Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Illinois
unauthorized publication of my work
Recently, I ran a search on my name and surprisingly found a paper of mine online that I had written for an English class a couple years ago. I do not want my paper publicized on the internet and do not recall ever giving anyone permission to do so. The thing is that my professor at the time had compiled a booklet of the class's papers and distributed it to everyone in the class. Do I have a right to request that my paper be taken off the website on which I found it, or does the fact that I knowingly submitted my paper to a class publication negate my rights to not having it go public. The class packet was never meant to go on a website. It was simply handed out as a sort of a souvenir of the class. If you would please respond with any helpful information regarding this matter, I would greatly appreciate it.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: unauthorized publication of my work
You can stop it.
First, prepare and file an application for copyright registration.
Second, send a cease and desist letter to the owner of the website.
These can be done simultaneously. The copyright application is necessary to give a court jurisdiction to enforce the copyright, and thus have teeth behind any attempt to enforce the rights. The second is necessary to put the enforcement into action and, hopefully, get the infringer to stop without court action.
A good copyright lawyer should be able to get this stopped quickly, but that costs money. I leave it to you whether to contact me or to try this yourself. I would not do the enforcement letter without the application.
Re: unauthorized publication of my work
Yes, this is infringement, but your realistic chances of using the courts are small unless you want to commit fairly significant money to achieve your desired result. This is due to one of the incentives that the copyright laws contain for authors to register their works.
If infringement occurs after registration with the US Copyright Office, then the author can claim statutory damages plus attorneys fees. However, in cases like yours, where you learn of infringement before registering your work, you can only recover your actual damages (probably $0), and no attorneys fees; you would be entitled to an injunction against further publication, and an order that your paper be removed from the Web site.
In light of the above, unless you are cursed with a surplus of cash (if so, call me right away and I'll try to alleviate that problem), you might want to exercise some self-help by addressing a letter to the Web site owner to communicate that the paper was posted without your consent, and politely request that it be removed. Failing that, I really cannot see you successfully prosecuting a copyright infringement case on your own, and it would not be economically rational for you to expend tens of thousands of dollars to vindicate your legal rights.
Best wishes, and Happy Holidays,
LDWG
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