Photographer stealing - Check for your images!

<p><strong>Not stolen but copied.</strong></p>

<p>Your reasoning baffles me. Unauthorized reproduction of images to which you do not hold title is theft - as defined by law. I would also add that this person did so flagrantly. </p>

<p>Why doesn't the OP just send her an email with a link to this thread...... That may have some impact.</p>

<p>I already did that and she has removed her entire wedding gallery.</p>

<p>I confused did she post this image to advertise someone else or did she forget to remove the water mark<br>

I don't the captured by god women would steal</p>

 

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<p>Your reasoning baffles me. Unauthorized reproduction of images to which you do not hold title is theft</p>

 

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<p>No. It's infringement and copying. You only suffer theft if you no longer have the item in question. <br>

Theft requires an intent to deprive the rightful owner of something. Just taking a copy does not do this.</p>

<p>It's still wrong though!</p>

<p>In many cases copyright infringement does indeed deprive the rightful owner of something - their right to payment for use of their creations, photographs, or designs. I'm glad you agree it's wrong!</p>

<p>If you don't want your precious pictures copied, downloaded or "stolen", don't put them on the internet. Ever.</p>

<p>There is nothing you can do to prevent it. No matter what you think. If they can see it, they can get it.</p>

<p>As long as somebody doesn't put their name on my picture they are free to copy it, display it, send it out. I don't care. I put it online it's now there for the whole world to see.</p>

<p>But then, I don't out all my pictures online.</p>

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<p>"<em>If you don't want your precious pictures copied, downloaded or "stolen", don't put them on the internet. Ever."</em></p>

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<p>That's a common sentiment, Bill, and I might agree in if we were in a lawless society. Fortunately there is legal recourse for copyright infringement, albeit imperfect, therefore I live by the phrase: If you don't want to be dealing with the law, don't infringe on others' copyrighted images. </p>

<p>So, Bill, are you saying that I shouldn't be upset when a photographer takes my image, photoshops over my logo, and posts it on her website as an example of her work?</p>

<p>This thread isn't about a client posting something on facebook or whatever.</p>

<p>We are reaching the point where it is unreasonable for a photographer to not show his work in the #1 marketing venue on the planet (the internet) and we have reached the point where it is unrealistic to think that ordinary people know the rules regarding copyright. However, I still think it is reasonable to expect a fellow professional to not violate my copyright and represent my work as their own. Even people who have no clue about copyright law can see that is wrong.</p>

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<p>So, Bill, are you saying that I shouldn't be upset when a photographer takes my image, photoshops over my logo, and posts it on her website as an example of her work?</p>

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<p>I don't think that was the sentiment at all.</p>

<p>The issue is do you really want to get all upset and aggravated over it? There is little you can do that will not cause you a lot of aggravation. You can send a takedown notice to the owner of the website and the hosting company. Will that stop the image from coming up somewhere else? Do you have the time to check thousands of websites looking for your images? If the images are not taken down do you have the time and resources to bring a lawsuit? It will cost you thousands and you will probably recovery nothing.</p>

<p>Best defense is to not post any images on the web that you do not want stolen. Not posting anything is probably not fully reasonable in the marketing environment of today. Second option is to put a watermark diagonally across the entire image making it difficult to remove. Third option is to use Flash to display the image (Flash can be compromised so you still need watermarks) to make it more difficult.</p>

<p>Taking someone else's images is not right of that there can be no wavering. But is is really worth your aggravation? Only time I would pursue it is if a large company was making a profit from an image.</p>

<p>I have been in a copyright fight. I won. Got a substantial award. The award was only slightly more than my legal fees. So it was little more than a moral victory. Would I do it again? Nope. Was not worth my time and aggravation</p>

<p>I never fail to be amazed by how many people are so nonchalant about copyright infringement. It is theft. And false advertisement ... taking something somebody else created and advertise yourself to clients using that person's work. It makes you a thief who is committing fraud.</p>

<p>And please, I am sick and tired of the "if you don't want it stolen, don't put it out there". You know, I park my car outside as well ... doesn't mean I want it stolen. The thief is the one in the wrong. When are we going to hold the people responsible who claim to be professional photographers and see nothing wrong by taking what is not theirs?</p>

<p>As for flash - gosh, anybody can take a screenshot if they really want the image bad enough. We as photographers should be able to display our photos on our blogs and websites without fellow photographers stealing the images. Plain and simple. We're not "asking to have them stolen" ... there is something really, really wrong with that particular mindset. Same for downloading music illegally. It is stealing as well. You are taking something that wasn't yours to take without asking for permission. So please, stop blaming the person whose images got stolen. </p>

<p>I do not condone any improper behavior. If you want to battle windmills, be my guest. You will never find all the windmills.</p>

<p>US copyright laws do not apply everywhere in the world, by the way.</p>

<p>Oh, did I mention the internet goes everywhere in the world?</p>

 

<p>It isn't just the photographer that is hurt. Anyone hiring someone showing photos they did not create is getting stuck with the old bait and switch. </p>

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<p ><a name="00a8iC"></a><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=5109219">Katrin D.</a>, You know, I park my car outside as well ... doesn't mean I want it stolen.</p>

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<p >True. But do you leave the keys in the ignition? The analogy does not quite fit.</p>

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<p >As for flash - gosh, anybody can take a screenshot if they really want the image bad enough.</p>

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<p >Again, true. But the resolution is typically low, about 72dpi.</p>

<p >The web is designed in such a way that if your desktop has access to an image on a web server, the source of that image can be found in the HTML code. Using that information anyone can get immediate access to the image.</p>

<p >It still applies, if you don't want the image stolen, don't put it on the web. If you must put the image on the web, watermark across the middle of the image, side to side, top to bottom, or corner to corner.</p>

<p>I think Shawn highlighted a very important point. Bypassing our photographers ego and the whole issue of theft/fraud/copyright, What about the poor client!! If it's a wedding for example and you get this chimp hired as a professional on the basis of 'their' work... You can't re-shoot a wedding day.. For that reason it’s not just bordering on the criminal, it's highly immoral to have such a lax attitude towards someone's special day.</p>

<p>I'm sure that you have a legitimate complaint here. I don't question that your gripe is a sincere one.<br /> An interesting side note is that one of the newest scams on the internet is "planting" images on another photographer's website or, as in a local case here - hijacking a known photographer's website and populating it with stolen images.<br /> For the photographer who cries "thief", the publicity generated from forums like these can result in tens of thousands of hits, propelling the Google ranking quite high almost instantly. This happened to a member of our faculty - his password was phished by a Chinese hacker and sold to a Bolivian Photographer under the guise of "SEO accelerator".<br /> Mr. Perry, even with your legitimate complaint about this other photographer, I would wager you've noticed a significant increase in web traffic since posting this (if you keep track of such things.) I'm also supposing your own Google visibility has been raised as a result.<br /> It's ironic that theft of a photographer's images can result in significantly more benefit (visa vi publicity in forums like this) than would have occurred had the image not been stolen. There's a natural curiosity that we all have about the victims of a crime - we want to know more about them. And sadly, there are Profiteers who seek to benefit from our curiosity.</p>

<p>The photographer who stole my images acknowledged the theft and has since removed the images.</p>

<p>I would very much like to here your theory on how a zenfolio account for a photographer in Alabama which does not link to me in any way can raise my google ranking. Or, how a posting on a forum for photographers attracts more clients to me. or increases my google status without my having posted a link to my website.</p>

<p>I can see how my posting resulted in increased traffic to the site of the person who stole my images but I don't see how it increases traffic to me, other than the occasional photographer who is curious.</p>

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<p>Really I think this incident is rather pathetic, I hope the offending photographer has learned something (I also emailed her a link to this thread) however the issue of copyright infringement and theft is a major issue, especially online.</p>

<p>I have photos that appear in more than a dozen books, at least half of these have been scanned to pdf files and a google search of the book title along with the words free download will provide at least a couple and sometimes more, links that will give you an online dump of the entire book. My wife's book has several free online download links and I have a sense that it has seriously impacted the annual royalties. One of the offending websites (filestube) has a Facebook fan page with a following of more than 547,000 fans. You tell me, more than 547K people who think it's cool and totally OK to steal???? Solutions??? I guess it does provide an opportunity to rant/vent,.....bottom line, the unbelievable sense of "entitlement" by many, many, many people.</p>

<p>@Mr. Perry. My theory goes something like this - "Average Joe" is walking down the street and is shot by a passerby. Joe yells and points at the assailant "That guy just shot me". As witnesses to the scene, our first reaction is to look for the gunman. The next reaction is to walk over to the victim and begin to wonder "why was Joe picked out?" As a result, the visibility of both the assailant (if caught) and the victim is raised. <br>

Again repeating - I'm not accusing YOU of anything here - I'm just making the point that "victim marketing" is a viable way of getting attention. We're all familiar with stories of the girl who cries rape to get attention<br>

"Marketing" - is about encouraging people to take notice of our products. And that encouragement can utilize "White" or "Black" methods - just like SEO marketing. And although the numbers get a little dicey on Alexa, stats would indicate that your personal site traffic is up about 47% since posting this item less than two weeks ago. And using the wayback snapshot archive, clicks to your site from Pnet are somewhere around 641 since you've posted this very popular topic. That increased traffic, Mr. Perry, is a marketing success for you. <br>

And once again, I'm not arguing for the Defendant here - I'm merely making the point that "victim marketing" works and that it's making its appearance in the highly competitive field of Wedding photography and being used by some people who aren't YOU.</p>

<p>@Yvonne, "Blaming the victim" is a common form of criminal thinking, especially in cases of sexual assault,...... minimization & over-generalization are also common thinking distortions.</p>

<p>Drats! Busted! Caught using black-market techniques to increase my chances of booking a fellow photographer's wedding who lives in Tampa, likes my work and doesn't have any friends who are photographers! LOL</p>

<p>I see your point, Yvonne, I just don't think that this is a very good example of the effective use of that sort of marketing. If this is a marketing attempt, I clearly suck at it. :)</p>

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<p>Wow!</p>