Is it still stealing if someone takes a photo of yours off the Internet?

Only the copyright holder has the right to authorize copies of his works ... same with public display.

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Copyright infringement

Copyright infringement is the UNAUTHORIZED USE of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's "EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS", such as the right to REPRODUCE, DISTRIBUTE, DISPLAY or perform the copyrighted work, spread the information contained within copyrighted works, or to MAKE DERIVATIVE WORKS."

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringemen...

In the US, you can sue for 125000$ (if you've registered the image with the copyright office, if not the amount can be SIGNIFICANTLY lower so go register that image right now).

It is a licensing issue. If the image is not posted with a free license to use, something like Creative Commons, then it can not be copied and redisplayed, with the exception of some protected use for things like education and journalism. If I am doing a story about your image, I can post your image. But I can not post your image of a kid wandering in the park alone if I am doing a generic story about kids being taken.

But.. it is an enforcement issue. First, you contact the person posting the image and inform them you hold the copyright and would like ti removed or attributed to you (with or without compensation). If they say no, you can elevate it to the company hosting the web site. Beyond that, you would have to sue.

They have no right to take your image and publish it on their website without your permission, the photographer has the copyright, literally the right to copy they don't. It's theft and is a felony you can sue them.

Send them an e-mail and ask for it to be taken off their site, if they won't send an e-mail to their service provider as they can be prosecuted too, they will probably act on your behalf.

If you posted the original on Flickr or similar inform them too and they will follow up on your behalf as they are legally bound to do.

But you do have to have proof that it is your image, the original with intact EXIF data is usually enough.

Chris

Listen buddy,if you have a picture in your desktop and someone hack into your computer and take it that's stealing.The moment you upload a picture on the internet it becomes PUBLIC and there is no privacy,its available to ANYONE for ANY reason,got it? So if you don't want people to copy your pictures,keep them in your desktop.

It IS stolen, and you can sue them.

Whether it is officially copyrighted or not, it IS yours, and on one has the right to use it without your permission. But, you have to be able to prove it is yours and originated with you.

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Yes. That is clearly stolen.

Copied means copyright infringement, and it is a serious crime.

The copy of it is stolen. You still have the original, but they stole the copy they made of it.

It is stealing, yes but since the internet is free and in some places unregulated, anything you post in it is subject to "stealing". If you value your work, don't post to the internet.