Outright Theft
 

I see more and more spammers using other people's material to post affiliate links (mostly NATS).

I myself get mu Yahoo groups spammed periodically by affiliate posters, which I let go because it's rather a nuisance than a crime.

A week ago the shit hit the fan. A friend of mine discovered her pictures in a group with with a Belize URL on them (.bz). The URL leads to a reputable page through NATS affiliate.

My attorney says you just have to hit them where it hurts most (money), regardless of where they live. His idea was to serve a copyright infringement notice to the US-billing companies and have funds in the thieve's accounts frozen, before you start suing the shit out of them.

It it was my material I'd probably do it in a heartbeat, the only problem is my friend thinks it's not worth shelling out the initial 1000 bucks to kick ass.

Has anyone experience with this.

Hello Jenny,

Get your friend's attorney to file DMCA takedown notices to the company who is hosting the pics without her explicit written permission. DMCA is a little chilling that most sites will down the site and let the lawyers figure it out over getting caught up in a giant copyright lawsuit.

Tell your friend to look up DMCA on the internet, Wikipedia is a nice start but don't use it as your sole source of information, she can send these notices to the sites hosting her pics without incuring any cost but her own time in attempting to down these sites.

Good luck!