I am being sued for my own images - help needed

Hello,
Can some one please advice. I own a website and I have taken pictures from my digital camera, edited them and hosted them on my site. I recently found that some one is using these pics on his personal blog and personal website. I have asked him to remove those pictures and told him that if he fails to do so, i will have to proceed legally.

Today that guy has sent a legal notice to me asking me to pay 500$ per image that i have copied from him (these are actually my own). Could some one please advise on how to prove that these images are my own?
your help is greatly appreciated.

 

Do you have the images still on your camera disk or saved them somewhere that can prove they are yours if so counter sue and let it go to court the will be no way for him to win.

 

Your original JPG images will have EXIF data that proves they are yours.

 

yup, the camera model and other data should be in the header of the files

 

send him a legal notice asking for 100K the REAL penalty for copyright infringement, not $500. What a looser.

 

Maybe he is just messing with you? if not let it go to court and sue him for much much much more to learn him a lesson!

 

lol that was funny. why didn't you put a watermark on your image. send him a legal notice like what sacofrome said.

 

Report him to his host for using stolen content.

 

He is just screwing with you, if he actually takes it to court then you can show the original jpeg files and you'll get a nice $10,000 fraudulent lawsuit award plus however much you deem the pictures value to be worth.

 

This can present a real problem. Best is to send the him and his host a DMCA takedown and get it over with. I've even seen hosts get caught red handed with stolen pictures and graphics (Saw it on WHT) and most hosts or service providers won't tolerate this kind of conduct. If the other party wants to swear under oath that it's theirs under the penalty of perjury and additional damages, let them dare you to give the case to a lawyer to sue.

 

He did a stupid move. You can easily cost him a fortune for his bad faith.

 

If you have got the full size, un edited originals, then yup, you can sue his a$$ off.

 

Get an attorney and teach this guy a lesson!

I've rode the pride train before and have spents thousands to get hundreds. Sometimes its not just about the money. Sometimes its about rubbing someones face in their own feces!

 

You now have the ability to make this whole thing really blow up in his face.

Seriously, go talk to a lawyer. Bring the stuff he sent you, and bring a copy of what you sent him.

Any competent lawyer is going to recognize the value of your case and this guy will learn a serious lesson for being a dick.

 

Ya DMCA him first and create a good paper trail. It always helps when you have lots of documents in your favor. Then talk to a lawyer.

 

Send him a link to this thread and ask him once more to take down the pictures. Unless this is some big company or well known person who owns/runs this website then I doubt you will get much money from him. I would think the best outcome out of this is to just get the guy to take them down and to quit messing with you. You will waste you time and money going after some stranger IMO.

This is free advice so take it for what it is. I am definitely no lawyer.

 

Brats like this person need to be taught a lesson. What an outrageous bully.

 

You'll have to follow through with it.

When you say 'legal notice' I assume you mean it's a cease and desist written by his lawyer. Or is it something he's slapped together by himself?

Unless he's willing to back it up by actually pursuing it in a court of law, it's a toothless tiger. But the same applies to your implied notice of legal action.

The ball's in your court. But there are a few options.

You had better have some evidence to back up your claim though. Other similar photos of the images he's used would be a good start. Or the full size unoptimized images.

 

Realistically the best thing to do is to get it over with.

I for one, however, like my revenge, no matter the downside of executing the revenge. I would go see a lawyer, take the camera and original unedited files, along with the letter you've been sent and see the guy in court. You have actual proof the content in question is yours, while all he has is copied content, the most he could possibly do is re-edit them to look like they're originals as "proof" they're his(if you put a watermark on them or something, he couldn't do anything with an already cropped image), which isn't enough against what you have (or should have, I don't know if you've kept the original copies or not)

Currently my family is going through a legal battle which we are about to win because the person in question sent us a letter(recorded postage) two years ago which contradicts everything the case is based upon, though we can't find an original we've given a copy to our lawyer with the original envelope(has the tracking info on it) which they are to produce at the next hearing. Basically proof that this person has lied about everything against us.

 

This is really bad on his part. Threaten him to remove it or litigate him for up to $100k.