Martin Mooij, FotoMooij.nl Professional photographer Martin Mooij is asking DJ readers to let him know if they see this beautiful picture of 17-year-old Luca Prins, taken at this New Year's polar bear-dive into the icy North Sea. It's being pirated all over the world, he says -- and he's fighting for photographers to get paid worldwide. His journalist union is planning to sue the pirates. He's not taking it any more.

Mooij has given digital journalist Adriana Stuijt permission for the one-time publication of his striking picture of this beautiful, blonde girl his lens happened to catch from amongst the madding crowd which stormed into the icy North Sea towards his camera during the annual New Year's dive in the oceanside resort of Egmond on Sea on January 1. See our previous story here Mooij's brilliant picture of this Alpha Female, Luca Prins, 17 years young, has become an instant media icon - she was all over the front page of the popular Dutch daily De Telegraaf, published in The Netherlands the next day: undoubtedly waking up many red-blooded males from their hangovers and other party stupors. Martin said De Telegraaf of course paid for the picture, as they always do, and promptly - as indeed did the satirist internet site Geen Stijl, who published the picture the next day, demanding to know who this gorgious girl could be. Luca 's picture then was copied all over the internet; it can be seen against the backgrounds of many TV-talk shows, andis even published in the daily print media -- yet Martin, whose bread and butter is earned by his brilliant news photography, hasn't been paid by any of these freeby looters. And he isn't taking it any more, he said. He's naming and shaming these photo-pirates, he's sick and tired of publications all over the world using his picture of Luca. The girl's shapely form now is being copied in so many places that it will be difficult to track them all down - but he's going to try. And the Dutch union for journalists is providing him with judicial help to lodge law suits -- so that he can get paid. Mooij braved the icy North Sea while waiting for the annual polar bear dip when his lens picked out the girl from amongst the rushing crowd. Being a photographer is his bread and butter, and he works hard for it -- as the video above can testify. The photographers stand waist-deep in the surf, and only have a few minutes to get pictures because that's about as much as any of these daring annual skinny-dippers can take. They get a medal for staying in the water the longest. Mooij - his name, appropriately enough, means beautiful in Dutch -- picture became an instant icon of an unsophisticated and very sporty Dutch beauty. Yet he still isn't getting paid one cent for these pictures. He asks readers to please let him know if they catch sight of his picture anywhere - and email him at once at m.mooy96@upc.nl The Dutch Union for Journalists legal department is going to sue every one of those looters for payment. And the entire photography profession is standing right behind him. They've all had enough of the looters who are constantly stealing their livelihood. The journalists' union in The Netherlands writes in its publication De Journalist that their judicial department has been asked by Mooij to prepare lawsuits against a whopping 40 publications -- TV, internet and print journalism -- to get paid for their publication of Luca Prins' dive into the icy water of the North Sea on New Year's Day 2009. "I want my rights, and I want to get paid...It's not only the principle of copyright theft I'm fighting for, but this is a simple matter of income. These pictures represent my livelihood'. He says without the help of internet users, it will probably be a major job to trace down all the internet sites where the picture of the bear-dive girl was used - but some were easy to locate: such as the Flemish newspaper De Standaard, which has yet to pay him for his picture, even though they even ran it alongside an interview with the girl. "I find this totally incomprehensible, such behaviour by a top national newspaper,' he said.He's also been sending invoices to the TV programme RTL Boulevard, but his bill has still not been paid. Perhaps by naming and shaming them, Mooij might get paid before it ends up in the law courts...see