Hello,

I have recently found some of my photos published on the internet, without my consent. I have tried emailing the people to get my photos off their site but have had to answer. I do not think it vey fair that my photos are being used elsewhere, without my consent and I paid a lot for those photos.

Any ideas about what more I could do would be really appreciated.

Thanks
Riya

Hello,

I have recently found some of my photos published on the internet, without my consent. I have tried emailing the people to get my photos off their site but have had to answer. I do not think it vey fair that my photos are being used elsewhere, without my consent and I paid a lot for those photos.

Any ideas about what more I could do would be really appreciated.

Thanks
Riya

Many of the more experienced girls will warn you to put a watermark (your working name usually) over your body in your pix  and this can stop others from using your pix.  If they have been lifted from AW dont be surprised.  AW state that your pix cant be lifted from their site .... but they can.  Nothing is impossible.  I did it one time myself to see if it really worked ... and it did.  It will take longer to upload/download - whatever the word is - but it is well worth the time.

On AW you can't right click and save, however you can press the "print screen" button and it'll capture it.
  As said above, there are ways around it.

I found it on a directory and it was linking to an agency abroad.

Where is the directory hosted? Can you tell us the URL? Legal threats are probably the way to go here, but we need to know whether they're based in the UK, the US or Somalia. (If the latter, then you're screwed!)

But anyway, I agree to get a watermark across your body shots to stop it happening again.

the directory is called http://bollywoodescortdirectory.com and I have already sent the aministrator an email but it has not been removed and I have contacted the webmaster of the so-called agency in India where I am supposed to be working.

This site is based in the UK, which is good news. The bollywoodescortdirectory domain is owned by Mike Dastur (an alias?) who also owns: http://orientalescortagency.com/ http://mayfair-girls.co.uk/ and probably others.

His public details on the domain registration are:
39 St Pauls Ave, Harrow, Middlesex, HA3 9PR  (his house: http://bit.ly/nh0QOf)
+044.07760855856
Some other connected contact details:  07415 358 333  escortwebdesigners@gmail.com escortwebdesigner1@gmail.com

Now he might not be the person who runs this website, he might just be the designer, so don't rush to call him and scream at him yet. Get in touch and politely ask if he runs bollywoodescortdirectory or if he can put you in touch with the person who does. If he asks why, explain it's a confidential legal matter.

Now read this: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p05_copyright_infringement

Once you have the address of the person responsible, send them a letter, recorded delivery. It's more effective if it comes from a lawyer, so you could pretend to be sending it from a law firm, but if you're not comfortable with that, just send it as yourself. I've included both versions in the sample letter below - delete "our client" or "me" as appropriate.

Infringement of Copyright

To (name of recipient):

We act as solicitors for (RiyaLeeds), who owns and retain all rights in her copyrighted work of promotional photos (the "Protected Work"), first published on (date) at (website).
OR
I own and retain all rights in my copyrighted work of promotional photos (the "Protected Work"), first published on (date) at (website).

It has recently come to our client's / my attention that you have made unauthorised use of the Protected Work by (e.g. displaying my work on your website page http://bollywoodescortdirectory/nameofpagewhereyourphotois)

You have neither requested nor received our client's / my permission to use the Protected Work in any way. Therefore, your use of the Protected Work is unlawful and in breach of the provisions of Section 16(1)(d) and 20 of the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 (c.48) and you could he liable for damages and an account of profits. We reserve the right to exercise any other rights & remedies as provided under the aforementioned Act.

Our client?s / My primary aim is to prevent the misuse of her / my property. Accordingly, our client is / I am prepared to give you the opportunity to avoid legal action. Assuming you are prepared to accept liability, our client?s / my offer is that you:

(i) Cease your use of the Protected Work immediately.
(ii) Delete any copies of the Work which may be resident on your computer?s hard drive and/or any copies saved to disk (or other media)
(iii) provide our client / me with a written undertaking that you will cease and desist from any further unauthorised use of the Protected Work within 7 (seven) days.

If either the payment or undertakings are not received, we are instructed to / I will take action to commence proceedings against you. If it becomes necessary to issue proceedings against you, our client / I will request the Court to determine the level of total damages and costs which may be awarded against you and which will reflect the increased costs of taking proceedings, together with damages that fully reflect our client?s loss.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.

Thank you ever so much. You are an absolute angel. I will be sending them an email and a letter asking them to remove my photos politely.

Much appreciated.

Happy to help - I've got so much from this board that it's great to be able to pay it back.

Something else - make your letter look as professional as possible. You can buy heavyweight paper by the sheet in art shops - get something above 100gsm if you can. Try to get a serious envelope too and don't just scrawl the address on it. Look at some legal letters on Google Images to get the idea of what they should look like. Basically you want the person who receives it to get sweaty palms the moment it falls through the letter box. Just like a threat to beat someone up is a lot more convincing from someone who looks like a bouncer than someone who looks like an accountant, so a legal threat is more convincing when it looks like it comes from an expensive lawyer.