I designed a few pictures for my job and was just sent a mass email about look at this website.
And low and behold there were my pictures throughout the materials.
I work for an orchestra and it was another orchestra in a different state that used them.
Should I
call and make them take it down?
request credit for them on their website?
request payment for the orchestra for the use of our work?
or
let it go?
September 9th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
If you have a copywrite on the pictures, you can make demands. If you haven’t got one, you are out of luck.
September 12th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
you have rights, if you complain and they take it down there is nothing you can do, if you complain and they keep it but dont give you credit then you can fine them (through a court) but if they do give you credit (cite you as source) then it could be interpreted as fair use, as long as they are not making money from it.
September 12th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
It’s not plagiarism, it’s copyright infringement. If you want to force them to take it down, or get some form of payment from them, you should send a letter to them which describes the basis for your claim and demands your specific requests. The reason for doing this in letter is that it creates a paper trail which can be offered as evidence at trial (if it ever comes to that). If you want to call them instead, you should take detailed notes, including the date, time, person you spoke to, and substance of the conversation, and then it would probably be best for you to follow up that conversation with a letter confirming what you spoke about.
You can let it go if you want to, it completely depends on how important it is to you, and how much you’re willing to fight this. If you really want to pursue a claim, you should speak to an attorney with experience in intellectual property law.