PLEASE NOTE THIS CASE IS BEING RESOLVED BY A US LAWYER AND HAS BEEN SINCE LAST YEAR. I HAVE LEFT THIS UP TO SHOW PEOPLE THE STORY AND HOPEFULLY TO MAKE PEOPLE AWARE OF ONLINE COPYRIGHT THEFT.
Yeah, that's right. My image is being used for a pornographic movie
called 'Body Magic'.
Did they have permission? Did they hell.
This happened a few months back (well, since I found out). Somebody
noted me saying this company was using one of my pictures.. actually
let me get this straight - a SELF PORTRAIT that I took at the age of
FOURTEEN.
I don't know if you can see the descriptions too well but it is qouted
as 'Hustlers Highest Rated' and a 'pleasure to watch'. The back of the
cover was disgusting.
I looked it up on the internet and found out that Hustler.com was
stocking it and a range of other dirty video websites that took
pleasure in this.. what I ALSO found was that there was a note on the
back
saying 'Everyone associated with this DVD is 18 or over'. 18 or over?
yeah right.
I contacted hustler and they gave me the name of the company - TVX
Films. After doing some good old fashioned research I found that the
company makes new covers for the dvds and that the movie was actually
pretty old!
As soon as I'd found out relevant information and I send a long and
'friendly' letter to TVX Films - to my suprise I got an abrupt e-mail
back from the owner who claimed that 'his company does NOT steal
pictures off the internet and he recieved it from a company they've
been in business with for 25 years'.
I found it hilarious, since I still remember taking that photograph
back in 2004, I even have one of the first prints at my local walmart
store with the date on! AND my small watermark on the dress which had
been removed on the dvd cover..
After a few e-mails I found it obvious that I wasn't getting anywhere
and that the owner was definately a sleaze himself. This is what he
said in reply to me, in big bold capital letters to make a statement -
"I’M SURE BY THE END OF THE MONTH YOUR FACE WILL BE HISTORY. WE HAVE STOPPED SELLING THE DVD UNTIL COVER IS REPLACED. WE HAVE FURTHER CHECKED OUT YOUR NAME AND ITS NOT LIKE IT’S A HOUSE WHOLE NAME. ACTUALLY, REMOVING YOUR IMAGE WILL HELP IMPROVE THE SELL OF THE DVD….. SO FAR IT BOMBED.".
He also claimed I was 'scheming' and had set him up - placing the
image on a public domain so companies can steal it and I can sue
them... er, what? I actually had this image on only one website for a
few years until I joined flickr - just DeviantART and it was clear
that wasn't a public domain when underneath each of my picture there
is a disclaimer CLEARLY stating the obvious (that's it's copyright)...
and ALSO i had a bloody © symbol and my name written across my
dress!!! Isn't that enough to warn anyone off anyway?
When I asked for compensation he said "AS FOR COMPSENSATION;YOUR
SILLY!". and this was one of the end comments he made -
"THEY ARE REMAKING THE COVER AS WE SPEAK SO YOUR TEN SECONDS OF FAME WILL SOON COME TO AN END."
My so called ten seconds of fame was from a porno dvd? No thanks.
I've contacted about three solictors near to where I live - they all
say they cannot do anything because the company is based in Texas,
USA. I've tried contacting lawyers over in America but not a lot of
them will reply, a few lawyers that have told me I need at least
£50,000 to take it on. I've even tried contacting the news but
absolutely no reply from them either.
I feel like Im wasting my time, my image hasn't been removed, they
sent me another cover claiming they'd removed it in the end.. I
researched in on the net and they'd just shown me the cover that was
originally on in the 80s.
PLEASE NOTE THIS CASE IS BEING RESOLVED BY A US LAWYER AND HAS BEEN SINCE LAST YEAR. I HAVE LEFT THIS UP TO SHOW PEOPLE THE STORY AND HOPEFULLY TO MAKE PEOPLE AWARE OF ONLINE COPYRIGHT THEFT.
lu 路, lili-li, Heather-L, Laura Callan, and 342 other people added this photo to their favorites.
View 20 more comments
carlos fabrizio 24 months ago | reply
Glad to hear you were able to get this handlged. I'm sure this guy will pay one way or the other. Best of luck Lara.
BellaGaia 18 months ago | reply
good for not taking this sitting down (i've been a Lara Jade fan for a long time and never paid attention to how young you are) You have great talent and are a pretty girl too! Kudos to you and I support your righteous indignation!
junk2profits 15 months ago | reply
Wow. Great pictures. I really like that.
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Aamir Tirmizi 15 months ago | reply
I think it is good
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