You're probably going to be frustrated arguing with the other person.
Here in the US it seems to be legal to use one persons work in another piece of "art".
That may not apply to blurring the edges of an original. But what other form of redress do you have?

email him for a by-line and re-install your
watermark, then add a comment to his blog ...

good luck!

You're probably going to be frustrated arguing with the other person.
Here in the US it seems to be legal to use one persons work in another piece of "art".
That may not apply to blurring the edges of an original. But what other form of redress do you have?

No, its not but it takes an inordinate amount of effort to block someone and they often get off with little more than a wrist slap when caught red handed, unless you have a gaggle of lawyers to enforce your copyright...

I received an email reply this morning. The author removed the image and link- I just checked and it's been replaced with another image and link to some other website.

His attitude and the tone of his response was "well okay, if you don't want to be famous because I've exposed your photo to the world then that's okay."

I'm going to be much more careful how I post my photos online now, if I continue to do so at all.

ALWAYS use your common sense in uploading images.

3 months ago I began using software to analyse my websites logfiles, the package with my host is good but basic.

What's really interesting is how many hot links there are to my images, the site's been live in various forms for about 12 years. I have had to threaten legal action 3 times, but in all cases we've agreed amicably, and with proper references the images remain.

The other Hot-links are great, they are usually Blogs some very heavily read, and they mostly contain links to my site as well.

Ian