Fun little story from today. Some time ago I joined Pixsy to see if any of my images were being used without my consent. At the time I joined, none were and I kind of forgot about it. Today I got an email from Pixsy with several examples of potential commercial use of my photos. Most were wrong (moon pics, a few iconic pics from Rome or Alcatraz that weren't mine but I could see the confusion). Then I found one example that was clearly one of my images used without my knowledge or consent. Someone had posted a murder mystery story and used most of their own images, but had managed to snag one of mine as part of the story. Pixsy has a takedown button that generates and sends an email to the hosting site that informs the site of alleged DMCA infringement. There is also an option request compensation (with a 50-50 split between you and Pixsy for any damages). Didn't go the thermonuclear route, but the web page with my image has been taken down pending any potential appeals from the poster.
I looked at the original again (from late 2013) and did a re-edit. Felt like sharing (though don't even think about posting it somewhere for commercial use
).
Here is a screenshot from the Pixsy page:
The pic on the left is the one from my flickr and the one on the right is from the offending web page. The "Takedown" button is the one I used and generates an email saying there is an alleged infringement under DMCA. The email includes a link to your source image on flickr as proof. The "Submit Case" button allows you to initiate legal proceedings looking for damages from the unauthorized use of your image.