We have a rather popular website with plenty of photos. Our whole business depends on our content - and the photos are important in this. We invest a lot of time, effort, and money into taking these pictures. On our website we have clear copyright notices, we have the website name and logo in the photos, and we have a Photo Licensing page which states the prices of licensing our photos.

Despite all this, our photos are copied by personal and commercial websites alike. We really want to do something about this. We do not want them to take out the photos and leave it at that. We want them to pay for the usage, as we clearly state on our website. Now a few questions come to mind:

• Can we legally force them to pay right away? Or are we obligated to first write a "Cease and Desist" letter?
• Photos are used on websites throughout the world. Are there any worldwide rules for this?
• Has anybody experience with doing these things outside of their home country? Should we hire a lawyer in any country? Or could a local lawyer contact oversees companies directly?