What do I need to do if someone steals your poetry make it into shirts and you don't get any profit?

Question

A poem was stolen from me that is copyrighted and a girl is selling them for $10 a shirt and I haven't gotten any profit off any of them

Answer 1

Have a lawyer send her a letter asking her to stop selling your work-

Make sure you have someone buy one for proof in case you need it for court.

Answer 2

You must be able to prove this BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT in a court of law in order to get any compensation from her. If she's only using a phrase from your poem, you'll have a hard time proving you own it. Now, if she's including the name of the author (you) on her shirts, then you have a very good case against her. Don't hold your breath. It could take 10 years or more if she knows how to play the game in a court of law! Just use her to further your own carreer. Sell your books of poetry next to where she is selling her shirts with your poetry on them. What's she gonna do...call the Police? That might actually help you if you go into a court of Law! Buy a video camera & try to keep a tally of the amount of money she takes in & turn her over to the local tax board for failure to pay the proper taxes on her earnings. If she has no business liscense, turn her in for that also! Make her life a living you know what until she stops doing what she's doing!

Answer 3

Your poem is protected by copyright no matter whether you have registered it or not, but it is easier to prove the date if you did register it. You will still have to prove it is your original creation (that you did not copyright register her poem) It would also be useful to be able to show how she got a copy of the poem to use. If it was published, then copyright is easier to prove.
If you want to try, you do not have to have a lawyer to write a demand letter - you can write such a letter. The letter should say that you hold copyright on the poem and you demand that she stop using it immediately (further use after notice is a crime) and that she destroy all existing shirts or immediately pay royalties on previous sales and all future sales.

Answer 4

if you can prove you wrote it first (which could be tough) and they are making money off the shirts, you could sue and get some, if not all their profits.

If they are making a large amount of cash, you can probably find a lawyer who will do it for a percentage of the cash they win for you (ie: you won't have to pay them up front).

The trick will be to prove you wrote it first. If you wrote it on a computer, the original file date will be imbedded. Make sure you don't alter and/or re-save that document, as that will probably change the date.

If you hand wrote it, do any family or friends recall the date they originally read it? Would they swear to that in court?

If you can't prove you wrote it first and/or they aren't making much money off it, it would probably be a waste of your time and money, and most lawyers would probably agree and not take the case.

Answer 5

Talk to a lawyer, if your work is copyrighted then she is infringing copyright law, and therefore damaging you because it is your property and she is using it without your permission or written consent, you are not getting any profits anyway. I do believe you might have a case there because she is making a profit off your work.

Answer 6

If you have proof that you were the origional writer of this poem, sue! If not, sorry.