Well known Affiliate Marketer steals image to market their product

I recently came across a site that has used an image shot by me to market their affiliate program. Normally i don't mind if its a nonprofit or illustrating a blog or the like. When a image is integrating into their marketing messege thats just wrong.

Advice please:
Should I call them out in the forum?
Request compensation?
Request a big backlink?
All of the above

 

Did you contact them yet?

 

I haven't since the typical response is oh my web developer did this and we had no knowledge of it. Meanwhile they used my images "my livelyhood" to sell their product. I've taken a different tact in that I've begun the process of registering my images with the US Copyright office. On cases like this I'll turn a lawyer working on a percentage to deal with it.

Call it a hardass approach but I deal with this on a weekly basis where a commerical for profit company steals our work and only takes it off after getting caught.

 

contact them for an explanation, then telling them that it's ok if they provide a backlink.

 

It depends on the situation really. I don't think you should go around "calling people out" without contacting them personally. No sense in causing harm to a reputation if a resolution can be had quickly and easily.

Save "calling people out" for people who are absolutely unreasonable and when the general community would be best served with knowledge of an individual's unethical activities.

As far as the question "What is an acceptable resolution?" -- be it a backlink or payment of some sort, or removal completely from the site, that question can only be answered by you personally. What is the value of the image that you took to you personally? If you are in the business of selling images, you probably have a good understanding of the cash value of a lo-res image that is part of your collection. If you are not, I would measure the value by figuring out how unique the image is, how much work it took to create the image, and your own personal quality assessment compared to other similar images on the web.

Many webmasters will take an image straight from a search engine's image search without thinking too much about it - they have a need for a specific image and find one that's appropriate. They don't think too much about copyright or the potential harm it does to others. Depending on who you are dealing with and what their attitude is can really determine how stiff a course of action you will take - anything from asking nicely for something in return, to filing a small claims lawsuit for copyright infringement to contacting their data center / web host and trying to get them shut down.

You may even find that they took the image from another site that stole the image from you originally - and that site gave them explicit permission to use it.

The details of your situation are private, but I reiterate - the best course of action is to contact the individual responsible for the violation. Before you do, establish in your own mind the value of what has been stolen and make yourself aware of what laws are being violated and the options you have for gaining a remedy legally. Once contact has been made, you'll have at least an idea in your head as to what you want in return, and the amount of negotiation you are willing to withstand prior to pursuing further action - be it legal, calling them out, flicking a booger in their general direction, or writing a very serious letter to someone who would be in a position to resolve the situation.

 

That's terrible, I've actually seen people steal links directly from sites, not even saving it to their own server.