Park Forest, IL—(ENEWSPF)— Lloyd Betourney of the Public Response Group, reported that he had received new reports that Park Forest Village President candidate Paul Jasinevicius has continued to distribute campaign literature using copyrighted images. In a story first reported in eNews Park Forest, Jasinevicius was warned to stop circulating a campaign brochure that uses the copyrighted images. The images were originally created by the Public Response Group for literature used in Commissioner Brendan Houlihan's successful bid for a seat on the Cook County Board of Review.
Betourney commented in a phone interview that he had tried to reach Jasinevicius by phone, "I called a couple of times, but was unable to reach him because his mailbox is full. I intended to tell him, 'When we first spoke, Paul, you agreed to stop using using the material. Now it’s been brought to my attention that you continue to use this material. I’m giving you the courtesy of a call to ask you to stop again.'"
Betourney said he now intends to have legal counsel send a letter to Jasinevicius, again asking him to stop. "I’m going to take legal action to protect our work product, and I have no reservation in doing that. I happen to know that this is a clear violation of copyright law, and he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, other than his ignorance of the law.”
Betourney compared his work to other copyrighted activities, such as Major League Baseball broadcasts of the Chicago Cubs. “It’s the same thing here. You still have to credit that photographer, get their permission to us it. It’s not like a headline that appears. It’s a work product of one or multiple peoples.. It’s all protected. Photographs can run anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000, depending on who the photographer is. It’s not just a question of fee. It’s a question of appropriate use." Betourney said that appropriate use of photographs varies. Some may be used in PowerPoint presentations. Others may only be used for internal communications within companies. "In this case again, it’s not his work, it’s not any work he commissioned. He’s lliterally stealing."
Betourney said he first learned of the use of the material from Commissioner Brendan Houlihan, but said his only concern is the use of the protected material. He reported that in his first conversation with Jasinevicius, the candidate asked Betourned if his firm had ever done any work for "the teacher's union."
“I was kind of taken aback that he would even be asking me questions. He asked if we had done any work for the teacher’s union. There are a number of teachers unions. In this case he was talking about the CTU which we have never done any work for." Betourney said he is aware that Mayor John Ostenburg does work for the Chicago Teacher's Union, "I’ve had no discussions with John. I haven’t talked with John in several years. No one from John’s campaign has ever called us to get involved in any way. This whole thing was brought to my attention by Brendan. Even if he had called Brendan, it’s not Brendan who could have given permission. We certainly could have. It’s our work."
“Paul never contacted Brendan. He never contacted us. He never made an effort to see if this is copyrighted material. He just doesn’t care. And I think that’s a sad commentary on someone who’s running for public office. This guy is certainly not the kind of guy you want in government," Betourney concluded.
