I actually thought after the last couple of days of answering questions I would get a day off. I did see today that readership increased 32 percent this month with the slideshows increasing 25 percent. It is gratifying to see growth. I ought to expect readers just joining to be asking questions.
The ownership of the copyrights for the work for hire has been determined without objection from anyone that might have had a claim. They did not respond. Using them now would absolutely be willful infringement. That is pretty much the same thing I dealt with. If they use them it would be extremely bad. If you were notified and did not respond, kiss them good-bye over here. Sounds to me like you already knew there was an issue and you did not care to do anything about it. I am not going into that but I would talk to a criminal attorney about a couple of things along with a copyright attorney.
The item you want an answer to is not that easy. Every corporation has its own by-laws and policies to operate by. They are done at the beginning of the corporation. There is not much you can see or understand until you get the complete and latest items. They are updated as needed so you need the original plus the updates. Then there is the type of corporation. I do not know how many kinds of them are in your country. Here, we have many and each one has its own set of guidelines. The closing of my corporation added two things, one, the corporation allowed an allowance for prior shootings for copyright ownership but we had to take the allowance by notifying them and second, notifications of all other copyrights. So as you can see, without all that information you are guessing about many things.You need specific information about specific items if not, that is how you get your butt handed to you in a court room.
Infringers have to prove everything, the infringed only has to prove ownership and that you used it. All the other junk does not matter. If he was charged with a major crime it does not affect his ownership of the copyrights and the ability to haul you into court. So get over your trying to cover your butt and realize that you have no place to hide. You did it on the internet, grow up, thousands of people seen your infringement. How are you going to blame him? Lord help you if you destroyed the work. If you did, it is much better to admit it and try to work it out than have a judge look at you as a thief and then you would rather destroy the work than give it back.
That is a civil case for loss of income for however many years the judge wants to hit you with. You took the work, if you destroyed it, the only choice to save anything is to admit it and work on it before going to court. Judges are not your friend in cases like this. The infringed has no obligation to offer you a deal so it is yours to deal with or go to court. Your choice but since you did the infringing you are the one that has to prove you did not do it. Other than that take your check book to court with you, so how do I know you are the infringer? That is so easy. You are looking for a place to hide. GUILTY! This will set the way people look at you the rest of your life. Even if you get off on a technicality it does not mean you did not steal the work. It just shows you are not someone to be trusted as you will not take responsibility for yourself or your actions and that you will take things that do not belong to you. What a great reputation to make for yourself in front of the world. Cases like this make news. Talk to your cousin or at least have someone do it for you. Do it soon or it will be to late.
The answer to the Google Analytics question is that it depends. Sounding like a lawyer huh? Well it is true. It is a wonderful tool to have that can help you. It is really driven by a sales model not one like I use or here on examiner. Can I tell exactly who reads here? No. Google Analytics are done on the Google servers with a code embedded on every page you visit. They will not release the personal information but they do have it. That is what they use to generate income.
Yes, I can get a lot of information from GA but it is more directed for overall averages instead of individual items. If you have a 1000 visitors a night or a week, why do you care about a single user?
They do because they can sell the traits about it. On the personal sites you can get more information but still the volume is such it would be difficult to deal with. I am not going into any detail about GA as it does not apply here much. It can show you what articles you read, how long you are there and how many times you look at it. It can show if you are a direct or referral reader, like coming to the site from Twitter or Facebook) and what page you land on first. Things like that are quite valuable if you were selling products.
I am not discussing the sites, jail terms and other items in this article. That is all premature. Yes there is a list and yes there is a person on top of course. There is also a feeling that this is a joint attack to keep things stirred. I will withhold statements and comments until conclusions are drawn. The jail times for copyrights are easy to find as most of the ones I have are misdemeanors. The others are in the felony range. I have not made a decision on what happens there and hope I do not have to do that. It will be their choice. My latest contact with the DOJ was 12/14/2012. It was about a week before I found out about the infringing going on. It concerned the library of my work. So I know my options on that item.
The intrusions could be a dual decision as the web site owners can file without me and I can file without them. I have no reason to be interested about it until more is known or they file charges.
That is all for today. The important part is the GA items for the photographers and artists. If you are planning on selling products or information it is a good tool and it is free but Google get all the info from your site.
Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. These are my personal opinions and general information only. These are not legal advice and should not be used as such.
