... writes to FreeSpirits and complains (often via an attorney) asking that the copyrighted image be taken down. I suppose the image is taken down at that point with no argument: I don't think FS cares at that point who owns the copyright; they just want the "problem" to go away, which is simple enough to accomplish. So the cops aren't going to raid the site because of a copyright violation: it's not a big deal, and can be handled by taking the picture down rather than raiding every poster's house or something. An undiscovered sigpic that violates someone's copyright is NOT a big DANGER just sitting there unnoticed. Unless the sigpic guy RECOGNIZED the image as copyrighted (for example, it's an image of Mighty Mouse or Mickey Mouse) the sigpic guy will NOT do what you did: proactively try to find the image on the net to verify that it can't be used here. NOT finding it on the net may only mean that the sigpic guy didn't try hard enough. On the other hand, finding the copyright means that it definitely can't be used here. littlexs: age 5 yo |