STOLEN PHOTOS – NO PLOY – THIS IS FOR REAL!

[don_myers1]

<p>To all;<br>

I recently posted comments regarding stolen photos and copyright infringement by a website based in Germany. I copied and pasted a post from the Facebook page of Apogee Photo Magazine (apogeephoto.com), a very reputable online photography magazine. IT WAS NOT a ploy to gain page hits for the APM website – I was just trying help protect and to warn all other photographers. In my response to someone else’s response to that post, and because I did not have full knowledge of what was occurring, I discredited this company. I apologize – I did not intend to do so.<br /> <br /> I have since learned: According to Marla Meier, Owner of Apogee Photo Magazine, hundreds of known instances of copyright infringement of preapproved for use photos had been identified from over 60 contributing authors and photographers – more than likely all photos within the APM website. Per the APM web server: a web crawler or spider software was used to extract the images from the APM website for use/content within the abuser’s website and this probably occurred rather recently. Web crawlers can copy all the pages or images they visit for later processing in a short amount of time. For Apogee Photo Magazine, the thief’s website has been blocked from future downloads and following a takedown notice to them and their server, all occurrences of copyright infringed photos have been removed from their site. <br>

Along with the current post regarding the theft was a link to an article regarding copyright law that had been published back in 2010, which I included in the same post. Unfortunately, they were combined and some members here thought I was trying to be misleading by posting a past event: I assure you I was not intending to do so. <br /> <br /> In summation: The theft is current and ongoing for hundreds of other photographers. Ms. Meier WARNS us all: If you choose to search the <a href="http://photobomb-pictures.fbistan.com/">http://photobomb-pictures.fbistan.com</a> website for your images, BE VERY CAREFUL – be sure your anti-virus protection is up to date. The site contains a lot of malware. <br>

I would like to conclude this post by saying that I believe Photo.net to be a collaboration of some of the finest photographers in the world, some as far away as China and Australia. Also I think it is one of the safest sites to post photographs, as we all respect the rights of other members and do not use another’s work for personal or financial gain. <br /> <br /> Again, I wish to apologize to all I may have mislead or offended.<br>

Don Myers</p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>Whoever uses those stolen photos for profit is taking a huge chance wouldn't you say ? </p>