Sunday, February 10, 2013

Intellectual property rights violations ‘widespread’ – Registration ‘only way out’


KUWAIT: Many people suffered because their writings or photos were stolen or used by others without mentioning their right to what was their creation. Many of them do not know that they can sue those who used their material without their permission. Mishari Obaid is a victim of such an illegal and unethical act committed by a local magazine which used a photograph of his, published on the photography website Flickr, without his permission to illustrate an article in the magazine.

He filed a case against the magazine and after a year and a half-long legal battle, the court compensated him financially. “My friends told me that a certain magazine used one of my photos that I had uploaded on Flickr. They even removed the watermark from the photo. I tried to contact the magazine’s editor-in-chief but could not reach him. They refused to communicate with me and even to apologize for this unethical act which violated my intellectual right to this photo.

No comments:

Post a Comment

ShareThis