Copyright Rules for Images on the Web

All too often, people think they can copy, download, upload, distribute, use and even sell images they find online. This common misconception costs to designers, artist, writers and all third party interests cause immeasurable losses to reputations, traffic and income.

All iimages found online are the sole right of the artist / designer / creator unless otherwise stated. All digital images and content is date-stamped. Proprietary digital property can be traced back to it's origins. All rights to download, reproduce, distribute, display and or sell images online remain that of the artist / designer or copyright owner unless formal written agreements state details to the contrary.

Copyright agreements regarding the use of www.kimhunter.ca content fall under 3 categories.

Shared - not for profit copyright
- Copying, sharing, posting or reproductions of images for educational purposes or specific not for profit purposes must attribute the works to the artist. Online content must be accompanied with source links or visible credits to the artist's website. eg: Image by www.kimhunter.ca or Art by Kim Hunter
Non-profit or educational use of this artist work for print must have written consent to confirm licensing.

Shared - for profit copyright
- Shared copyright for profit rights of a specific image is purchased and shared with the artist and other 3rd party interests. Shared for profit use must be established by the purchase of shared copyright or wiith prior written consent and is limited to agreements for specified or limited applications.

Sole copyrights
- Sole copyrights pertain to agreements for the sole right to use, distribute, copy, print, sell or share images online or in hard copies. Sole rights for commercial or private graphics, logos, digital images, paintings or purchased original works of art must be purchased. The sole rights of an image to use, copy, print or sell in any capacity the buyer sees fit is established with the purchase of the sole rights of an image. The cost to purchase the sole rights of a graphic, design or art work is generally 50% of the cost of the original purchased design. Limited sole copyright agreements are also available for limited duration use or use in limited capacity is also available.

Artist's Resources for Stolen Designs and Artworks Online

Retaining copyright, finding stolen art and having the copyright infringing image removed is a tedious and necessary process to retain control of your art work online.

Regular reverse image searches and sending take-downs is a helpful in controling your work online. Using Google image search, either upload your original image, or copy and paste the the address of the stolen image link to a free reverse image search online.

images.google.ca Click the little camera icon in the search bar to go to the reverse image search window. Doing a reverse image search using the violating copy results in finding more copies of that specific image. Reverse image searching your original images

You can refine your search further by choosing dates in the dropdown to "crawl" dates of original post, dates and lists theft and all sites featuring your art or design online. One listing may be more current than others. Cross referencing with a second or third free reverse image search application is helpful in finding your work posted by third parties.
www.tineye.com

WaybackMachine is another free tool to find the date the stolen image was uploaded to the website.

In the case of a website being in another language, you can find the contact information using a free web translator service to translate a web site from any language into any language.
Web Page Translator
Text Translator

Often infringing and scam sites carry bugs. It's safer to contact the web host of the infringer directly.

An email to the host alerting the web site owner of the infringement is the start of your "paper trail" in your attempt to regain your rights. A polite email is often enough for most honorable people to remove the stolen image. If only a phone number is available, phone calls needs to be documented with dates, times, content of conversation, contact name, etc. Comment sections provided on sites are not always reliable as you have no way to confirm your message was received.

The first step to reigning in the theft of your images is to try to contact the owner of the site that is in illegal possession of your image. Most legitimate sites have some form of contact information and are happy to remove the stolen image once alerted to the copyright infringement by email.

While many infringers either don't know they are in possession of stolen property, others attempt to refute claims of infringement. if you are unable or unwilling to contact the infringer or are unable to resolve the problem directly with the owner of the infringing website, you get to go hunting. : )

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First , you must find their host and IP address.
Copy the web page address of the infringing site, eg: http://www.thief-site-here.com

To find the "I.P. address paste the web address into the space proved by one of these free
website to IP converter services online:
Find IP and Host

You may want to cross reference the IP as some click bait and more fishy sites will bounce around to different web hosts.
Convert IP to Host or Vice Versa
Host Checker

Once you have the IP address (eg: 123.45.678.910) and website host.
IYou will need to email the host of the infringing site with your takedown report.

Most website hosts have a standardized copyright infringement format. This format is called a DMCA copyright take-down notice. Many large "safe harbour" websites and hosts like Amazon provide a standardized "Abuse / Copyright Infringement & DMCA Violations" form you can fill out on their website. Other hosts have a designated "abuse" or "dmca" email address. Snail-maiing a hard copy of the notice is another option.

Effective DMCAs require very specific details about the copyright infringement.
If the host does not provide a standard form, submitting a DMCA copyright infringement notice is pretty straight forward once you've done it once.

Notice of copyright infringement
Copyright infringement not limited to but including:
(copy and paste the web page that features your stolen art)
website: http://www.thiefs_site_here.com
(right click on the image on the site to "view image", copy the address of the image)
image location: www.thiefs_site_here.com/your_stolen_image.jpg
I.P. Address: 000.00.000.000
(found using the website to IP service linked above)
IP Host: Name of website host provider
(found using the I.P. to host service above)
web site name: THIEF'S SITE HERE

The unlicensed image (NAME of YOUR IMAGE) at (ADD THIEF's SITE HERE -> eg: www.thiefs_site_here.com) has been discovered on your site and server. Use of the cited proprietary image without prior written copyright agreements is in breech of international copyright laws. With no written copyright agreement, the use of the (DETAILED NAME / DESCRIPTION OF STOLEN ART) image featured on the site (EG: http://thiefs_site_here.com) infringe international digital copyright laws.

Please remove the stolen image files.

http://......... (WEB URL)
http://......... (IMAGE URL)

See copyright holder, source of theft and (OPTIONAL ->) third party commercial interests affected by the copyright infringement of this proprietary image here:
(EG: ADD YOUR WEBSITE or OWNER OF IMAGE DETAILS HERE)

The effected parties of these copyright infringements are listed but not limited to the following:
(ADDITIONAL LINKS PROVING OWNERSHIP)
http://.........
http://........
http://.........
http://.........
http://.........

(IMPORTANT to include the required following details)

I have a good faith belief that the material is not authorized by myself, the intellectual property owner, agents, licensed partners or the law.

The information provided in the notice is accurate, and I swear under penalty of perjury that, as the copyright holder, I am authorized to make the complaint.

Full Name
Full Mailing Address
Telephone Number
Email

Kind regards,
Your Name Here (digital signature)