James,
PPA is willing to notify the publication (and others that do similar things) about copyright law but it is strictly educational in nature. They are certainly not going to go after them legally.

Nor am I: that would be suicidal in terms of getting my photos reproduced in the major magazines. However, if the publications are using my images and I'm not getting any credit for them, it's pretty useless anyway.

Let me just clarify what happens here: most Breed and All-Breed publications include creation/production of the ad in their advertising rate. So folks either send a scan, a photo or have the photographer send a file to the publication which they in turn use in the creation of an ad.

When an "artist" starts creating ads, they often overlook some of the finer detail in an effort to get a clean layout. Often, they means they cut out the sign with the actual win or cut out a portion of the sign that contains the name of the photographer that took the photo. And that's the issue. I only release an image for advertising use with the proviso that my by-line be visible in the ad or, if they crop the photo, that they put in a line "photo by CPM" somewhere at the bottom of the ad.

So, how do you know if that has happened? You get copies of all the publications and go through them all to see which ads have violated your copyright. Then you contact the publication and find out who created the ad. If it's the publication, you remind them of the restrictions on usage. If it's an independent designer, you contact them and offer to move the sign to make sure in future ads that it gets shown in total. That's what happened with the BIS Afghan image: the designer wrote me to ask if there was any way I could move the sign because she wanted to crop the photo pretty tightly. Since my signs are inserted in PhotoShop, it was easy to do. That designer wanted to be sure my by-line was visible. Good for her.

Policing the major All-Breed publications is tedious but necessary. Now, try doing that with 150 Breed-specific publications and you have another career . Protecting our copyrights is an essential part of our business and it seems to get harder rather than easier with the advent of digital imaging. PPA is doing their part but, ultimately, it's up to each of us to police our own work.

Jim