We have a rather popular website with plenty of photos. Our whole business depends on our content - and the photos are important in this. We invest a lot of time, effort, and money into taking these pictures. On our website we have clear copyright notices, we have the website name and logo in the photos, and we have a Photo Licensing page which states the prices of licensing our photos. Despite all this, our photos are copied by personal and commercial websites alike. We really want to do something about this. We do not want them to take out the photos and leave it at that. We want them to pay for the usage, as we clearly state on our website. Now a few questions come to mind:Can we legally force them to pay right away? Or are we obligated to first write a Cease and Desist letter?Photos are used on websites throughout the world. Are there any worldwide rules for this? Has anybody experience with doing these things outside of their home country? Should we hire a lawyer in any country? Or could a local lawyer contact oversees companies directly?
Photos being copied all over the place
copyright
First, you did the right thing putting the copyright and website on all the photos. That is the best thing you could do as it at least will be known where the images come from and who the belong to.Sadly, there is nothing that can be guaranteed 100% effective. You can send a letter as you suggest but it is far more effective to simply send them a bill which includes the license and your terms.Each website may respond in one of the following way:Accept the license and pay you (usually after they consulting their lawyers)Remove the content (occasionally along an apology)Ignore you completelyIn the case of (3): You can send a registered letter with CC to a law-firm. This has some chance of working for companies based in your country but very little elsewhere.