Hi Tweeters
Some few of you may remember that I posted a picture of a Glaucous-winged
Gull with a deformed bill on the Tweeters website Images section a couple
years ago. Imagine my surprise today when I received the message below! It
seems my image and fanciful bird name have been absconded by a sovereign
nation (more specifically, a British Crown Colony) and placed on a postage
stamp! Don't you think I should get a portion of the proceeds from the sale
of the stamp? They have obviously used a copyrighted image of mine on this
stamp. What are my chances of collecting if I initiate legal action? My
guess would be zero, but other opinions are welcome.

Dan Logen
Stanwood WA




Hi Dan,

I'm a collector of bird stamps and have the web site
http://www.bird-stamps.org/.

Recently, I received a set of stamps from Turks and Caicos, one of which
showed a bird described as a Sickle-billed Gull. I searched the web and
found your photograph referenced on
http://www.scn.org/earth/tweeters/images/. I show the stamp on
http://www.bird-stamps.org/recent/turksc/trash/index.htm. Click on the
gull stamp to see a larger image. Looking closely at the stamp, I notice
that it is obviously taken from your photograph of the bird standing with
other gulls.

I wonder if you were aware of this, and also if you were able to decide
which species of gull the bird was.

Best regards,
Chris