HOW TO AVOID IMAGE THEFT!

What can you really do when someone steals your photo, takes credit for the work and uses it for their own profit? I' ve experienced this with an image of my young son and his friend and here's how I've dealt with it yet still not found a solution to stop the misuse.

The photo shows my son and his friend captured on a pier in Denmark a few years ago. I posted it for showcasing on my photography website and also on my Facebook group page for the same photography website. I just wanted show off what I thought was a lovely photo.

After about a year people I knew started sending me messages and screenshots from the web, mostly Facebook, where my photo went viral with all this kinds of poems written on. The words were cute enough, nothing harmful, however it kind of pisses me off when people don´t even have the decency to ask permission to use it, permission to alter it with text on it, and don´t give me credit for it.

What pissed me off even more was when someone found it on this US health guru's website - Wolfie something - and he's done the exact same thing and also put his photo credits on it. This was medium sized web celebrity who clearly should know better than claiming ownership to something that was not his. I confronted him and asked for a royalty payment for the misuse but was pretty much told to f**k off and he took the photo down.

My intention was never to make money on this image, so that´s not where my reaction is coming from. It's the fact that I put a photo of my son out there and it got totally out of hand. Luckily, this time it wasn't used for anything perverted etc. but the feeling that this could happen makes me sick.

So - what could have been done differently? Is there still something I can do to get in control of it? What would you have done? Do you have similar experiences?

Here's a few facts

• I have not paid any fees to any copyright agencies.
• The first versions put on the internet was without any watermark.
• The people spreading the altered cute poems images are 99%, hence not for any profitable purposes.
• I tried to track a few of the sources, one was isomething called idleclick.com but cannot find any information of the owners of the site.

So, what can I do? Any suggestion is very welcome!