Copyright Infringement by Sean Peele of seanpeelephotography.com

[ralph_jensen]

<p>One way that all of us can help is going to Yelp and marking as "Useful" the review about Mr. Peele that cites this thread. That way that review will always rise to the top when brides go to Yelp to research photographers (as they increasingly often do):</p>

<p><a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/sean-peele-photography-san-diego">Click "Useful" here</a></p>

<p> </p>

[manuel barrera houston,]

<p>They steal bank accounts, identities, etc, if you put in the web it can and in all probability will be copied, such is the world we live in. Photo.net is one of the most read photography sites, a title like xxx is using copyright information will bing, google, or yahoo before his/her website appears.</p>

<blockquote><ol>

<li >

<a onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','1','','0CAkQFjAA')" href="http://www.seanpeelephotography.com/" >Destination Wedding Photography $390 - San Diego Orange County Los <strong>...</strong> </a> <a ><img id="sbresult_0" onmouseup="coShastaMouseUp(this, Shasta.getFrameId(), event.button)" onmouseover="coShasta(this, Shasta.getFrameId())" src="symres:sb_unknownannotation.png" alt="" /> </a>

<em>Sean Peele</em> Destination Wedding Photography from $390! Experienced, yet affordable San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles Wedding and Event Photographer also <strong>...</strong> <br /> <cite>www.<strong>seanpeele</strong> photography.com/ - </cite> <a onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','clnk','1','')" href="http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:VGafB17H6OkJ:www.seanpeelephotography.com/+Sean+Peele&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox">Cached</a>

</li>

<li >

<a onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','2','','0CAsQFjAB')" href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Sean-Peele/1172015082" ><em>Sean Peele</em> | Facebook</a> <a ><img id="sbresult_1" onmouseup="coShastaMouseUp(this, Shasta.getFrameId(), event.button)" onmouseover="coShasta(this, Shasta.getFrameId())" src="symres:sb_safeannotation.png" alt="" /> </a>

 

Friends: Jeff Martinez, Kimberly Barry, Kristen Grotegut, Angella Wells King, Myra Pauley<br />

<em>Sean Peele</em> is on Facebook. Join Facebook to connect with <em>Sean Peele</em> and others you may know. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world <strong>...</strong> <br /> <cite>www.facebook.com/people/<strong>Sean</strong> -<strong>Peele</strong> /1172015082 - </cite> <a onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','clnk','2','')" href="http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:kfqJ9FsiOO8J:www.facebook.com/people/Sean-Peele/1172015082+Sean+Peele&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox">Cached</a>

</li>

<li >

<a onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','3','','0CA4QFjAC')" href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sean-peele/6/466/3B4" ><em>Sean Peele</em> - LinkedIn</a> <a ><img id="sbresult_2" onmouseup="coShastaMouseUp(this, Shasta.getFrameId(), event.button)" onmouseover="coShasta(this, Shasta.getFrameId())" src="symres:sb_safeshopannotation.png" alt="" /> </a>

 

Greater Denver Area - Not Disclosed at Not disclosed<br />

View <em>Sean Peele's</em> professional profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like <em>Sean Peele</em> discover inside <strong>...</strong> <br /> <cite>www.linkedin.com/pub/<strong>sean</strong> -<strong>peele</strong> /6/466/3B4 - </cite> <a onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','clnk','3','')" href="http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:u83EcqC-yigJ:www.linkedin.com/pub/sean-peele/6/466/3B4+Sean+Peele&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox">Cached</a>

</li>

<li >

<cite>www.yelp.com/biz/<strong>sean</strong> -<strong>peele</strong> -photography-san-diego - </cite> <a onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','clnk','4','')" href="http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:iPpY0XH1W00J:www.yelp.com/biz/sean-peele-photography-san-diego+Sean+Peele&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox">Cached</a>

ful and <strong>...</strong> <br /> </li>

<li >

<a onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','5','','0CBQQFjAE')" href="../wedding-photography-forum/00W132" >Copyright Infringement by <em>Sean Peele</em> of seanpeelephotography.com <strong>...</strong> </a> <a ><img id="sbresult_4" onmouseup="coShastaMouseUp(this, Shasta.getFrameId(), event.button)" onmouseover="coShasta(this, Shasta.getFrameId())" src="symres:sb_safeshopannotation.png" alt="" /> </a>

</li>

</ol></blockquote>

<p>Tomorrow this forum post will most likely be number one, posted three hours ago. Such is the power of the web.</p>

[theresa_skutt]

<p>Has there been a response by the offender to the allegations? (substantiated allegations)</p>

[steve m smith]

<blockquote>

<p>It's about as much use as a chocolate tea-pot, to use an English expression</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Mmmmmm. Chocolate teapot (in a Homer Simpson voice).</p>

[joseph_leuzinger]

<p>Quick question, by taking these images and posting them to the internet as his own in the interests of acquiring new business, isn't he guilty of federal wire fraud? The idea of a federal criminal court case followed by federal prison is much more reason to remove the images in my opinion. My advice to each photographer affected, would be to contact your local FBI office.</p>

<p> </p>

[chris_johnson21]

<p>Unfortunately, a good number of brides, do not know the proper questions to ask, to make sure a "photographer" is actually the "photographer"</p>

[missy_kay]

<p>We should contact bludomain and let them know. Maybe they will take his site down.</p>

[irusan]

<p>State laws will not apply here: it's copyright violation which is <a href="http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/">federal</a> .</p>

<p>While those of us who do not have images being shown by Peele can express outrage, we have no standing in the violation. For those who do:</p>

<ol>

<li>Find out who Peele iss hosting his site with. While most of BluDomain's clients also host with them, many do not (I, for example, have two BluDomain sites, neither of which are hosted by them).</li>

<li>Don't bother sending him Peele a letter; do you really think he will care? Instead, go directly to filing a properly formatted DMCA take-down notice to his host provider. The host is protected under the "safe harbor" provision of the DMCA unless they do not respond to a DMCA take-down notice. That will get the offending images removed. If the host does not remove the images, then they can lose their safe harbor status and be held liable.</li>

<li>Keep an eye out on his site and see if he adds them again after they are removed. There is a better than average chance that his host account will be suspended/deleted if there are adequate numbers of DMCA notices received as it likely is against the host's terms and condition.</li>

</ol>

<p>For all of us, spend the $35 (or whatever it is now) each quarter and register your "collection" with the US Copyright office. It gives us a lot more protection and remedies in cases like this.</p>

[picturesque]

<p>Luay--yes, I had a chuckle over that.</p>

<p>Theresa--I have not had any communications from Mr. Peele. However, my images are gone from his site. Not sure what can be said about his actions in the way of a plausible reason.</p>

<p>Everyone who posted information or was trying to be helpful--thank you. Some of the more extreme suggestions--I hope we never get to that point. John H., Bob Atkins, and Rob D. are correct--ultimately this is a federal level issue but if Mr. Peele takes down all the images that aren't his, I will be content.</p>

[Member69643]

<p>Wow. What an incredibly STUPID individual.</p>

<p>You know, there have always been criminals. People whose thinking "just isn't right" and never will be. The audacity of this person is unbelievable.</p>

<p>Still. I wonder how many "more intelligent" crooks like this guy just download and print a 4x6 on their inkjet printer. Voila! Instant portfolio to show to brides:</p>

<p>"But sir, why don't you have any images on your website?"</p>

<p>"Too much theft on the internet, I'm afraid. Now if you'd like to come by and see my portfolio..."</p>

[picturesque]

<p>Kevin--I don't know how many images on his site are his. I don't think very many, if at all. I just looked at his site and it seems he is just going to take off what people tell him to take off, and being that he lifted images from a large number of photo.net members, he will probably get away with this unless we can find the members.</p>

<p><strong>If any of you really want to help, see if you can find the images and notify me.</strong> I have been browsing through the galleries, but it is hit or miss.</p>

<p>Probably, the images that are not quite sharp from being enlarged from low resolution sizes are lifted from somewhere, probably here.</p>

[senor_crocodrillo]

<p>I received this today in my email. If you've ever thought about doing something, this might be the time to do it. Obviously, you don't have to be an ASMP member...</p>

<p>Dear ASMP member,<br /> The Obama Administration is asking to hear from <strong>you</strong>, the creative backbone of our country, about how intellectual property infringement affects <strong>your</strong> livelihood. The Administration is also seeking advice on what the government could be doing to better protect the rights of artists and creators in our country. <em>Here’s a chance for you to be heard!</em></p>

<h3>Background</h3>

<p>Last year President Obama appointed and the U.S. Senate confirmed Victoria Espinel to be the first U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. Her job is “to help protect the creativity of the American public” by coordinating with all the federal agencies that fight the infringement of intellectual property, which includes creating and selling counterfeit goods; pirating video games, music, and books; and infringing upon the many other creative works that are produced by artists in this country.<br /> As you know, the unauthorized copying, sale, and distribution of artists’ intellectual property directly impact the ability of artists and creators to control the use of their own creativity, not to mention their ability to receive income they have earned from their labor. This impacts U.S. employment and the economy, and our ability to globally compete.<br /> As required by an Act of Congress (the PRO-IP Act of 2008), Ms. Espinel and her White House team are preparing a Joint Strategic Plan that will include <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/23/intellectual-property-and-risks-public" target="_blank">your feedback</a> on the costs and risks that intellectual property infringement has on the American public.</p>

<h3>Here’s how to make yourself heard!</h3>

<ol>

<li>

<p>Send an email to Ms. Espinel and the Obama Administration at<a rel="nofollow" href="http://us.mc1117.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov" target="_blank">intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov</a> and copy the Copyright Alliance on your email:info@copyrightalliance.org .</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Begin your letter with “ASMP and the Copyright Alliance have informed me of this welcome invitation from the Obama Administration to share my thoughts on my rights as a creator.”</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Include in your email: your story, why intellectual property rights are important to you, how piracy and infringement affect you, and what the U.S. government can do to better protect the rights of creative Americans.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p>Also include in your email: your name, city, state, and the fact that you are a photographer.</p>

</li>

<li>

<p><em>Do not</em> include any personal or private information, as all comments will be posted publicly on the White House website.</p>

</li>

</ol>

<p>All comments must be submitted by <strong>Wednesday, March 24</strong> by 5:00 p.m. EST.<br /> Don’t be shy! Take two minutes today to make your voice heard, and don’t forget to spread the word to everyone you know. Pass along this information by email, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and so forth.</p>

[charles_wood]

<p>Scammers like this person, are the type that local television reporters love to blow the whistle on. Most larger market TV stations have a consumer protection reporter. I suggest that any Photo.net members living in S. CA, or perhaps one of the administrators here, contact KNBC or KCBS in LA and send them links to this thread and the offenders website. If it's a slow news day it might get their attention and get Sean some extremely unwelcome publicity.</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>Those looking for images might want to use http://tineye.com. It's a search engine which looks for similar images. You can upoad an image to it and it will find similar images on the web.</p>

<p>For example this image - http://www.charlottesvilleweddingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Joy_Jerry_70.jpg can also be found on Mr Peele's website (9th image in the reception section). The same image can be found near the bottom of this page - http://hollandphotoartsblog.com/?s=joy+jerry

<p>He also seems to be using istock since this iStock image also appears on his site, though since the watermark isn't there I'd have to assume he purchased it - or, I guess, it might be possible that he took it from someone else who had bought it... Of course there's nothing illegal about using stock photography on your website, though as a photographer people might assume that you actually took the images displayed on your site.</p>

<p>Istock - http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-1184493-signing-the-register.php (it's the first image in the reception section)</p>

<p>It's probably best to upload an image from Mr Peele's website and search for similar images rather than upload your images and search for similar since I'm not sure tineye can look inside Flash presentations. It seems to do OK with mildly cropped images and resized images though.</p>

<p>Programs like http://www.httrack.com/ can quickly strip images out of a website, for good or for evil. It can be used to collect images for analysis and comparison or it could be used to rip off a whole website</p>

[brian_m.1]

What form would this infringement take in the pre-internet world of commerce? Just trying to picture an analogy and a

course of action. Almost no internet crime is really new.

[Spearhead]

<p>Bob, how are you using TinEye? His images are in flash, and I don't get TinEye capability with flash sites.</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>Jeff - if you use htttrack you can strip jpegs out of flash presentations, then use the jpegs with tineye. I suppose you could also do a screen capture, crop and use the local copy as your input to tineye. Tineye seems to look at the content of the image, not the size or the filename.</p>

<p>The limitation of tineye is that it's database probably only contains a small fraction of all the images posted on the web. It's by no means comprehansive, though it does claim to have 1,371,723,161 images indexed right now.</p>

<p>Brian - I guess a print media analogy would be a magazine copying images (or articles) out of another magazine. It's related to plagerism. Copyright infringement hasn't changed with the internet, it's just easier to do now and there are more ways to do it. That's why Warner Brothers never made a Micky Mouse cartoon.</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Looks like I'm out of luck then, that doesn't run on Macs.<br>

<br /> Can you try checking some of the concert shots there, like the ZZ Top images.</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>Hmm HTTtrack didn't seem to work that way this time I tried it. Not sure how it worked the first time!</p>

<p>I did try a couple of cut and paste attempts with a Billy Joel and ZZ top image and tineye turned up no hits so either they are his own images or they haven't been indexed by tineye.</p>

[ajzammit]

<p>Dear Nadine,</p>

<p >Thank you so much for letting us know. I have asked Mr Peel to remove my image. We'll see where this leads to. Mr Peel, on his website, claims: "My first photography assignment came about 15 years ago for a surfing publication and my experience has grown to include over 300 wedding and family clients, professional advertising, and corporate event customers." I truly find it hard to understand why a photographer with such experience and background is lead to stealing images! It really makes you wonder what is true and is not. I empathize with other photographers who have had their work illegally copied, and also feel sorry for the clients of Mr Peel who put faith in Mr Peel to capture some of their most important moments in their life!<br>

Best regards to all<br>

Alfred (AJ Zammit) -</p>

[johan_ingles_le_nobel]

<p>That has to be one of the ugliest and most poorly executed websites I've seen since the 90s. Shocking.</p>

<p>Some of you folks affected by this might want to look at <a href="http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=6lf&rlz=1R1DVFD_en-GB&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=seanpeelephotography&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&start=0&imgtbs=s">this google query</a> - it looks like he has used images elsewhere.</p>

[picturesque]

<p>OK--more victims from photo.net. Frode Fanebust, Jay Philbrick, Tim Holte, Jose Francisco Sanchez Diaz, Michael Shuaib, Elaine Vang, Regina Maldonado.</p>

<p>If you know any of these photographers, or the ones mentioned above, please feel free to e-mail them, as I intend to, but who knows if they'll get them or the addresses may be old.</p>

[aperryproductions]

<p>Brian M, <br>

As you should always get your own legal advice, this is just for information, but it's a violation of 17 USC 106 (1) Right of reproduction and most likely (3) right of distribution. The same would apply digitally or non-digitally. </p>

[fotografz]

<p>A member here is also a recent bride, has posted a Caution on Bridalinsider.com San Diego Discussion Boards warning other brides about this guy.</p>

<p>Best way to do this IMO ... turn the Brides loose on him ... LOL!</p>

<p>Now if the Knot and Wedding Wire would pick up on it ... I'm going on the Wedding Wire and see If I can do the same.</p>

<p> </p>

[bobatkins]

<p>Here's another iStock image which has found its way into his "recent work" gallery at http://www.photographik.org/surfplay. Again there's no law against purchasing and using stock images of course. I'm not sure of the legality of claiming stock images to be your own work.</p>

<p>The iStock work is credited to Katrina Brown, who I suppose could be an employee?</p>

<p>BTW the first image in that "recent work" gallery also seems to be at http://katiesnestingspot.blogspot.com/2009/07/giveaway-online-poster-printing-canvas.html. Perhaps it's a stock image, I really don't know.</p>

<p>And if you compare the 4th image in "ecent work" with these - http://www.tineye.com/search/90f42a831f46c5a71e388ce3f9e4395979d903b4 - you'll see quite a similarity!<div></div>