Theives stealing images from Photonet members

[ldavidson]

A few days ago I received a comment on one of my winter landscapes from alert

and observant Photonet member Shelly Reed. She informed me that someone on

Webshots was stealing my photos and posting them as her own, she also had a

link to Webshots, and the Albums of someone called ?toobizymom?.

 

There I saw one of my photos. I looked through her albums and found several

more. When on Webshots I also saw a photo that I recognized as Steve Augle?s.

I have informed him, he doesn?t feel that anything can be done about this sort

of thing. This is what I did, I complained to Webshots, and sent a message to

all ?toobizymom? and also her fans and friends. I added my Photoshop

portfolio address for anyone who wanted to verify. With in hours all her work

was deleted, her site is now empty. There?s a message there from me explaining

that her albums were deleted because she was a thief.

 

I wouldn?t have know about this if it weren?t for Shelly Reed taking the time

and going to the trouble of finding and informing me. She did a lot of

research. I am very grateful to her for this. She is someone who is disgusted

with deciept and fraud. Shelly also went to the trouble of posting messages

with ?toobizymom?s? fans and friends.

 

This is my first experience with someone stealing my work and passing it off as

there own. I now know that I am not the only one who?s work is being stolen. I

am very interested in what others think about this and what sort of experiences

others have had. What can be done about this, if anything?

 

Best Regards,

 

Linda

[hjoseph7]

"What can be done about this, if anything?"

 

Some people are using watermarks.

[mendonphoto]

First thing I would do is stop posting full resolution images on the web. With pictures as good as yours, you're just asking for people to steal them. Cut back to aroung 800 pixels in the largest dimension. Watermarks might be a good idea, too, if you're worried even about low-res images.

[jwhite3.0]

Linda, fantastic portfolio and Aaron hit it right on the head! You need to scale your photos way, way, way down. When you click on largest size it should not require one to scroll to see the entire image. That's a sign of high resolution and possibly worth stealing. If someone wants to steal a 350KB image of mine they won't be able to make a large print. However, if you post a 2MB image then there is more incentive to steal it as one can blow that up.

[ldavidson]

Harry, Aaron, John,

 

Thanks for the good advice. I hadn't thought of using watermarks, or using a much lower resolution. I am going to go the lower res route for now.

[justinblack]

I would recommend that everyone become familiar with the copyright laws in their

respective countries. Here in

the U.S., the law provides massive penalities for willful copyright infringement and digital

theft of works that have been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. With this kind of

leverage in one's corner, it is much easier to achieve whatever level of satisfaction one

considers appropriate in these cases.

[beauh44]

Once I was flipping through Myspace and saw a profile of someone using photographs of a model that I'd taken. It obviously wan't her since the model lives in PA and the person claimed she lived in VA (where I live). I wrote whoever it was and they were gone the next day. In this case it was someone posing as someone else, who I assume was much more attractive. Kinda sad, I guess.

[mike dixon]

<i>Here in the U.S., the law provides massive penalities for willful copyright infringement and digital theft of works that have been registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. </i><P>

Can you cite any cases of photographers getting big awards from people who stole their pictures to put up on (non-commercial) web portfolios?

[colin carron]

Linda, nice portfolio.

 

There was recently a case of a photographer's work being taken off flickr and being sold without her knowledge or approval.

 

http://www.flickr.com/groups/londinium/discuss/72157600213376143/

 

Her images were being sold as prints from an online gallery and on ebay. Both have now been shut down.

 

The other side of all this that is that you may be approached by people who would like to use your work and are prepared to pay for it in a normal business-like manner. Great!

 

An in-between case is where you may find your low-res images being used without your permission on the net in blogs and personal websites. For myself I don't mind that if there is no attempt to pass my work off as their own and the copyright is attributed to me.

[ldavidson]

Justin, I would need an International Laywer. I'm a Canadian, all my images were taken in Canada. Photo-net is an American company. In this case the person who stole my images is American, so it would be complicated. Thanks for commenting. I appreciate it. I looked at your portfolio, very impressive.

 

Beau, Wow, that is sad. But it is always annoying and upsetting to have someone take your work without permission.

 

Mike, I don't know of anyone getting big awards for image theft. In Canada, we are notorious for being very lenient with all types of serious, violent, criminals, and small cival suits are usually a waste of time. I think it is something I will have investigate.

 

Colin, Thanks, glad you like it. I have sold a few photos legitimatly. Stealing images and selling them is a step above misrepresenting yourself. I wouldn't mind if someone used my photos in their blog or website either, but I would like to have credit. My son uses my pictures from time to time on his site. I asked him to give me credit, which he is happy to do. He also links back back to my portfolio.

 

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and ideas.

[jimadams]

Unfortunately, Internet image theft is widespread. There will always be thieves and wannabe photographers who steal from others.

 

Some portfolio hosting sites, OMP (One Model Place) for example, added code which doesn't permit right-click image copying. It solves a lot of problems, though there are ways around that as well. But it wouldn't hurt photo.net to implement that policy and add the code. I mean...they've made other site changes, why not this?

 

I once googled my own name and discovered a lot of my work on some European photo site, and it even had links in the text which made it look as if I was endorsing certain products. I did contact the site and informed them they were in violation of federal and international copyright laws, and the images and all references to me were removed.

 

You can put a copyright imprint on your photos, but anyone can clone those out. Watermarks may work, but if the watermark is strong enough, it often degrades image quality. You can always put one of those huge semi-transparent "C" copyright things smack dab in the middle of your photos, but again, it sort of takes away from the image's quality and/or impact.

[dead_metaphor]

I once posted a pic on PN and received an email from someone saying they had seen the same pic as a poster advertising a gallery in the Czech Republic. He gave me a website address and yup, there was my picture.

 

What to do? nothing. What realistically could I do?

 

Now I tell people i've been exhibited in Prague.

 

Tim van der Weert

[dead_metaphor]

Sorry for the addendum, but just read Jim's post-

 

I've had the same thing happen. I googled my name and found a link to a Russian website where I was featured as Artist of the Month, along with 4 pics.

 

Again, what can I realistically do? Nothing. i'm assuming they arent selling my prints, so I look at it as unwanted, yet free, publicity.

 

Tim van der Weert

[jana]

I just googled my name and found me and lot of others fellow PN photographers on the following sites:

 

http://maisdever.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

 

youni.biz/technote01/board.php?board=beutyfull&page=2&command=body&no=495 - 22k

 

anjosvestemmoschino.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post.html - 233k

 

and 1 arabic site.

 

Fortunatelly they have my name and copyright, but still, none of them asked my permission. I mind as they copy my nude models too, where I have a limited agreement to publish (only for private use and exibitions).

 

Jana

[Tim_Lookingbill]

Is there a way of embedding text or code within an image where Google's spiders can

index the image so that it shows up in a search?

[cocasana]

The same thing happened to me with a Webshots member. They took few days before deleting the stolen photos, but not the whole portfolio. I've read on a msg board on the same site that she wasn't new stealing pics but she as still there. Nice web site!

[karen rexrode]

<p>I found hundreds of sites with my photo.net pictures last night after googling my name. Mostly Chinese, which are using all of my fine art nudes as porn. or to sell something, and one religious site using a cemetery image. I am in agreement with Jim Adams, why can't Photo.net make it a little harder to take our copyrighted images? Disable the right click? I asked Josh (photo.net administrator) about this problem and here was the response...</p>

<em>Sadly there is little we can do about that sort of thing. It's just a</em>

<em>risk one takes when posting images on the internet. Every photographer</em>

<em>has to decide if the risk of having a few images stolen is worth the</em>

<em>exposure and promotion that the web can offer.<br /></em>

<em>Josh</em>

<em>Photo.net Chief Admin &</em>

<em>Director of Community</em>

<em></em>

I have decided to stop posting any fine art nudes here and am seriously considering pulling out after seeing how far this has gone. I have been with photo.net for 9 years and am at a point where I have to decide if this kind of exposure really is worth it. When my name is googled, all sorts of profanity and filth is associated with stolen images. <br />

[Ian Taylor]

<p>Re: http://maisdever.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html<br>

A blog linking to your worked and crediting you is not theft. Someone likes your work. Congratulations.<br>

They aren't making ay money from it, nor are they claiming they took the photos. They don't have to ask you to link to them.<br>

Don't like it? Don't post your pictures on the net.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Karen,</p>

<p>At first I thought this subject was more about just folks over reacting until you posted the comment about googling your name and having it associated with porn sites. That scenario never crossed my mind and after seeing your beautiful work, I can now appreciate the weight of the matter. I have no answers to the solution on how to prevent this. Leaving the word "noodes" (phoneticized for your google protection) out of your gallery is a good start.</p>

<p>Just saw your gallery for the first time and think your work is top shelf. Great work, especially the noodes.</p>

[jerrymat]

<p>The problem is that copyrights may become impossible to inforce because of the sheer size of the internet. I understand Google has Billions of pages. If you look at sites at the rate of one per second, a billion sites will require you to spend almost 32 years, day and night, no coffee breaks just to check them out. Maybe our images are just like the leaves on trees.</p>