Photo/image

[photoshopfreak]

I run a fan site about an musical artist & i got this email today via my "contact us" form, the message is edited to prevent the person finding this thread:

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Your Name: <% copyright holders name %>

Your E-Mail: *****_*@yahoo.com

Subject: <% name of photo %>

Message: to the owers of this website the photo of <% artist name %> <% name of photo %> is copyrighted by <% copyright holders name %> the owner of the image. You do not have and the owner did not give his permission to use the image. Remove the <% name of photo %> of <% artist name %> from this site and ALL of the others websites under your control. The copyright laws allows the owner to recieve money for the miss-use of images and WWW.************.COM did not recieve permission to use this image or pay the owner for the use of the image. THIS IS THE LAST E-MAIL BEFORE WE TAKE YOU TO COURT. REMOVE THE <% artist name %> <% name of photo %> IMAGE NOW.
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I believe the email is fake but i removed the picture from my site anyway. The email states "THIS IS THE LAST E-MAIL BEFORE WE TAKE YOU TO COURT" contrary to how that sounds i never got any other emails from them & this was the first contact i had from that person, i'm also trying to locate the copyright holder to ask for permission to use the image, by searching the web for the <% copyright holders name %> as given in the email but can't find him or any info on him.

The email contains spelling errors: owers x 1 = owners, recieve x 2 = receive & in the "Your Name:" section above (in that email) he gives his name as <% copyright holders name %> then goes on to say:

"to the owers of this website the photo of <% artist name %> <% name of photo %> is copyrighted by <% copyright holders name %> the owner of the image."

Shouldn't that be:

To the owers of this web site the photo of <% artist name %> <% name of photo %> is copyrighted by <% ME %> the owner of the image.

What do you think?

 

[Epic]

The email is suspicious, but really you shouldn't be using copywritten images on your site anyway.

Smart idea to remove it.

 

[DNQuest.com]

A suspicious email would be one that demands money, or a domain or some other form of compensation/settlment. Not all C+Ds need to be written by lawyers. Here, they are asking you to just remove the picture and by you own admission, it is not your picture. I would take it down and suggest not using copyrighted material in the future.

 

[bluesman]

Standard procedure is to assume that every photo is copyrighted somehow, since copyright occurs upon first publication. Simply give proper photo credit under the pic(s) in question, and also provide a basic disclaimer that states matters to the effect that:

By featuring the image(s) on your site, you are NOT assuming or claiming any ownership of it for yourself - that you consider all such materials to remain the property of whomever you originally got the photo(s) from.

There should be no problem. The email you got sounds very odd, given that there are no doubt hundreds (or thousands) of pics already circulating the net on just about every famous person, place or thing you'd care to name. Why anyone would get bent out of shape about one photo is quite strange indeed. (Assuming it wasn't altered to put the subject in a negative light, of course.)