Image theft... what do you think?
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man its sad someone almost twice my age is having to dig and find something. shall i do the same thing with pictures from your gallery?
daniel f aleman
Contributor
Go ahead, anything to help sell the boat...
aHeavyD
Contributor
This is so true. I had my web site logo taken from my web site and used on another web site. I asked may times to remove it, Nicely at frist , then spammed him with all my friends to remove it. Then the guy that made my image offer for free to make him any logo he wanted if he removed it. Of couse he and I own the rights to it. But dealing with someone from across the world. They just laugh at you. How much would I have to pay to do something to someone across the world. Your talking 10s of thousands of dollars. It's been 4 years now and they still are using my web site image logo. If you post it on the net than be prepaired for it to show up on someone elses site. Complain all you want but how much do you want to spend if they want to egnor you. If they work with you that's great but they don't have to. Me I'm not a record agency or magizine that have lawyers on file for such things. Remember someone has to pay the lawyer, Big corporations can afford it can you.
donnyb
Contributor
Kinda amazed at some of the attitudes in this thread.
Those of you who think stealing is okay just cuz its the internet need to go out & steal yourselves a moral compass. The internet is just another form of media. Theft is theft. Posting links to your site's pics is OK, lifting your images is not.
As a few others have said, the intellectual property is yours the moment you push the shutter/button. You are the copyright holder. Only you can give/sell the copyright, and your heir(s) can do so after you die. Officially you do not have to register the images with the US patent office, although it can help in a major legal dispute.
Re magazines,etc., typically they purchase USAGE rights (first time, second time, etc.) with specific limitations to: what, when, where, & how long the usage will be. Almost never is the copyright sold to a publication, it is cost prohibitive. The same is commonly true of the net, that is why writers, bloggers, photographers have web site pricing.
Back to the OP, what I did once when this happened to me, is I called the business up & asked for the owner (it was a hotel that catered to divers) then I payed a compliment to him, something like, "wow those are some nice photos on your website, what did you use to shoot them?" Waited for the answer, and then reacted appropriately. In his case they were given to him by a dive association president who did not reveal to him I was the photographer. He was "waiting to hear from me, and was glad I called". He ended up giving me several nights of free accomodation in exchange for usage. All ended well.
In your case I would advise something similar. First take snapshots of the web site pages from your browser so you have permanent proof of the offense. Then pay a visit or make a call. If you don't like what you hear, send him a reasonable bill for the usage of your images, along with prints of your snapshots of his website. He knows he didn't take the shots, so he may react quite reasonably. He may also pull the pics off his site, which is fine too, since he's a competitor.
To protect yourself from having your images lifted, you can:
use a watermark program,
put a copyright symbol & your name on the edge of the photo,
embed metadata (creator name & website info) etc.
Another couple of tricks that can help is put a frame around the image and save the image including the frame at 72 dpi. Make the image no larger than, say, 500 pixels on the largest size. There is no way to print a decent image from such a file, and if they remove the frame it degrades the resolution.
None of these will work for a motivated thief, but they can deter the lazy ones.
FWIW, thats my $.02
Those of you who think stealing is okay just cuz its the internet need to go out & steal yourselves a moral compass. The internet is just another form of media. Theft is theft. Posting links to your site's pics is OK, lifting your images is not.
As a few others have said, the intellectual property is yours the moment you push the shutter/button. You are the copyright holder. Only you can give/sell the copyright, and your heir(s) can do so after you die. Officially you do not have to register the images with the US patent office, although it can help in a major legal dispute.
Re magazines,etc., typically they purchase USAGE rights (first time, second time, etc.) with specific limitations to: what, when, where, & how long the usage will be. Almost never is the copyright sold to a publication, it is cost prohibitive. The same is commonly true of the net, that is why writers, bloggers, photographers have web site pricing.
Back to the OP, what I did once when this happened to me, is I called the business up & asked for the owner (it was a hotel that catered to divers) then I payed a compliment to him, something like, "wow those are some nice photos on your website, what did you use to shoot them?" Waited for the answer, and then reacted appropriately. In his case they were given to him by a dive association president who did not reveal to him I was the photographer. He was "waiting to hear from me, and was glad I called". He ended up giving me several nights of free accomodation in exchange for usage. All ended well.
In your case I would advise something similar. First take snapshots of the web site pages from your browser so you have permanent proof of the offense. Then pay a visit or make a call. If you don't like what you hear, send him a reasonable bill for the usage of your images, along with prints of your snapshots of his website. He knows he didn't take the shots, so he may react quite reasonably. He may also pull the pics off his site, which is fine too, since he's a competitor.
To protect yourself from having your images lifted, you can:
use a watermark program,
put a copyright symbol & your name on the edge of the photo,
embed metadata (creator name & website info) etc.
Another couple of tricks that can help is put a frame around the image and save the image including the frame at 72 dpi. Make the image no larger than, say, 500 pixels on the largest size. There is no way to print a decent image from such a file, and if they remove the frame it degrades the resolution.
None of these will work for a motivated thief, but they can deter the lazy ones.
FWIW, thats my $.02
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I have never taken anybody's images.
yet, I think the reality compass says don't make yourself a victim over a very minor thing. So...you have never downdoaded music?
I pay on Itunes but my kids use limewire and I haven't stopped them. Do you really think this is a big moral issue? just curious. Maybe it is....seems pretty petty though.
have you ever photocopied from a book? I thought that is what the "personal reasonabable use" was about?
donnyb
Contributor
Cath,catherine96821:
I was referring to the use of someone else's intellectual property & passing it off as your own, or financial or business gain/advertising off someone elses sweat. Not a minor thing to to the OP, as he is a competitor.
Photocopying from a book is legal if you follow the rules. I also use i-tunes & pay. I think 99 cents is reasonable for a song.
But if I did download/lift intellectual property (music, pics,software) its stealing, minor yes, but technically theft.
mikerault
Contributor
Try finding your entire book translated into Russian and downloadable for free from a site in Russia, or complete copies of your book you spent nine months writing on a site from China, Korea or India downloadable for free. Once you are out of the USA there is literally nothing you can do about it. If it is in the US, just contact them nicely at first, then if it really bothers you, call in the lawyers, but be prepared to pay out the nose.
justleesa:
Yeah, I know it's not the law but you can use it as a pointer to make sure people reallise there is something very wrong with todays concept of "intellectual property"...
btw. you shoud make a difference between selling picture on the web (and theft of such) and just plain putting them on the web page...
If you are selling, then it's called stealing, but if you just put it on the web for others to see then I have no moral problems with copying and reproducing for my viewing (not for resale). I will just put it on the wall and enjoy it - it's not stealing!!!
If I copy a picture from a public web site and give it to others you don't loose anything (like with a stealing of a car) since you already gave it to everyone to copy...
Selling on web has nothing to do with publishing on public web pages so please don't mix it...
If you sell on the web just write down in big plain letters what are you actually selling! (picture, some rights, all rights or what!) ( I like the freedom of source (code), and freedom of all intellectual property so I personally always sell whole, full, rights to my work - sometimes for $ and sometimes for 0$)
If you don't want it copied, DONT PUT IT ON PUBLIC WEB SITES!!!
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