You have lots of options when you find an infringement. Your choice of action is determined by a variety of factors, including who infringed your photo, the circumstances of the infringement, and what damages you can recover. My guest post at “A Photo Editor” blog provides more information.
Jim Cavanaugh has a great blog entry over at the Strictly Business Blog about why you might want to try to work with the infringer rather than immediately hiring an attorney to address the situation. Just as your trusty f2.8 24-70mm lens is not always the right lens for the job, there’s not necessarily one response to every infringement.
The most important option, however, is to protect your work as best as you can by doing things such as registering your copyrights with the U.S. Copyright Office (check my article about how to use the eCO system to register your copyrights), putting copyright notices and contact information on and/or in the metadata of your photos, disabling right-click on your website, and putting your licenses in writing. And then, when you are infringed, you have even more options to address the situation.
