WARNING : important message, PLEASE read.............

[Tan Chor Eng]

When I was getting my degree in architecture school, one guy in my year was xeroxing an architecture plan, modifying it slightly and passing the final plan as his!

I think he should have xeroxed somebody's degree and pass it off as his. It would have saved him the trouble of spending five years in architecture school!

With regards to Mark's stolen property, what we have here is a 21st century forger - somebody posting an image on the web and claiming to be the original photographer. He forges the photographer part, not the photo itself.

Sorry to here about that Mark. This happened to me under different
circumstances. the sad thing is there is not much you can do about
it in reality. What I don't understand is why someone would do that
just to win a contest, something seriously wrong with this person.
--
Thanks,
JR

 

[Don Hughes]

http://www.imageevent.com/hughesimages

One of my images from one of the challenges was STOLEN by a low
life son of a itch and, posted at a photo sharing site called
DCFever.com

I posted this in STF also to warn them as well!

This REALLY pi_sses me off!!! I am posting this as a warning to
ANYONE and everyone on STF to be Very careful what you post on the
internet, where you post it and, who you are allowing to view it.

I will no longer be posting any image of note to the challenges....
no more!!

Sure, this could happen to ANYone, anywhere, at anytime. The fact
is though... it happened HERE at STF challenge and, if that person
can steal MY image, he can steal yours also and pawn it off as HIS
image as he did with my image.

SOmeone was nice enough at usefilm.com to tip me off as the the
theft and misrepresentation of my image on the DCFever.com website.
This is SUCH a bummer and really is discouraging to me to say the
least.

The important thing is: make sure if you ARE going to share an
image, that it's not one that is very important to you!!! I'm not
discouraging you from posting at the STF challenge...... just
telling you to beware WHAT you upload to make sure it's an image
you really do not care to much about!!!

here's the link to the jerk to stole my image, along with images of
OTHER STF MEMBERS IMAGES: Klaus Weise, Roberta F and a few others.

http://www.dcfever.com/photosharing/viewphoto.php?photoID=82897

And since the site takes SO long to open, here's the image place
holder where my WAS posted.......

and a second image showing the comments about the stealing of my image





AND, the actual image he STOLE and presented as HIS



I will tell you this: I will track down this low life and, I will
sue him for ANYTHING I can get....... anything!

Sorry to put a damper on your day......... mine also! :-(

 

[Mark J]

Thank you for expressing your concern and grief over this incident.

I usually post NO larger than a 640 x 480 image on the web. I have learned a great lesson from this.... that even that is not quite enough. Yes, that size will discouarge anyone from actually trying to sell the image, since at that size and at the image quality I am saving that image at, it's kind of worthless. However, it never dawned on me that anyone would actually take one of my images and become a forger by claiming it to be THEIRS, then posting it into an actual photo contest..... incredible, and NOT very smart on their part either I might add

From now on, ALL my images will have a watermark or signature prominentaly placed on the image. This will simply discourage idiots from doing what this thief did.... it will not be worth their time to have to clone out the watermark, they'll just steal someone elses image instead, sad to say.

Have a nice day today,
Mark J

Sorry to hear that your image and others got stolen. I hope the
idiot who did it is feeling very guilty from reading our comments,
and never to do such a stupid thing again. And I hope this issue
serve a warning to other people who are planning to steal images in
the same manner as well.

Is there a way to place a watermark on our images or hide our names
in the metadata area of our photos so that we can rightfully claim
ownership of our photos? My wife and I post a lot of photos in the
web and worldisround. So I'm concerned about this kind of theft.
Fortunately, my wife and I have been posting very small images on
the web to discourage theft.

One of my images from one of the challenges was STOLEN by a low
life son of a itch and, posted at a photo sharing site called
DCFever.com

I posted this in STF also to warn them as well!

 

[Mark J]

Thank you for the link, Don. It not a bad site but, at Smugmug.com I have the same right click disabled feature and a host of other features I find to be a great convenience, while protecting my work as well.

Just so you know (in case you don't) there are several ways AROUND the disabled right click feature, which I believe is simply a java script. Those who know better, will just be inconvenienced slightly if they want your image. In MY opinion, I would never, ever post an image larger than 640 x 480.... yours are currently 800 x 600 which is perfect for a nice desktop wallpaper or ?? on someone else's computer

This was a great learning experience for me.... that is for sure!! The lesson for me is not only to upload only small images at low quality jpeg (which is what I do now) but, to watermark the images in a way that would make it a pain in the ass to have to clone out.... or even be able to. The small image size already discourages attempts at selling the image to anyone... too small and pixilated (printed) to be meaningful. HOwever, be also watermarking the iamge or placing a signature on it, you are discouarging people like the thief who pawned off My image as HIS image.

Have a great day today,
Mark J

One of my images from one of the challenges was STOLEN by a low
life son of a itch and, posted at a photo sharing site called
DCFever.com

I posted this in STF also to warn them as well!

This REALLY pi_sses me off!!! I am posting this as a warning to
ANYONE and everyone on STF to be Very careful what you post on the
internet, where you post it and, who you are allowing to view it.

I will no longer be posting any image of note to the challenges....
no more!!

Sure, this could happen to ANYone, anywhere, at anytime. The fact
is though... it happened HERE at STF challenge and, if that person
can steal MY image, he can steal yours also and pawn it off as HIS
image as he did with my image.

SOmeone was nice enough at usefilm.com to tip me off as the the
theft and misrepresentation of my image on the DCFever.com website.
This is SUCH a bummer and really is discouraging to me to say the
least.

The important thing is: make sure if you ARE going to share an
image, that it's not one that is very important to you!!! I'm not
discouraging you from posting at the STF challenge...... just
telling you to beware WHAT you upload to make sure it's an image
you really do not care to much about!!!

here's the link to the jerk to stole my image, along with images of
OTHER STF MEMBERS IMAGES: Klaus Weise, Roberta F and a few others.

http://www.dcfever.com/photosharing/viewphoto.php?photoID=82897

And since the site takes SO long to open, here's the image place
holder where my WAS posted.......

and a second image showing the comments about the stealing of my image





AND, the actual image he STOLE and presented as HIS



I will tell you this: I will track down this low life and, I will
sue him for ANYTHING I can get....... anything!

Sorry to put a damper on your day......... mine also! :-(

 

[AHB]

Yes Volker......
All those heroic words......"hunting down"...and so on.
They are all hypocrits! You are completely right!!!

If you place pictures on the internet, you know the risks!!
It's very naive to think nothing is happening outside.

Of course it's wrong....but that's life!!

Regards, Arno

Let's just hope that all of you here who are so dismayed about what
happened to Mark's picture also respect other artists' copyrights,
that is to say, you use no illegal software and do not download
music/movies off the net................

I know I'm guilty..............

 

[Mark J]

Yes Volker......
All those heroic words......"hunting down"...and so on.
They are all hypocrits! You are completely right!!!

Are you stereotyping here??????????

If you are not, then would you please tell us who are "they"????

In addition, you sure do make one WIDE sweeping assumption with the words "all of them" aren't you?

Now: can we get OFF the politics and continue to discuss the incident at hand, so that others in this forum can learn something from my experience..... which is partly why I posted this message here to being with!!

Mark J

 

[AHB]

Hi,
I also find it a tremendous compliment whan someone uses my photo's.
Not a problem at all! I like it.

If you don't want that someone is stealing....don't put anything on the internet. It's an open door to expect everybody is honest.
Keep your both feet on the ground!!
Therefore the fellow that started this thread is a troll.
If we search his house we find lots of illegal software and music.
Hypocriet!!!!

Regards, Arno

I don't see why you are so upset.

Frankly I expect this to happen to images that I post on the internet.

If someone is making money from my pictures then that is different.
In that case I deserve a percentage which should have been
negotiated.

However if someone is posting my pictures on another site for
whatever reason, more luck to him. It's actually a good compliment
to me. If he's pretending that he shot them, then he's not being
very courteous to me. But if he thinks he's impressing anyone but
himself, he's wrong. Because if he keeps doing it eventually he'll
be discovered and shamed.

So sorry, but I don't see what all the fuss is about.

 

[PaulyOly]

have you tried tracking him thru his ICQ number as per that page....

Steve

Yes, Steve...... I've gotten a bit past that as well. I thank you
for the suggestion

Mark J

--
http://www.pbase.com/paulyoly/root

post is personal information so everyone who thinks he's a piece of shiot can send or email him a letter. do you have email addy?

 

[PaulyOly]

do you have NO principles? no scruples?

so easy to talk when it's NOT your image, isn't it?

People like you, that allow these things to go on!!! And you know
what...

when they STEAL YOUR image, we'll see how relaxed you are about it?
when they tell their thief friends......

"hey, I gotta sucker for you guys.... the guy didn't even go after
me after I stole his image, put it in a photo contest and called it
MINE! They'll be laughing at you and just waiting to steal your
next upload and call it theirs.

Believe me, I'm not nearly as bent out of shape over this as you
THINK I am but.......

Do you mind if i use this line when someone asked me what i'm getting all upset for, i figured i'd better ask first. I hope you get the sucka!
''''''
"""""""""""""""" I am going to aggressively pursue this in
"""""""""""""""" any way I can to remind this THIEF that if he wants to steal
'' someon'es image....
'' he's better off stealing YOURS
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I'm still laughing!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark J

I completely agree, Boardhead. The most anyone could do with an
image that's 1280x1024 or below is make/sell a nice screensaver. If
I had a higher-resolution image that I wanted to protect, say
because I was selling larger-sized fine art prints, I wouldn't
publish hi-res versions on the Internet.

• Zapped

More random EOS300D pics -
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?show_all=1&start=1&id=4289085949

--
http://www.pbase.com/paulyoly/root

 

[Mark J]

He he......... go ahead, Pauly, I have no claimed copyright for that statement LOL

I liked that line also

mark J

do you have NO principles? no scruples?

so easy to talk when it's NOT your image, isn't it?

People like you, that allow these things to go on!!! And you know
what...

when they STEAL YOUR image, we'll see how relaxed you are about it?
when they tell their thief friends......

"hey, I gotta sucker for you guys.... the guy didn't even go after
me after I stole his image, put it in a photo contest and called it
MINE! They'll be laughing at you and just waiting to steal your
next upload and call it theirs.

Believe me, I'm not nearly as bent out of shape over this as you
THINK I am but.......

Do you mind if i use this line when someone asked me what i'm
getting all upset for, i figured i'd better ask first. I hope you
get the sucka!
'
"""""""""""""""" I am going to aggressively pursue this in
"""""""""""""""" any way I can to remind this THIEF that if he
wants to steal
' someon'es image....
' he's better off stealing YOURS
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I'm still laughing!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark J

I completely agree, Boardhead. The most anyone could do with an
image that's 1280x1024 or below is make/sell a nice screensaver. If
I had a higher-resolution image that I wanted to protect, say
because I was selling larger-sized fine art prints, I wouldn't
publish hi-res versions on the Internet.

• Zapped

More random EOS300D pics -
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?show_all=1&start=1&id=4289085949

--
http://www.pbase.com/paulyoly/root

 

[guy w]

how arragant of YOU........ ofcourse I have a right to complain and
ofcourse because it's MINE!!!!!

Mark, so are you saying you have never commited any act of copyright infringement before? Or are you saying you have, but you don't care about that, and now your going to complain because it has happened to you?

Guy

 

[Mark J]

First: these ONLY apply to US copyright laws. You need to check on the laws as submitted by your own contry of origin. However, there IS a copyright law treaty of sorts between countries.... just so you know!

Direct from a "myths and truths" copyright website, VERY informative....
Here's the site link first: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

MYTH number 1.......
"If it doesn't have a copyright notice, it's not copyrighted."

This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not. The default you should assume for other people's works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise. There are some old works that lost protection without notice, but frankly you should not risk it unless you know for sure.

It is true that a notice strengthens the protection, by warning people, and by allowing one to get more and different damages, but it is not necessary. If it looks copyrighted, you should assume it is. This applies to pictures, too. You may not scan pictures from magazines and post them to the net, and if you come upon something unknown, you shouldn't post that either.

Direct from the US copyright office: regarding protections......
Copyright law basics, link: http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

Here's what US copyright law office has to say in general regarding your works........

This is the BEST part

The way in which copyright protection is secured is frequently misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action in the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. (See following Note.) There are, however, certain definite advantages to registration. See "Copyright Registration."

Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created, and a work is "created" when it is fixed in a copy or phonorecord for the first time. "Copies" are material objects from which a work can be read or visually perceived either directly or with the aid of a machine or device, such as books, manuscripts, sheet music, film, videotape, or microfilm. "Phonorecords" are material objects embodying fixations of sounds (excluding, by statutory definition, motion picture soundtracks), such as cassette tapes, CDs, or LPs. Thus, for example, a song (the "work") can be fixed in sheet music (" copies") or in phonograph disks (" phonorecords"), or both.

Have a nice day! Hope some of you feel informed now?

Mark J

 

[Jaymzz]

I played with it and found results were no longer acceptable over 250% enlargement. I guess at 800x600 that would be enough to pull off an OK 8x10.

I didn't find the GF results that much different than using bicubic upsize in steps in PS, so I never bothered buying a copy.

As far as small images go, can't someone just use something like
Genuine Fractals to uprez an image? Or do you need a certain size
to begin with for that application to be of any use?

 

[Don Hughes]

Mark,

Now that I'm on my home computer and have had time to go back through and read all of these posts within this thread, I see the right click situation and recommended posting size issue has already been adequately discussed. Had I read all these posts earlier, I obviously wouldn't have posted my site as an example.

None the less, thanks so much for your response and tips! I've resized all the photos on my site to 640 x 480. I checked out a couple other peoples underwater sites. I noted they too were posting at 640 x 480. Thanks also for posting the copyright links. I had the second one, but not the first one. Don

Just so you know (in case you don't) there are several ways AROUND
the disabled right click feature, which I believe is simply a java
script. Those who know better, will just be inconvenienced slightly
if they want your image. In MY opinion, I would never, ever post
an image larger than 640 x 480.... yours are currently 800 x 600
which is perfect for a nice desktop wallpaper or ?? on someone
else's computer

This was a great learning experience for me.... that is for sure!!
The lesson for me is not only to upload only small images at low
quality jpeg (which is what I do now) but, to watermark the images
in a way that would make it a pain in the ass to have to clone
out.... or even be able to. The small image size already
discourages attempts at selling the image to anyone... too small
and pixilated (printed) to be meaningful. HOwever, be also
watermarking the iamge or placing a signature on it, you are
discouarging people like the thief who pawned off My image as HIS
image.

Have a great day today,
Mark J

One of my images from one of the challenges was STOLEN by a low
life son of a itch and, posted at a photo sharing site called
DCFever.com

I posted this in STF also to warn them as well!

This REALLY pi_sses me off!!! I am posting this as a warning to
ANYONE and everyone on STF to be Very careful what you post on the
internet, where you post it and, who you are allowing to view it.

I will no longer be posting any image of note to the challenges....
no more!!

Sure, this could happen to ANYone, anywhere, at anytime. The fact
is though... it happened HERE at STF challenge and, if that person
can steal MY image, he can steal yours also and pawn it off as HIS
image as he did with my image.

SOmeone was nice enough at usefilm.com to tip me off as the the
theft and misrepresentation of my image on the DCFever.com website.
This is SUCH a bummer and really is discouraging to me to say the
least.

The important thing is: make sure if you ARE going to share an
image, that it's not one that is very important to you!!! I'm not
discouraging you from posting at the STF challenge...... just
telling you to beware WHAT you upload to make sure it's an image
you really do not care to much about!!!

here's the link to the jerk to stole my image, along with images of
OTHER STF MEMBERS IMAGES: Klaus Weise, Roberta F and a few others.

http://www.dcfever.com/photosharing/viewphoto.php?photoID=82897

And since the site takes SO long to open, here's the image place
holder where my WAS posted.......

and a second image showing the comments about the stealing of my image





AND, the actual image he STOLE and presented as HIS



I will tell you this: I will track down this low life and, I will
sue him for ANYTHING I can get....... anything!

Sorry to put a damper on your day......... mine also! :-(

 

[GVFool]

Direct from a "myths and truths" copyright website...

Here's the site link first:
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

MYTH number 1.......
"If it doesn't have a copyright notice, it's not copyrighted."
This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations
follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA,
almost everything created privately and originally after April 1,
1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not.
The default you should assume for other people's works is that they
are copyrighted and may not be copied UNLESS YOU KNOW OTHERWISE.

[Again, with apologies to all for bringing up a non-300D issue.]

Speaking of knowing otherwise, the Creative Commons provides ready-made licenses that enable people to specify up front what rights other people have to use the creative work in question (be it a photo, an essay, a song, or whatever). Licensors can choose from a number of different options, varying from strict terms to vary generous ones--all the way down to declaring the work to be part of the public domain, if desired.

The idea behind these licenses is that sharing and collaboration can be greatly facilitated if all parties understand the terms beforehand. The really nifty thing about it, though, is that the licenses are designed to be machine-readable, so you don't even necessarily have to speak the same language as the person who is interested in using your work.

This might not be useful in the case of contests--which may have licensing requirements of their own--but I certainly find it useful for some of my work. Does anyone else use CC licenses for their photographic work?

More information about CC licensing is available at the URL below.

http://creativecommons.org/

In particular, this section of the site may be of interest to some:

Photographers' and Illustrators' Corner
http://creativecommons.org/learn/artistscorners/photographers

--
--
Garden-variety Fool

 

[DavidHarris]

Same with me. FYI I'm using Internet Explorer 5.0 on a Mac, so I wonder if it's a Mac vs. PC issue.

David

John,

It was wonderul of you to provide that code. I wanted to see if it
would block me from copying one of your photos. It doesn't. You
might want to add a few more browsers to your block.

Diane

p.s. I'm not keeping your pic. I just wanted to see if I could.