Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Nebraska

Photographic image aired without permission in broadcast TV movie

An aquaintence of mine, who is a professional photographer, recently had one of his images incorporated without permission or credit into a made-for-TV movie aired on a national broadcast television network. The image in the movie is undeniably the same is the one in his photograph. When the image aired, it filled the screen and did so for several seconds; it was not used as a small background 'prop' in the story. The image was at one point posted by the photographer on the internet, but the photographer never said or implied ''here world, do what you will with this''. This photographer has, in the past, sold images to several publications, including well-known national magazines, for significant sums of money -- so his works are definately worth something. The question I have is: what should he do? What are his legal options? What is the law concerning appropriating one's images without consent? I do not believe he has ever registered the copyright on this particular image, but then I don't think he ever anticipated this happening. I believe he primarily just wants the infringements to stop (this is not the first time his images have been stolen, only the first time they've been stolen by a national broadcast television channel).

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