a word of warning to people posting photo's on GC

:( My parents have just been away to York for a few days and have seen in a shop what they belive is one of my photo's, offered for sale as a canvas print. They also recognised another photo from this site, posted a while back as a photo comp entry. ( They recognise it as I asked the submitter if it was ok to have it enlarged and it now has pride of place on the wall). They were also pretty convinced that others in the collection were familiar, possibly from me showing them the other enteries etc on here ( my dad is fairly into photography too and enjoys seeing other peoples ideas).

So it seems someone, not necessarily a member, is taking photos from here and using them for profit. can't say i'm overly happy with it, i'd rather I was at least asked but I'm sure this breaching copyright isn't it?

anyhow, i'm arming my parents with prints of my photo's to compare with those for sale as they are up that way most weekends.

 

Glen, Is there any way we can prevent this, i know some folk write the name and date and impose it on the photoe.... can this be photoshoped off or is it worth doing.

i find it disgusting that someone would do this.

 

I think writing your name etc on the image can be easily photoshopped off using clone etc. The only way I can think of making the image useless if removed from a site is to reduce the resolution so that it looks ok on a screen but poor when printed etc. I'm hoping someone else may know other ideas. I've just had a quick look at Photobucket and it clearly states that it is against copyright and user T&C to use images from there without prior permission.

 

glen now that what i call a stink you just wouldnt think they would be so low im not really into my photography glen but any members from york we are watching:D... glen this is really bad that someone would try and make money out of your hobby:eek:
hope it stops or you catch the culprit:thumb:

 

I agree inter, it doesn't have to be a member though, anyone can look at this forum can't they??

I've just tried reducing the size of an image from an earlier comp entry, it works but makes teh image a lot less interesting to look at.

In a strange way, it nice to know that someone likes my image enough to sell it, I'd just rather be asked!!! Still, it might be a complete mix up and my parents have seen a completely different but similar style image!!!

 

really hope so glen as a lot of members who enjoy the comps will be livid..me i post and enter the comps for a bit of fun but i do enjoy it but looking at some of the photos with the members who take them as a hobby and get a lot of enjoyment and spend a lot of money...the proper snappers may not post anymore if i was as good as you and i thought people were making money i would be very angry...:thumb:

 

This unfortunatly seems to happen alot.
Theres also not much that we can do about it.I just post low res shots,but even then they can look good up to about A4 size.
One way of doing it is to enable a no right click on the websites,(mods,webmaster???)The problem here,is that the likes of us cant download one of your images,make improvements,and re upload for learning/help reasons.Plus,there are always other ways ,screen capture etc.
It may well not be from this site either.Maybe its from photobucket????And also,it may not be your picture.Someone else may well have had exactly the same idea as you with whatever the picture was.

I think that if someone wanted to nick pictures,they'd be more inclined to go to a photography site,and not a gardening site.

Anyway,heres a link to a site that is in beta version.Register,then either upload a pic,or download the firefox add on.With the add on,you just right click on the pic,and hit search with tineye.This will then search the web for the same pic,thus telling you if some scabby git has nicked your pic.

tineye.com

Like i said,its in beta phase,so the data bases arn't complete.

Joe

 

im quite shocked to hear this glen, do you know the name of the shop maybe they have a website and maybe delve a bit further into this business with a view to exposing them, im sure i wouldnt like to go into a shop and see one of my photos hanging on their wall offered for sale.please keep us updated and thanks for letting us know

 

Morning Glen, morning all.
First thing let me say I agree with all the comments about nicking images and using them without permission.
Secondly, I live on the outskirts of York and visit regular for a walkabout.
If Glen could PM me the name of the shop/gallery I could peruse the joint and report any possible simularities with posted G.C pictures.
robert

 

Sorry to hear about your problems GlenW, If the shop is downloading photos from this site without permission they are definitely breaking copyright laws. I submit photos to the website Geograph.co.uk and these are licenced under a Creative Commons Licence which means that anyone can use the images but must give credit to the photographer, they also upload the images at a low resolution so they would be no use for calendars etc. Thanks Jjdecay just used tineye didn't find any of my pics. As there are billions of images out there on other web sites there are bound to be similar images to the ones on here. I certainly hope that no member of this website is selling other peoples images for profit. As I love taking photos and also love the comps on here I for one will still keep going but will make sure all future pics are of low resolution.

Alfie

 

O dear thats not good.
Can people still get your photos from photobucket even if it's set to private?

Although in a strange way it would be nice to see one of my photos for sale it's not right.
This will certainly make me think twice about how or if I post images in the future.
I enjoy the photo comps but stuff like this takes the edge off it. :(

Maybe the images should be deleted as soon as the comp is finished.:confused:
Or is there a way that just board members can log on to see them?
I'm not in anyway a technical person so I don't really no.:o

 

" Can people still get your photos from photobucket even if it's set to private?"

If I can see it here, say, then I can use it. And as a Techie I can easily get it even if it has a "You cannot right click this image" message, or somesuch.

Flickr is quite good in that if you try to save the image you get a blank, an the image itself is in Flash or somesuch which makes it harder, but I can still take a screen-grab to get the image if I want it.

A digital finger-print (stored in the image, but making such a small difference to the image quality), is possible, and would help to convict a culprit - but you've still got to find them :(

" Or is there a way that just board members can log on to see them?"

Yes, that would be possible, including logging who had seen it - which then gives you a hit list when you find its been illegally copied. Not straightforward to set up though.

 

If it's true post up the shop details

 

Interesting comments here.

First of all, it's really not possible to prevent copying of images. There are so many ways around things. Even the blocker that professionals use to prevent the 'right click and save image as' feature can be got around. A simple way is to 'copy image' or even do a screen shot if you're really determined!

Secondly, the suggestion of restricting access to members only seems good on the surface but a person needs only register and that's it.

It's much like anything on the web - you post it, you have, by implication, made it public domain.

I have a book on flags used in worship. I used a lot of images I got from Google searches. I made every effort to contact the originator of each image. Some were happy for me to use them provided I gave a notation which I was, of course, more than happy to do. A few made a small charge. One or two made prohibitive charges which I declined! But the majority just failed to respond. I have used the images anyway but keep a hard copy of my communications on file and also a disclaimer in the folio of the book.



Short answer: if you don't want to risk your images, don't post them. IOW - you can't stop it.