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

[nephmon]

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

Well since all anyone has to go on is the language you use in your posts, it's hardly surprising if people get the impression that you're in a barely controled range about this. Maybe you should try moderating your language to better reflect what you really feel.

Regards,
Neph

 

[codec]

as long as you can see the photo,it's in your $, and you can always go there and pick it up.

Breaching copyright is certain to raise the hackles and it has
created a fair discussion here. For those interested this is the
code I use on my picture pages.

function right(e) { if (navigator.appName == 'Netscape' && (e.which
== 3 e.which == 2)) return false; else if (navigator.appName ==
'Microsoft Internet Explorer' && (event.button == 2 event.button
== 3)) { alert("Please respect my copyright. Thank you."); return
false; } return true; } document.onmousedown=right; if
(document.layers) window.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);
window.onmousedown=right;
End -->

Of course you can change the wording to suit.

I realise it is no defence against the ardent hacker but for most I
hope seeing the "Please respect my copyright. Thank you." message
will make them stop and think.

Watermarking would be better but is expensive and I could not
justify that. The anti right-click and a copyright message will
have to do for me.

Regards
John
http://www.soqotra.info

 

[JRMartin]

Maybe look at this as the ultimate compliment. When this happened to me I was mad at first but my wife cluded me in by saying "if your work is worth stealing that means you're doing something right". I don't make my living doing this so no harm was done to me fiancially, I don't know if this is the case with you. By the way, I do like the picture they stole. Good work.

--
Thanks, JR.

 

[codec]

it's a huge market as long as someone gets hands on....before Napster was forced to shut down, thousands of millions of people downloaded the music eveyday...yeah, if you can download 1000 songs w/o a penny, why pay $13 to buy just 10?

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..............

 

[Mikael]

First off... What tells you it's a he?

Second. I would feel honoured if somebody thought my picture was good enough to risk a leg for and "steal". Stealing in the digital age means the the original is still left. You've lost nothing, at least not physically.

 

[Justme]

There's no pricing info on the site (that I can find) which usually means big $$$ You can contact them via email.
http://www.digimarc.com/products/default.asp

Just wanted to clarify some terminology that might be a little
confusing.

I have a feeling that when most people say "watermarking" an image
they're talking about adding a visual mark - a copyright
statement, drop shadowed text, etc.

However "digital watermarking", the kind offered by Digimarc, is
essentially invisible to the naked eye. It adds what seems to be
minor invisible noise to an image that can then be later read out
as data. Chances are your eyes won't know the difference between
the before and after versions. Think of it as a nearly invisible
UPC code stamped onto your image. That data identifies the owner of
the image and - if you pay extra - Digimarc will proactively spider
out/search for illegal copies of your image.

Digimarc costs money and is not fool-proof, but it is (as far as I
know) the most protection you can have on a publicly-available
digital image.

--disclaimer: I don't work for Digimarc nor do I use their service.
Only posting Web-sized images is my deterrent (and I really dislike
embedding a visual copyright statement).

 

[JohnDow]

Never forgive. Hunt him down and make him eat a copy of it. Once he has swallowed an 8x10 of it, let him off with a warning. Or her if it is a she.

Ask yourself. After all, how badly your life was hurt. You are
right, but if you relax a little, you will see that only your ego
was wounded. Is it so big?

It's a picture man. How precious can be? Forgive him.

John

 

[Boardhead]

Hi Mark,

Believe me, I know what it feels like. I have been maintaining web sites for the last 10 years which host pictures I have taken. Over the years, my pictures have been used in many ways without my permission. I know what it feels like to have a picture 'stolen', and it doesn't bother me one bit provided the picture is used for non-profit and in a positive way.

I can't read the text from the post where your picture was used, so I don't know what they said about it, but it couldn't be worse than the way some of my pictures have been used over the years. I'll tell you it hurts worse when the picture is used in a direct attack on you, or worse yet, an attack on the person who is the subject of your photograph.

But it happens, and life goes on.

And for every one time someone has used a picture of mine in that way, there were ten times when a picture was used in a positive way.

Which case you decide to focus on is of course your own choice.

Yeah right!!!

Tell me this Mr. happy go lucky.........

how "bout I BORROW YOUR mint condition (fill in the blanks)
collectors car that YOU designed and never give it back and tell
everyone in my neighborhood I just bought it and it's mine?

Sure you'd feel so lax about someone BORROWING your property then?

And don't try to say it's not a valid example..... a different one
but, not an invalid one. Someone STEALS your property, they don't
try to sell it, tells everyone it's his, and displays it for all
the world to see?

We'd see just how honky dory things would be in your house that night?



Mark J

 

[GVFool]

how "bout I BORROW YOUR mint condition (fill in the blanks)
collectors car that YOU designed and never give it back and tell
everyone in my neighborhood I just bought it and it's mine?

[snip]

And don't try to say it's not a valid example..... a different one
but, not an invalid one. Someone STEALS your property, they don't
try to sell it, tells everyone it's his, and displays it for all
the world to see?

With apologies to all for going a bit off-topic, it might be worth pointing out that a digital image is a nonrivalrous resource (in the sense that it is not "used up" simply by its use), but a car is not. This person's use of your image does not interfere with your ability to use it--certainly not in the same way that someone else's possession of your car would.

It could, of course, interfere with your ability to make a profit from your creative work, which is the point where you could pursue compensation through legal action. In this case, unless you have actually suffered some financial setback as a result of this theft, it is probably not worth the time, expense, and downright hassle of legal action--unless your desire to exact revenge is really so strong that you are willing to take such measures.

As others have mentioned, though, there are no truly reliable ways to prevent this kind of behavior--not on a global scale, anyway. The best approach, I feel, is to take whatever steps you deem appropriate to protect your work (watermarking and similar manipulations, for example) and to simply acknowledge that there is some measure of risk involved in putting your work online, where all of the world can get it. If your work is too valuable to take such a risk (which is relatively small, but not negligible), think twice about whether you really want to put it online in the first place.

Of course, I've been known to say foolish things before... ;-)

--
--
Garden-variety Fool

 

[Tony Hall]

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! :-(

--
Tony

 

[TraceyE]

I have had many images stolen (not ones from my Dreb) and have had people copy entire websites I've designed and ALL of them were discontinued by the ISP and images were removed. For hotlinking graphics, just remove that graphic and put a nice "nasty" one in it's place and rename yours.

It's not nice to have images stolen and you can do something about it.

I also like to do a screen capture of the thief's page(s) and then publish it on one of my sites with a nice word or 2 or 3 about copyright theft, etc. and send the link to the ISP and to the offender and have even gone so far (for the really hardcore thieves) as listing the copyright infringement page with their "work" with google.com and boy, did that work like a charm in having them pull the work they stole.

Sorry for the diatribute, but I'm a firm believer in copyright and intellectual property and I DETEST copyright infringement/thieves.

Tracey
--
http://www.pbase.com/traceye/
***********************************
If you make it idiot proof,
someone will design a better idiot.
***********************************

 

[TraceyE]

So, if you owned a really nice truck and I came over and saw it, liked it and stole it, that would be okay and you would feel honoured? Eeeeek!!!!!!!! LOL!!

Copyright Theft/Infringement and Intellectual Property theft is a big deal and the more people who realize that, the better.

Tracey

--
http://www.pbase.com/traceye/
***********************************
If you make it idiot proof,
someone will design a better idiot.
***********************************

 

[deepak rao]

although i am not concerned that mine being stolen......might not
be worth, or i'd be flattered...lol...but it's good to know: is
there existing feature in PS or other photo editing software that
allows you to do the watermarking?

Exifer allows you to put a visible watermark in your images and its a freeware.

--
Deepak

[email protected]

 

[Asmordean]

Mark J

Here is a quick and simple method of marking an image to make sure people know whose it is.



True, you can clone it out but it would be very tedious and probably not worth the effort.

 

[Mark J]

fortunately, I don't believe he is in China but.......

never say never

Mark J

That pics will get stolen on these pages lies in the nature of
things. I did come across a page once though where copying was not
possible, whenever the right button was clicked, a message popped
up saying :This picture is copyrighted and cannot be copied.

Don't ask me how it was done, no idea.

Volker

Mark J,

There have been lots of images stolen from pbase as well. It is
one thing for someone to steal your work and post it to a website,
but another to steal your work and sell it for profit as stock
photography.

Just so you know: copyright law in the U.S. and internationally
now.........

has a MINIMUM $10,000 U.S. dollar fine for copyright
infringement........
EVEN if the image was not actually sold for profit or at all. Just
the stealing of it alone...... warrants the fine!!!!!!!!

Thanks for trying to make me feel better with your kind words about
my work but, this is not a good day to accept compliments.... I'm
in a bummed mood now. Thank you anyway.

Mark J

This is just another reason to make sure you upload

images no greater than 600 x 800 pixels in size to pbase or any
other web photo site that is open to the public. If someone is
going to submit your work as stock photography, they will need the
full sized image to do them any good. This is what was happening
at pbase. The thefts were all of full sized images!

Sorry to hear of your problem, Mark. I would be outraged on one
hand, but also flattered on the other. You gotta admit, this thief
has good tastes in recognizing good photography!

Cheers,

jim

--
Shoot more, ***** less!
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3

 

[Mark J]

THANK you, TraceyE.........

someone with common sense speaks!!!!

There's NO honor in theft.....

not for the thief, not for the person who was robbed. Only the thief WINS......... if you let them get away with it and, if you DO let them get away with it and do nothing at all, you are merely encouraging it MORE!!

(if I don't care, why should they care?)

Mark J

So, if you owned a really nice truck and I came over and saw it,
liked it and stole it, that would be okay and you would feel
honoured? Eeeeek!!!!!!!! LOL!!

Copyright Theft/Infringement and Intellectual Property theft is a
big deal and the more people who realize that, the better.

Tracey

--
http://www.pbase.com/traceye/
***********************************
If you make it idiot proof,
someone will design a better idiot.
***********************************

 

[Pixeltickler]

For those interested this is the
code I use on my picture pages.

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.

 

[CoalXMan]

First off the Size of the Picture is really useless to anyone, for any real means, that is important for you to uderstand.

Second the Picture was Good, the Idea was great, so no matter how you posted the pictures, the idea for the pictures was given away the moment you decided to share your work with others to see, that you cannot stop.

Just imagine had you posted a full size rez of the picture, now you would have something to cry about.

As for the person who posted your pic, and created this Nightmare for you, Thank him for being an idiot and bringing your attention to a Security Breech in your life.

Now you can breathe out slowly.

What good is being a photogopher if you can only FOCUS on the bad things, try looking for what good came out of this.

At this point I could write the List for you.

Once you learn how to BREATHE LIFE IN AND OUT LIKE THIS, you will have a new skill at coping with some of the Insanity injected into it.

Anybody care to start the List of great things that came out of this.?

THE GREAT THINGS LIST?

1.
--
Those rare few who have mastered the pixel, can one day wield the
almighty weapons that capture time and space.

 

[CoalXMan]

Copyright Theft/Infringement and Intellectual Property theft is a
big deal and the more people who realize that, the better.

OK tracey, you sort of have to learn how to walk the talk, and your images are not marked, not saying your an idiot for not marking them, just saying you left your windows wide open, when their is a burglar in the neighborhood, hummmmmm.

--
http://www.pbase.com/traceye/
***********************************
If you make it idiot proof,
someone will design a better idiot.
***********************************

--
Those rare few who have mastered the pixel, can one day wield the
almighty weapons that capture time and space.

 

[Pixeltickler]

There's no pricing info on the site (that I can find) which usually
means big $$$ You can contact them via email.
http://www.digimarc.com/products/default.asp

I did find pricing after a little digging. There were two each of a bronze, silver and gold package. Bronze was about $50 for marking 100 photos and $30 more for the spidering/web searching. It went up from there.

Diane