Kelly Sues We Love Country dba Mill Street Design For Copyright Infringement

"A settlement in the We Love Country matter has been reached. The terms and conditions of the settlement are to remain confidential." March 2003.

Huntington Beach, CA. Wednesday, September 4, 2002. Leslie A. Kelly, photographer and publisher, announced today that he has authorized his attorney Steven L. Krongold, Arter & Hadden, Irvine, California, to file a copyright infringement lawsuit in the US District Court, Central District of California, Southern Division, Santa Ana, California, against We Love Country, Inc., dba Mill Street Design, 306 Mill Street, Bridgeport, Pennsylvania.

Speaking on behalf of himself, Doyle Yoder, Berlin, Ohio, and Carol Highsmith, Tacoma Park, Maryland, Kelly stated that the charges levied in the lawsuit include complaints that Mill Street Design scanned images directly from the pages of America's Amish Country II, which Kelly and Yoder published in May 2000, and The Amish: A Photographic Tour, published by Random House and illustrated by Highsmith, and used the images as graphics on various tapestry products, to include Coverlets, Bell Pulls, Pillows, Tote Bags and Journals. Mill Street Designs used the graphics to create a line of stock products it calls "Amish Life", a derivative term of Amish Lifestyle, which Kelly and Yoder use as a major part of their own marketing strategy for their America's Amish Country books and website marketing programs at http://amish.net and http://ohioamish.com. The "Amish Life" stock products are prominently featured for sale online at the Mill Street Design website and are being sold by sales representatives to tourism retail outlets throughout America's Amish Country.

"We are stunned to learn that our images have been used in such an egregious manner that will irreparably harm their future use! We have not authorized We Love Country, Inc. or Mill Street Design to use any of our images," says Kelly. "These specific images have appeared in Yoder and Kelly's book, America's Amish Country II, and have not been licensed to anyone. Highsmith has also confirmed that none of her images have appeared other than in her own book, The Amish: A Photographic Tour. Each of the images taken has been scanned from books that have the appropriate copyright notice and are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Based on our review, Mill Street Design has made at least forty six different uses of our images within its website and in hard copy sales brochures. Additionally, we have located some sixteen thumbnail references in image search engines to these illegal uses, i.e., Google Image Search, AltaVista Image Search and PicSearch."

The lawsuit, Case No. SACV 02-833, has been assigned to Judge David O. Carter. Kelly anticipates that the first hearing in the case will be held within three months.

Kelly and Yoder have co-published two books about the Amish Lifestyle: America's Amish Country [1992] and America's Amish Country II [2000]. In addition to the Amish Lifestyle, Kelly has published books as well as provide content and/or photography on various subjects to include Laura Ingalls Wilder, the "Little House" author, California's Gold Rush Country and Americana since 1973. He operates four websites, to include http://amish.net, in support of these subjects as well as NetCopyrightLaw Net Consulting Services. His photography and/or writings have also been published in hundreds of magazines, newspapers, calendars and commercial brochures and websites in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. Kelly has photographed Americana since 1973.

Yoder, the grandson of Amish members, has photographed the Amish and their unique lifestyle for more than twenty years. He operates America's Amish Country Publications set in the midst of the Holmes County, Ohio, Amish Community. Yoder has received numerous awards for his images that depict the scenic Amish Country and the Amish lifestyle. His work regularly appears in newspapers, magazines and trade publications on the subjects of the Amish, trains and scenic settings. Yoder also publishes his popular Amish Country Calendars and Amish Jig Saw Puzzles. See http://ohioamish.com for more information.

Carol Highsmith is a nationally renowned architectural photographer whose lens has captured landmarks in every state. In addition to The Amish: A Photographic Tour, she has published, or been published in, more than fifty books. She works mainly with large format 4x5 transparencies, and she has more than 50,000 images in her stock. She also shoots 4x5 and panorama aerial photography. She has been published in Smithsonian, Time, the New York Times, Architecture, Washington Post Magazine and other national publications. Her images of the Library of Congress were featured in Life magazine. She has recently been commissioned to produce a Tribute Remembrance book on the World Trade Center for Random House. See http://carolhighsmith.com for more information.

Kelly, Yoder and Highsmith seek as yet undetermined damages for the unauthorized use of their copyright registered images.

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Huntington Beach, CA November 1, 2002. Leslie A. Kelly announced today the settlement of an image theft by an artist painter who stole an image owned by Doyle Yoder. Yoder's image, an Amish man in an horse drawn open buggy headed down a long hill in Missouri, was stolen by the artist who claimed that the painting was based on his "inspiration" from scenes in Southern Ohio. His "inspired painting" was offered on the Internet for $800. When confronted with the original image which he had duplicated almost exactly and that appeared in a regional magazine, the artist immediately offered to settle for a lot more than he was trying to sell the painting. The terms and conditions of the settlement are confidential.