Fake!

hockeynut · Feb 25, 2004

but in this day and age, we don't even know if he did it. Someone else could have done it, hoping he takes the blame. Servers are compromised all the time. Personally, the odds are that he consciously copied your stuff... but it is very easy to say that someon planted a trojan, and voila!

If this were the US, a good lawyer would subpoena the server logs for your ISP and his. Some simple detective work would tell you if this person is guilty or not.

Too many people think that they can commit crimes on the internet anonymously. The truth is, everyone leaves a trail, and the really determined people can un-earth that trail.

It's probably some teen-aged kid with an identity crisis, trying to impress someone else. What would be funniest would be to find out who the clown is, drive over, and try to get a photograph of the thief, along with contact details like name, address, phone number, and post signs in his neighborhood saying "Website Thief" with picture and contact info.

CoalXMan · Feb 25, 2004

He seems completley harmless, I bet he dose not even know he has done something wrong, just write and email stating that your flattered that he loves your work, but you need him to take down just a couple pictures that he used to flatter you with.

Translated all his page from Dutch to English.
--
Those rare few who have mastered the pixel, can one day wield the
almighty weapons that capture time and space.

Tomash Bednarz · Feb 25, 2004

Bas Meelker said:
Hi everyone!

This ..... me off. This guy: http://home.hetnet.nl/~hdeback/ ripped
my photo's. He tried to make a copy of my site and uses my photo's
for his gallery! Photo's which i took and he is claiming to be the
photographer. I'm taking legal action against this one, because of
my copyright.

It's the first time something like this has happend to me and i can
tell you, it makes me very angry. It feels like someone broke into
my house. The person who did this has a total disrespect for the
work of a photographer and the effort, passion and time we put into
making photographs.

The 'real thing' can be seen at http://www.webxsited.com .

Regards,
Bas Meelker
Bas Meelker Photography

Milind Rao · Feb 25, 2004

Frankly, I don't understand what the big deal is about people linking or copying your photographs and even claiming it as their own.

If someone did that to my photos, I'd not feel 'violated', or 'ripped off', or.... I'd feel flattered.

Why do you take photos? To satisfy your creative desires, for your pleasure and to show them to others. Does someone taking your photos reduce any of that? Probably your photos are now being seen by more people - People whom you may not have been able to reach. Or do you take photos for people to praise you? As an aside, your photos are truly wonderful. But do you care that I loved them or because I praised you? Does it really matter?

If one were a professional photographer depending on them as a livelihood, then of course it's another matter.

Otherwise, don't sweat the small things in life.

--
Regards
Milind

Zidar162589 · Feb 25, 2004

When I lived in San Francisco one of my neighbors had some nice tilework in front of his house, which was on a hill. Some skateboarders trashed it doing their thing. He confronted them and one of the skaters said "you should be honored to have us skating on your stupid tile!" My friend got an aluminum baseball bat out of the garage and beat the you-know-what out of the moron.

Respect others and their property....

James Mason

Milind Rao said:
Frankly, I don't understand what the big deal is about people
linking or copying your photographs and even claiming it as their
own.

If someone did that to my photos, I'd not feel 'violated', or
'ripped off', or.... I'd feel flattered.

--
'He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond
the pale of any acceptable human conduct.'

Apocalypse Now

jesus · Feb 25, 2004

First of all, anything that is taken without permission is thief. If he really admire this gallery, he should have asked first before posting it on his own site.

I agree and disagree with some of you. After many years and hard work, I would feel proud when someone visits my site and compliments. But at the same time, I would feel horrible if I know that after all that hard work, someone is posting my work some place else without even notifying me.

Since this is out of the country (USA) I don’t know what advise to give you. I would suggest rebuilding your site and adding some type of watermark on your photo stating that you are the Photographer; second I would prevent the “No Right Click” feature on the site. This will prevent most Internet users from downloading your photos from the Internet.

http://javascript.internet.com/page-details/disable-images-click.html

Also, I would file for an Official Copyright for all of your photos

http://www.officialsoftware.com/portal/default-osw.asp

Other than that, I don’t know what else you can do to take action on this Thief.

By the way, how did you find out? I’m sure a lot of us here would be interested to know since many of us have web pages and would not like the same thing to happen to us.

Thanks

Juan luis210283 · Feb 25, 2004

Oh man that is terrible.
i ve heard of these situations happening so many times online.

best of luck

Newk said:
Terrible, just terrible that anyone would do this!

I once had someone rip off a poem that my late wife wrote. It
became so popular on the internet that others ripped it off from
the original thief, most claiming to be the author of the piece and
some listing the author as "Unknown".

I contacted all that I could find and most removed it from their
websites; one fella still insisted he wrote it, "even though you do
have the copyright." Really?

I finally removed the poem from my website, as there were so many
others who claimed it as their own I didn't want to tarnish the
site with any doubts others may have had about who wrote the poem.

I'm just telling you all this so you'll understand when I say, I
know how you must feel.

--
Focus my friend...

Bas Meelker · Feb 26, 2004

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for all the support everyone gave me. And to all the ones who send this guy a message: It helped! Today he took all of my pictures of his site and replaced them by his own.

Still no reply and no appology but anyway a good result.

Thought of letting you know.
Again many thanks!

Regards,
Bas Meelker
Bas Meelker Photography

Chris Charlton · Feb 26, 2004

Abu Mumia said:
When I lived in San Francisco one of my neighbors had some nice
tilework in front of his house, which was on a hill. Some
skateboarders trashed it doing their thing. He confronted them and
one of the skaters said "you should be honored to have us skating
on your stupid tile!"

Ok..

Zidar162589 said:
My friend got an aluminum baseball bat out of
the garage and beat the you-know-what out of the moron.

He beat someone with a baseball bat because they scratched his tiles? I hope I don't run into your friends and look at them the wrong way :O(

Zidar162589 said:
Respect others and their property....

Or they'll be brutally beaten?

Zidar162589 said:
James Mason

Milind Rao said:

Frankly, I don't understand what the big deal is about people
linking or copying your photographs and even claiming it as their
own.

If someone did that to my photos, I'd not feel 'violated', or
'ripped off', or.... I'd feel flattered.

Click to expand...

--
'He's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond
the pale of any acceptable human conduct.'

Apocalypse Now

mikey1003 · Feb 26, 2004

This iis an interesting resolution to an interesting problem. Undortunately, copyrite and trademark laws are very different in different countries. Many major US companies are finding problems with long term trademarks abroad.

My company is severely tied up in a certain South American country. Someone registered our trademark and is trying to charge us to ship into his country. I cannot be more definative than that.

As for image rights, I don't have a clue. I would guess that it is a legal nightmare out there.

I am glad that this board exists and this community took it into their own hands to innundate the thief.

Bas Meelker said:
Hi everyone,

Many thanks for all the support everyone gave me. And to all the
ones who send this guy a message: It helped! Today he took all of
my pictures of his site and replaced them by his own.

Still no reply and no appology but anyway a good result.

Thought of letting you know.
Again many thanks!

Regards,
Bas Meelker
Bas Meelker Photography

Jung57676 · Feb 26, 2004

Well put.

One time at group gathering I tooked a group photo which later was published in a small paper. The writer of the article was in the photo, and he credited the photo to himself. I thought it was funny.

While I do respect people's sense of ownership by and large, I do feel that in the big picture ownership doesn't mean much if anything. If I have enough money to buy an island, it would seem ridiculous to me that the rest of the world may be prevented from taking a stroll on it because it is 'mine.'

Yes, I would feel offended if someone walked into my house and stayed a month without asking my permission,but I would perhaps just raise my eyebrows a little if that same person would walk in, get a glass of water then leave.

I figure some day I will die and all the things I "own" wouldn't matter to me at all. I just like to have them now because they make my life more comfortable (at least I think so). But, considering the age of the universe and how short mine is, ownership is a temporary thing. Why get bent out of shape. There seem to be so much more to explore before it's over.

Milind Rao said:
Frankly, I don't understand what the big deal is about people
linking or copying your photographs and even claiming it as their
own.

If someone did that to my photos, I'd not feel 'violated', or
'ripped off', or.... I'd feel flattered.

Why do you take photos? To satisfy your creative desires, for your
pleasure and to show them to others. Does someone taking your
photos reduce any of that? Probably your photos are now being seen
by more people - People whom you may not have been able to reach.
Or do you take photos for people to praise you? As an aside, your
photos are truly wonderful. But do you care that I loved them or
because I praised you? Does it really matter?

If one were a professional photographer depending on them as a
livelihood, then of course it's another matter.

Otherwise, don't sweat the small things in life.

--
Regards
Milind

MilesTHD · Feb 26, 2004

Bas Meelker said:
Hi everyone!

This ..... me off. This guy: http://home.hetnet.nl/~hdeback/ ripped
my photo's. He tried to make a copy of my site and uses my photo's
for his gallery! Photo's which i took and he is claiming to be the
photographer. I'm taking legal action against this one, because of
my copyright.

It's the first time something like this has happend to me and i can
tell you, it makes me very angry. It feels like someone broke into
my house. The person who did this has a total disrespect for the
work of a photographer and the effort, passion and time we put into
making photographs.

The 'real thing' can be seen at http://www.webxsited.com .

Regards,
Bas Meelker
Bas Meelker Photography

--
M

Dereck Willis48085 · Feb 26, 2004

First of all, let me say Bas, you have some excellent photographs on your website. I have 2 suggestions concerning your images....(1) As others have suggested, put a copyright (c) Bas, etc Photography on the images and (2) Don't put images on the web so large in size. For example, when I click on your images, it opens a very large image (800px in width or height). Although this is great for viewing, it is also an easy target for those wanting to "borrow" your photographs. Also, anyone can print off an acceptable 4x6 print with only 640x480 resolution. At least if it has your (c) in the bottom corner, they remember who's picture they printed!

I'm glad to hear the pictures were removed.

-Dereck
--
Visit My Website!
http://www.dereckwillis.com

Mikey's_World · Feb 26, 2004

He does link it to your original site, dude! It's a blurred line but he doesn't outright say it's his... Just my .02!

Mike
------------------------------------

PhilMarshall said:
Phil

Bas Meelker said:

Hi everyone!

This ..... me off. This guy: http://home.hetnet.nl/~hdeback/ ripped
my photo's. He tried to make a copy of my site and uses my photo's
for his gallery! Photo's which i took and he is claiming to be the
photographer. I'm taking legal action against this one, because of
my copyright.

It's the first time something like this has happend to me and i can
tell you, it makes me very angry. It feels like someone broke into
my house. The person who did this has a total disrespect for the
work of a photographer and the effort, passion and time we put into
making photographs.

The 'real thing' can be seen at http://www.webxsited.com .

Regards,
Bas Meelker
Bas Meelker Photography

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/whqttt/

--
'Get rid of those damn angles! The shortest distance is a straight line.'

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Fake!

hockeynut

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CoalXMan

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Tomash Bednarz

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Milind Rao

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Zidar162589

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jesus

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Juan luis210283

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Bas Meelker

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Chris Charlton

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mikey1003

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Jung57676

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MilesTHD

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Dereck Willis48085

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Mikey's_World

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