Due to a sleep disorder I am often awake in the middle of the night and
often spend the time researching orchids on the web. Trichopilias are
often the subject; last night I discovered two photos of mine pirated
from my site and displayed (though now in black and white) on a
commercial website (based in Italy, I believe) as their stock photos.
You can view these he

http://www.americanrareorchids.com/c...ME=Trichopilia

The original pics of T.sanguinolenta and T.turialvae are from my page
and can be seen at:

http://www.orchidcourt.com/tricpics.html

I recognized both of the other trichopilia pics (what can I say? I'm a
tricho nut!), one as belonging to a well-known US commercial grower of
my acquaintance (the other I've seen on Jay Pfahl's IOSPE page but I
don't know if the copyright holder may have also given permission to
ARO, though I doubt it)and notified them (they responded and noted that
they have now found additional pics of theirs illegally used on the site
also) as well as emailing the offenders directly concerning my two pics,
politely noting my ownership and requesting they remove the pics. Here
is the reply I got (in toto):

photos are in black and white: are you God and these orchids are yours?
please don't write again

I'm both dismayed and surprised by the reply. Any recommendations as to
options for further action short of an expensive lawsuit? This is new
territory for me; I have been asked for the use of some of my pics
before and have always allowed it in noncommercial usage, but I have
made a general practice of denying permission in commercial cases. There
is a copyright notice displayed on the index page of my site; I guess
I'll have to go to the trouble of putting it on every page, but I don't
think that will stop the problem as far as intransigents like this are
concerned.

Anyone have any experience or concrete suggestions in this area?

Tennis Maynard