Thursday, June 30, 2011

Copyright infringement by ad agency Vladimir Jones

I just found out that one of my photos is being used without my permission in a promo video by Colorado Springs-based ad agency, Vladimir Jones. (Thanks to an anonymous tip!)

In this case, I decided to file DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices with YouTube and their ISP.

Prior to doing that though, the first thing I did was take screen shots of the usage (including URL) as proof:



Next, I used YouTube's Copyright Complaint Webform, found via their YouTube DMCA Policy page to report the violation.



I then needed to determine who hosted the infringer's web site, which I found out to be GoDaddy by searching their domain name at Whois Lookup | Whois.net. This led me to find GoDaddy's trademark and copyright infringement policy, which directed me to send a DMCA-complaint letter (or email facsimile) for their review.

If, like me, you find yourself in this kind of situation and need good sources for DMCA takedown examples, check out these versions that I used to form my own copy:

How to Send a DMCA Takedown Notice | Black Star Rising

Sample DMCA Take Down Letter | IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Patent Law

Related: Calanan Photography: Found my photo used without permission (by Toyota)

9 comments:

Paul Trantow said...

What has the agency done? Have they ceased and desisted yet? Made you an offer? Apologized?

calanan said...

Paul: Nothing yet, I just found out about and reported the infringement less than an hour ago.

SC said...

apparently, they also forgot to also get a model release.

calanan said...

SC: An excellent point.

Unknown said...

I want to see the video!

Unknown said...

I found it! That's pretty terrible.

DebMom said...

Curious as to their reply, Michael. I was thinking the same as SC about the model release. And I found the video as well. You can always ask the client for some freebies! So, someone just happened upon this, eh?

Anonymous said...

Apparently, 06/30 was "social media day" : http://vladimirjones.com/2011/06/30/vladjones-loves-smday/

You should tweet to @VladJones and scold them, so everyone can see what they did.

Rocky Mtn Reporter said...

Sounds like the take down is already in motion, but here is another approach that the big stock companies do. Instead of asking for immediate removal of the copy right material they BILL the recipient for the usage immediately. This way, there is an opportunity to get compensation.