kiro Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 hanna - it looks like a norse or swedish type of language to me Josh - this gives me an idea of a great service that pnet could provide: a directory of infringing sites. it could be a system where say you know that pic.playcomet.com is infringing, and then us photographers could each put in the URLs where our copyrights are being infringed, then the database could be made readily accessible by google, godaddy, etc, so that they can be mindful of who's naughty. feel free to email me outside the thread if you want an expanded idea of what i'm talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 What is interesting is to read on this thread that folks find this behavior as being anything new or shocking. The general public views the web as a free library. You post your images and expect magically they are not going to be harvested; used; printed; ie stolen. Its like leaving 100 dollar bills on park benches overnight and expecting every bum to be a goodie two shoes. The public lifts these cool images and brings them to print shops mixed in with their own custom brochures and work; and us print shops have now way of knowing what is legal. In a way web stuff is just given away; like releasing a bunch of birds, bugs and ants and expecting them to stay in the same local area. Whats legal and whats practical in enforcing are two different things. You have no way of knowing if your image is being used 1/2 way around the globe in a report; local advertising; weekly reader ;) calendar; greeting card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_s Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 <i>Does anyone read this language (Russian possibly?) and can they give an idea of what this website is about?</i> <p> Serbian or similar. Someone here will know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stembaughphotography Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 They have 3 of mine- I'm flattered! Didn't think any of my work was worth stealing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill J Boyd Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 They have 1 of mine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timzeipekis Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Wow, they even took mine! and I suck.........I don't know if I should be mad or honored.........I feel like Metallica. I DID follow the google links to report abuse...so I'm in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Taylor Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 you really think they're making money on your photos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Laur Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Ian: Yes. They are running ads that generate revenue. They are using the images (and a lot of other pirated content) as bait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gungajim Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 While sorting through this at GoDaddy, I saw a photo of the guy that is purportedly the founder of the site. He looks like a sleazebag so it is not surprising that they are involved in the caper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned1 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Maybe we should start bragging about how many of our pictures got ripped off. Mine's 63. Can anyone beat that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincetylor Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 At least my name is on them. This happens so many times that I have for the most part stopped worrying about it. When I find people selling my images that is another story. One guy was selling my photos, as fine art prints, with HIS name on them as the artist. I immediately went after him and he eventually apologized along with was banned from the website (Art.com). Other Real estate companies, Ebay sellers, etc have used our images without authorization for advertising, and we have collected thousands of dollars from them as a result. Many teenagers will download my photos and post them on sites like Myspace, Xanga etc. I no longer worry about them. It's a J-peg, they are usually just having fun with their pages. In my opinion, it's just not worth the bother 98 percent of the time. What Walter Tatulinski did by posting a comment on these images, directing people to his own website sounds like a smart idea. Some battles are worth fighting for, others not quite. I put this one in the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ned1 Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 I'm coming across plenty of other PN members as I browse around them. Should there be a central location where we can record what we suspect are other member's works and have a notice emailed to them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Taylor Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 This happens all the time. Not even remotely worth all the kerfluffel. Don't like it? Don't put your photos on the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wingell Posted February 9, 2008 Share Posted February 9, 2008 Twenty-one of my photos have been posted by the BitComet/PlayComet site. For what it's worth--which probably isn't much--I've pasted the following notice on each image's "comment" link: "This copyrighted image has been stolen by the operators of this website, based in China. Unlicensed use of this photo is a copyright violation. Persons wishing to license this image can contact the photographer, Bill Wingell, at bwingell@gmail.com." I'll follow-up with emails to all the identified parties involved, including advertiser Google, but getting a satisfactory response, I'm sure, is unlikely. I think it's probably worth noting that on the positive side regarding my participation in photo.net, just in the last month I've licensed three of my p.net images to the publishers of two forthcoming books--one shot to be used as a cover photo on a book about native American political action and another to help illustrate a high school civics textbook with a print run of 750,000. There are honest users of our material out there. Cheers...Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgalyon Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 they got six of mine. i'm just upset because the one person on PN I despise got nine stolen! honestly, i couldn't care less. at least they acknowledged me as the photographer. nothing like free advertising!? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay a. frew Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Many Thanks to all the Internet Savy PN folks who posted their wisdom above! Cheers! Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akajohndoe Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Oh please. The URL resolves to an IP address that is registered at Go Daddy. If Photo.net cannot get the domain shut down what good is photo.net? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard-just-Leonard Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 In a way it's ironic. A site in Korea hotlinked to 60 of my Waterton Scenery folder pictures and got over 100,000 hits before Josh had the link killed. This one in China only "stole" one of my pictures. Should I be insulted or relieved ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangoldman Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 They have about 26-27 of mine. Atleast they are credited. I have sent a message to google via the link on the ads, but will the do other stuff tomorrow when i can think coherently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin carron Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 I'm with Vincent et al on this one - some battles are not worth fighting. I've seen some older PN images on another website for qite some time (not the one Hanna cited) but can't find it again. In that case whole portfolios have been copied. I like Walter's idea though - nice one, Walter! I'm only at a count of 13 on this latest site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darius.tulbure Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Thank you guys for pointing that out! I did what Bob Atkins and Kier Selinsky suggested. The chinese have stolen 11 of mine... I hope this will be solved. Thankfully, my name is on them.<p> I'd have a suggestion on how could PN protect our images against these thefts. The photos posted could be dispayed as flash embedded images. So there should be no .jpegs and other files to steal. The only way you can steal a flash embedded image is to take a print screen of the page and then crop the photo in some photo editor. It's complicated and a bot couldn't do that.<p> The question remains how hard it is to implement this system. Well, there are to impediments: technical and financial. Technical: a script that would automatically embed the uploaded photos in a .swf file. However, the site's pages would not get bulkier and slower to upload as the .swf files that are not animated don't weight much. Financial: flash programmer/programmers. However, I think Josh is more in measure to evaluate this possibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulstenquist Posted February 10, 2008 Author Share Posted February 10, 2008 I would rather put up with some thievery than go to a flash embedded system. Consider how often we help each other by demonstrating a PhotoShop technique on a right-clicked image of another? Or sometimes it's good just to take a look at the processing "what ifs" of someone elses work on your own desktop. Flash would destroy some of the communal benefits of this site. I was annoyed by this site in China because they blatantly ripped off many PN shots, and the environment is somewhat sleazy. Sometimes, howeverm, I'm pleased when someone uses one of my pics. A little newsletter in Budapest took one of my coffee shop portraits and used it to illustrate an article. They didn't tell me, but they credited it, so it came up on google. Good for them. That's okay by me. Speaking of google, I stumbled across Playcomet while googling my name to see how high on the google page my own commercial site appeared. I almost didn't report it. I'm annoyed by it, but certainly not devastated. I'm a bit surprised to see how much angst it has caused. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonmestrom Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 anyone ever heard of Sysiphus? Vincent is right. As annoyingly as it is, it isn't worth the bother and will continue to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_godwin1 Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Wow. They got 3 of mine also. I'm not sure if I should be proud of not. Anyway, I send and email to them, Google, and used Kier's comment about "PlayComet.com are thieves!" on all the photos with my name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susan stone Posted February 10, 2008 Share Posted February 10, 2008 Well it appears I'm another "victim" of theft too! So it sounds like the only recourse is to NOT post anywhere on the web including PN, that's sad 'cause I really enjoy my time here and have learned a lot, but with an impending Gallery Show and the possible sale of my work I just DO NOT want my imagery floating around the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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