This page concerns the following four areas of Pictures of cats org copyright violations or rules:
Contents
- Copyright violations against content on this site
- Copyright violations against content on other sites
- Note – please read this – other ideas for ‘free’ images
- Submissions
- Helmi Flick’s authority to act on her behalf on matters of copyright
Copyright violations against Helmi Flick, Michael (the person who built this website) and other contributors who have retained copyright
Any person who is in breach of copyright by
- downloading and republishing Helmi Flick’s photographs without her express permission
- hot linking to Helmi Flick’s photographs on this website and republishing without her permission
- copying my text without my permission
- downloading or hot linking to other contributors’ photographs on this website and republishing where the photographer has retained copyright
will be politely but firmly asked to rectify the breach of copyright immediately. Copied text and images are easy to detect using Google search and Copyscape software.
Please note: I am authorised by the well known professional cat photographer, Helmi Flick to act on her behalf in relation to enforcing her copyright and protecting it against internet violations: |
Dear Michael,
Please accept this email as permission to enforce my copyright on cat images of mine that you are using or have used on your website, www.pictures-of-cats.org or any derivatives, blogs, uTubes, etc of this website.
I consider you my Agent in this matter, Michael. Thank you for your help over the years and I hope we have a long and satisfying business relationship.
Sincerely,
Helmi Flick
If no response is forthcoming quickly or the response indicates an unwillingness to take reasonable action, I will take what action is required to rectify the matter. In the case of people running Blogger Blogspot websites (the most frequent abusers) this means that I will contact:
Google, Inc. Attn: Google Legal Support, Blogger DMCA Complaints 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, to make a formal complaint pursuant to their requirements. Google have a complaints procedure with which I am familiar. If the complaint is upheld, Google removes (deletes) the webpage as they host and manage Blogspot Blogger.
In all other cases I will contact the people who run the website concerned, the website hosting company/business and Google under the same complaints procedure. If the complaint is upheld Google de-list the webpage from search results. Complaints to host companies usually works as the host company contacts the plagiarist.
No legal action is considered out of bounds in order to rectify the matter. A tough approach will be adopted. I am sorry to have to say this but I have no choice.
Update 7th May 2009: I have built a page about copyright: Definition of Copyright. It goes further than a simple definition, in fact.
Am I in breach of copyright? – Pictures of cats org copyright violations
I endeavor at all times to remain within the law of copyright. If I have failed it will be due to carelessness rather than due to a deliberate action.
Should anyone think that I am in breach of copyright please contact me as soon as possible at mjbmeister [at] gmail.com and you will receive a prompt and polite response. If it is clear that I am in breach I will rectify the matter immediately and provide an apology.
In all other cases proof of breach will be requested. Once a breach is established the breach will be rectified and an apology made.
It is my fervent wish to not be involved in any form of dispute with someone who is in breach of copyright. I like a quiet life. Please adhere to the laws of copyright. Some people think it is not important. It is, as it directly affects website income. It undermines the reason for the site.
If anyone visiting this site is looking for images to use for their site, please respect copyright. There are many millions of images created by photographers who have granted licenses under creative commons. This is a system whereby people can grant limited licenses for the use of images and text. Many images are good to excellent. Please explore that avenue. Try Flickr, for example. Or the other photo sites such as Photobucket or Webshots. The last two let people hot link to the image URL on their websites/servers. There are also many images on the Deviant Art website. These are three very large websites containing millions of images of cats. Please try these rather than breaching copyright here.
Please also remember that all images and text on the internet are copyrighted even if it doesn’t say so. It is foolhardy to presume that an image without a copyright notice is free to take and use. This is incorrect.
Submissions – Pictures of cats org copyright violations
I love the submissions of visitors as they add a new dimension to the site. They are personal, interesting and often moving and the same can be said for the comments.
You can make submissions here. No spam please! Spam is deleted.
I have to reserve the right to amend (rarely except for grammar and spelling), merge (rarely) and fine tune these submissions for many reasons:
- to optimize it better so that Google can find it
- to add photos
- to improve the formatting
- to extend it so that it fits the page better…etc.
I also reserve the right to decide if the submission is deleted or not. Very rarely indeed a visitor asks that the post is deleted. A submission is made on the basis that I have sole right to decide if it is deleted or not. This is for practical reasons. Often people link to posts (including me in my work on the site) and to delete a submission would result in a broken link, which is something that Google does not like. We don’t want to upset Google.
Other than the above a visitor has the right to print and use the submission as they wish. Although I would ask that if the submission is reused elsewhere on the internet that it is adjusted at least slightly so that it is not recognisable as a copy. The search engines don’t like seeing straight copies as it is not good for the internet.
Thanks for visiting and sharing.
Pictures of cats org copyright violations to Home Page
Photograph heading this page: published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs creative commons License