There was a fellow in Europe who'd taken a bunch of pictures, and we got him
to pull his site.... jay Pfahl headed up the efort, so he'd know how to
proceed. Not that Eric wouldn't, too, but just that getting 2 people on
your side, with a bit of oomph behind them, really helps, especially when
contacting the ISP. So I'd forward this message to Jay, too, if I were you.

K Barrett

"tennis maynard" wrote in message
...
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