Intellectual Property-Copyright Infringement

Recently a model, which we did a free trade for CD, but without the copyright release given to her, decided that manipulating our photos and posting them without the copyright notice in a local Modeling Agency's website, without asking for our permission first was just fine. (She signed the agreement prior to the photo shoot, and she agreed to the conditions of the trade, where it specifically said, the images could not be manipulated or posted anywhere without the copy right notice) however, she disregarded the agreement, and our manipulated images were posted without the copyright sign and of course, proper credit was not given to Portraits By Nedelka. Just to clarify something. When you paid for your photos, the copyright release is given to you, because you paid for our products, and you can do whatever you want with them, (that's why a CD cost you more than printed photographs, so, if you really like our work, then pay for it, like most of our customers do!!) In this case, first of all, we sought legal advised. Second, we contacted the modeling agency, who immediately removed all photographs from their website, and they assured me, they were not aware those photograph's copyright were mine. Among other things, I removed all of her photos from our website, from this blog, and from another modeling website we subscribe to. Third, since this model "actively broke the terms of the agreement", which is copyright infringement, we contacted the model, and asked her to remove our photographic work from any place in the Internet she might have it, and we also asked her not to make our work available to any third party, either via electronic media or print. Fourth, we may have to pursue this further if she does not comply with our request, therefore, we may not be able to comment anymore regarding this situation. We already posted information about copyright before, however, due to this incident, we need to remind everyone that comes in contact with our business about the following: Please, keep in mind that we do enforce what we had said in our blog about intellectual property, and also, keep in mind that we do check everywhere, to make sure people comply with the agreements they signed. All the images under my website and blog are copyright protected (DO NOT COPY AND PASTE, DO NOT DRAG ANY PHOTOS FROM OUR BLOG!!) All violators of this federal law will be subject to criminal and civil penalties. We are a serious and honest business entity. We will prosecute to the full extend of the law, anyone that will intent to use our images, specially those people, who will try to manipulate our photos in any way, form, or post our images in any websites, without our permission, specially "adult content only" websites, or people who try to hurt our good intentions, business image and reputation, as well as that of our models, by associating those websites with Portraits By Nedelka, or posting images taken by us in those websites. We will not tolerate any abuse towards ourselves and others, so, beware, if you chose to ignore this, you will be responsible for all of our legal and court costs, included and not limited to attorney's fees, if we need to enforce it by court law!! We are very nice, and we will continue to offer trades with selected individuals, as long as you keep the agreements, but please, do not be abusive. In a happier and more positive note, we never had this kind of situation before, and the models before and after this one, either paid contracts or trades, have been very honest with us. Before they signed the "Adult Model Agreement", and Use of Our Photographs" papers, everybody asks questions, just to make sure we are in the same page. I just want to ask everyone, customers, friends, and family, to contact me, whenever they see any of my photos published, either in print or by electronic media, anywhere, in the Internet, or in a modeling, scouting, or talent agency's place of business, specially if someone else is claiming to be the intellectual author of my work. I have ways of checking and verifying some information, and I also have contacts checking for me. That's how I was able to find out that model had posted my photographs in the modeling agency's website. I wanted to share this with you, you can never be too careful, and this information is valuable. It does not matter what type of artist you are, or what type of craftsmanship you do. As the author you own the copyright, the intellectual property is yours, and people need to respect that. If they don't, then you need to fight for your rights, and make people respect you. By doing so, you are helping others, that can becomes victims of that type of abuse if you don't do anything about it. Besides, if you are not are going to defend what is yours, what you created, then who is going to? I would like to think that as a craftsman your work is valuable, and of great worth to you, and you are very proud of it, so it would be only obvious to defend it as such.