Need help from the bellydance community!

[KHphotographics]

About two months ago I found out that a website Welcome to our online store - Silvex Tribal was using a bunch of my images without permission along with another photographer's that I know. We contacted the guy who owns the site, but to no avail. I am a member of PPA and I contacted them right away and they have been sending letters to this guy as well as the website hosting company to take down the site. The hosting company sent us a final response stating that they cannot "get involved in the matter". Funny since they have a very strict section on their website about copyright infringement. Well after sending another letter to this guy, today we finally recieved a response and the lady from PPA sent it to me and then told me there is nothing more they can do. So now I dont know what to do. This is the copy of the email from this loser at Silvex:
"Dear Maria,
Thanks for your email ..this is the first letter which we received from you..we didnot receievd any other letter from you before.You have mentioned in your letter about the unauthorized used of pics. First of all these pics are not unauthorized ,we got the pics from one of our client we cannot disclose her name as its confidential .These pictures are all originals if they had copyright then there must be marked with it .All the professional photographers with copyright do mark there pics with water mark or etc. So how somebody will know whether they have copyrights or not .We also paid 400US$ for those pics and more over we invested another 800US$ in the website designing .
I would also like to know how Kristen Wheller claims that these pics are his/her copyrights.
Regards,
Imran
(Design Manager)
(silvex)"
This is just simply not true. First of all, it does not matter if the images are watermarked or not. Second of all, the bellydance community is very large but also very tight-knit. I am a well known phtographer in the bellydance community along with Jeremy Shane who's images were also stolen. We found out through the community rather quickly that this guy from Silvex has been in trouble for stealing images numerous times before. So now we dont know what to do. The models in my images are all close friends of mine and none of them by any means gave this guy permission. I dont know what else to do or who else to go to and I am hoping you can help or point me in the right direction. I am so dissappointed in PPA and was from the start since it took them more than a week to get back to me when I first called with the emergency. I am now asking for help from within our industry to pass the word around and beg for help.
I just thought maybe you might be able to help in some way by reposting or passing along the information.
Thanks so much for your time.
Sincerely,
Kristen Wheeler
KHphotographics, international wedding and portrait photographer, located in Central Florida

[SatinWorship19]

I'm so sorry to hear that you're going through this, Kristin. You are such a talented artist (I love what you've done with Zana!) and it makes me upset to see that some C-level vendor is capitalizing on your intellectual property. I always thought PPA existed to protect photographers against theft.

I'm not a photographer, but I'm a model and have tons of photographers in my personal network. I'll ask around and see if any of my contacts have any advice. Hopefully you get a speedy resolution on this.

OT, but we're SO shooting together when I finally move to Cocoa Beach

[KHphotographics]

Thanks so much! Please spread the word around so this guy doesnt get any business!!!! And I would love to shoot with you!!!! I travel too, so you just let me know when you are ready!
Love K

[Kathiya]

i'm not expert in the matter (at all!!!) but if i were in this case, i'd start looking up 2 directions.
1) the models in the pics. there has to be some way they can state that You took those pics. (they should know, they were there!)
and 2), is there no way to prove that those pics were taken by your camera? as in, do you have the negatives for them (if a silver-film camera), or do you have the RAW file for them or something? or even just the untouched, unedited original could be useful. or, i know in the details saved in a pic, there's info like the date, the technical details (f, shutter speed, etc), as well as the model of the camera. maybe there's more 'hidden' info? (wouldn't it be great if it had the serial number of the camera somewhere in there?)

oh, and also, hopefully you kept the previous email you sent and received from these people. that way you also have proof that you Did in fact contact them before about this.

good luck with getting this resolved!

[SaskaK]

Hi Kirsten,

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this! I'm not an expert nor a lawyer, just someone who's had to deal with both accidental and willful infringement in the past, so take what I say with a grain of salt - and apologies if you already know all of this!

If you haven't already, it might be worth your time to get a copyright lawyer involved, especially since several photographers and, I assume, dancers, are involved.

I couldn't tell, but did you send an official DMCA takedown notice? (there's a decent guide to them here: How to Write & Send a DMCA Takedown Notice | TheLaw.com - Free Legal Help Guide | Lawyers | Legal Advice) I found that sending formal stuff sometimes gets quick reactions, and it means the ISP can't respond with "We can't get involved". In this case, Silvex is likely to come back with a counter claim that they do have the rights, but at least it will all be official.

Here's another thought: It's possible that Silvex really believes they bought the rights to the images through their designer, in which case they've been ripped off too.

Maybe approaching them with that thought, and offering to work with them might help? Maybe you or the other photographers could offer them rights to those or alternate images, and/oryou and Silvex could join forces against the designer? Even if Silvex knows they're wrong, offering them an "out" that saves some face (and saves their website) might help. Sometimes even when I knew someone was lying, letting them save face resolved a problem that would otherwise have drug out for years.

It's also worth reminding them that even as the photographer, you don't have rights to use photos of models for anything that looks like product endorsement (unless your model release allows for that - most dont, and stock image sites have that exception to their use policies) I've given many an infringer quick lessons on copyright law - and that sounds like it might be a good idea here, too.

And if you haven't already, get the paper work on those images into the US copyright office ASAP. Works don't have to be registered, but expands your rights when it comes to collecting damages.

I'm sure you already knew all of this, but I thought I'd put it out there anyway!

[Julsie]

We all can help a little

Collectively, we bhuzzers can start our own writing campaign to them stating we are refusing to purchase ( in other words, boycotting them) until they stop using these photos and / or get proven satisfaction from those infringed upon!
We can also use google to stain his rep.

Join us sisters!!!
Lets go!!!

[KHphotographics]

WOW! Thanks! That would be awesome! The word is definately getting spread all over. I have had replies personally on facebook from dancers in Ireland, England, all over the UK, Italy, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and the list goes on. He is definately losing money where it hurts so lets keep it going! Thanks so much for the support all!!!!!!

[KHphotographics]

And in case you want to know....
His email address is silvextr@yahoo.com
and the website is Welcome to our online store - Silvex Tribal, he also owns silvex.org.

Thanks again!

[naiyahayal]

I know very little about blogging, but I found blog sites on the net that kept me from being scammed by supposedly reputable transcription services looking to hire ..... I almost fell for it and went through the hiring process, but Googled them and found they were just in business to sell their software and were a total scam ....... But I have no idea how to start a blog!? Would that help? At least whenever a dancer googled their name, they would read about your experiences with them--it would help boycott them for sure....

[Mayliz]

Just an idea...maybe you could formulate a short letter that each person could copy and send. That would make it easier and accessible to anyone who feels the same but doesn't want to spend the time writing it down.

[Kathiya]

Just an idea...maybe you could formulate a short letter that each person could copy and send. That would make it easier and accessible to anyone who feels the same but doesn't want to spend the time writing it down.

or just a petition that the 'followers' can sign

[Jenn]

By any chance are you on modelmayhem.com? The forums there are great place to get advice.

You might want to investigate digital watermarking/fingerprinting (as described by: Frequently Asked Questions | Digital Watermarking Alliance)

-snip-
Image Copyright Communication

Why do Microsoft or other suppliers of imagery want to digitally watermark their images?
Microsoft is one of many content owners to embed digital watermarks in images as a means to communicate and protect image copyrights. This ensures that image users or licensees are acting in compliance with guidelines and allows legal departments to effectively communicate and enforce image copyrights.

How does image watermarking work?
Digital watermarking weaves a unique and imperceptible identifier into images that enables communication of copyright ownership, while a sophisticated tracking system monitors the Internet and specified URLs, locating digitally watermarked images and delivering reports to image and brand owners. This ensures that image users or licensees are acting in compliance with guidelines and allows legal departments to effectively communicate and enforce image copyrights.

Users of digitally watermarked images can check for copyright information or connect to additional opportunities by reading the digital watermark carried by the image. Digital watermarks can be read through the digital watermark reader plug-in found in many popular image editing applications, including Adobe® Photoshop®.

--and found this tidbit in a recent article on the same website----

About Digital Watermarking

A MultiMedia Intelligence study identified digital watermarking and fingerprinting as a key growth market that could surpass $500 million by 2012. Digital watermarking is the process by which identifying data is woven into media content, giving it a unique, digital identity. Imperceptible to the human senses yet easily recognized by special software detectors, a digital watermark remains constant even through recording, manipulation and editing, compression and decompression, encryption, decryption and broadcast--without affecting the quality of the content. Digital watermarks can identify copyrighted content and associated rights, during and after distribution, to determine copyright ownership and enable rights management policy while enabling innovative new content distribution and usage models. Today, digital watermarks are broadly deployed with billions of watermarked objects and hundreds of millions of watermark detectors in the market, supporting various commercial and government applications.

-----snip----

One subscriber service is: http://www.digimarc.com

Best of luck in dealing with this pirate and purveyor of substandard tribal wear.

[Mayliz]

Kristen,

I found your email address on your website and sent you a private message with some information about local attorneys. I can track down their contact information, if you'd like. Let me know.

Mayliz

[ZanaRaqs]

i just saw this. blahh that sucks :( i'm so sorry about this.

[tahiradancer]

Having worked in Digital movie distribution, I know that we have worked very hard to find ways to imprint code into the movies so that it is very difficult to pirate them. It was a long and arduous process. the good news is that it's now pretty easy to do because Microsoft got involved!

As for getting the pirated images removed, I would definitely get an international attorney involved with a C & D letter at the very least. You might also look into what federal agency is concerned with international intellectual property theft. Can;t remember which one it is right now, might be the FBI, but double check.

That is what I have via my Movie experience. Hope it helps.

One note from Bhuz land: we have seen other vendors who have used images to represent themselves and their work buckle under pressure from us. Hopefully if we are willing to press and they are being attacked from the other side, they will realize that this is NOT okay!

{{{HUGS}}}

[reina]

And in case you want to know....
His email address is silvextr@yahoo.com
and the website is Welcome to our online store - Silvex Tribal, he also owns silvex.org.

Thanks again!

I sent him an angry email.

[lizajuk]

The telephone number for the Uk is an Edinburgh number. Any Scottish dancers who can track down where these people are. They sound like distributors from elsewhere...did we track them down to the Indian subcontinant sometime?
If Kirsten you would like to write about this experience as an example of an unethical prctice in our community and a vendor to avoid, I would look to publish it in our association's magazine here in the UK.

[DancingLale]

I am in Scotland and can give it a go if someone can PM me the details.

[BELLA_BELLA]

Have you considered getting a lawyer (same for JShane)?

[KHphotographics]

Hey all!!! Thanks so much for all of your responses. Fortuneately the images have FINALLY been taken off. After many angry emails and such and him promising me "two days, two days" then a week went by. The website creator contacted me and said he had been told to remove the images. I responded and told him he may want to reconsider working with this loser and he said he "couldnt get involved" wow. its amazing. But this guy actually went and used more copyrighted images!!! Not of mine or Jeremy's but someone elses and cut the heads off !!!!!! Can you believe this!! WOW.
@LizaJuk, I would love to talk to you more and absolutely publish it!!!! Please send me an email directly @
kristen@khphotographics.com and we can chat more.

Thanks all again for your support!!!! Hopefully I will have some better more positive posts next time!!!!

[dima]

Great!! It is really good information. I think Aya is the best that performed all kinds of belly dance shows and displays. She continues to perform as a regular professional belly dance artist in Melbourne. She has good knowledge of Belly dance and there are many Belly dance schools in Melbourne. You know that belly dance is the learning process with technical exercises and rigorous movement that are challenging at the same instance. So, thanks for email Id.

I find it a little odd that as of this posting you have only posted on Bhuz 5 times and all of them were to talk up this dancer Aya and her dance studio. It's particularly odd that you pulled up a thread that was 2 years old and didn't really have anything to do with her. You may feel like this person is the best dancer in the world and you're just being nice, but it's coming off as a bit creepy.