Stolen images !

[Bimble]

Wayland,
Intellectual property is a bummer. It’s a sad fact of life that plagiarism is rife and ‘using’ other people’s internet content is considered, well, ‘open’ source by some.
I personally think that people who do this kind of a thing are of low morals, and ultimately such sad people deserve our pity as they will never achieve anything worthwhile with their lives. They foolishly believe in something for nothing which is a delusion. This behaviour permeates their character, their social interactions and even close personal relationships. What a waste of their precious life.
In order to have any legal comeback you must have stated on your website a copyright statement. Failure to do so would mean that if you take the person to court you will succeed in getting them to remove your images, but you will be left with your half of the legal bill. Litigation should only ever be a last resort, as only the lawyers ultimately win in civil cases.
If I were you I’d write to EBay and tell them that you are considering legal action against them unless they get the image removed immediately. This sounds daft, but they make a profit from every transaction made and so are implicit in the theft if copyrighted information is used. They will just press a button and his account will disappear in a nano-second rather than even bother to question him.
Just some thoughts.....

 

[fishfish]

Maybe digitally watermark your images to avoid this happening again and protect your Intellectual Property.

Nick

how is that done?

 

[Wallenstein]

how is that done?

https://www.digimarc.com/mypicturemarc/how-it-works/default.asp

 

[Wayland]

Just looked at his shop and fo the most part it seems to be mis-labelled tat!

All the more reason I didn't want to be associated with it.

 

[saddle_tramp]

found the middle pic here

http://holidayinfo.wordpress.com/2008/03/

Im sure thats it. . . just looked distorted in his ad. So does this mean it was property of a certain RM ?

 

[Wayland]

found the middle pic here

http://holidayinfo.wordpress.com/2008/03/

Im sure thats it. . . just looked distorted in his ad. So does this mean it was property of a certain RM ?

I'd say that's exactly what it means.

Good job I found out about it first, I've heard Ray doesn't take prisoners.

 

[LazySod]

Found this image search engine, you upload an image, and it searches for similar images on the web.

Dont know if it's any good or not, but it might come in useful.

http://tineye.com/

P.S. It costs nowt.

 

[Aliwren]

Does this look familiar

http://www.madbearoutdoors.co.uk/categories.asp?cat=13

 

[hiho]

the smiles get better Wayland

 

[squantrill]

Ok so.. Big business knows the law has a legal department.. has a budget for buying images.
Young lad in his bedroom trying to get in on the boom business cheaply for bushcraft selling on the internet.. Probabaly brought up downloading mp3 movies etc and thinks nothing of downloading and using an image off the internet as its free right ?



I think the only way to keep your rights on photos on the net is to use copyright information in the exif and physically watermark them!!, and even this will not solve them being stolen but will prove that they are infact your photos!. I wrote a script a while back (linux) to do just that I take photos off the camara resize them and stick a copyright notice on all the photos before I use them anywhere. Although my photos are rubbish and nobody would want them

I think people should be educated in the digital theft!! as it is certainly not the way to go..

 

[Wayland]

Found this image search engine, you upload an image, and it searches for similar images on the web.

Dont know if it's any good or not, but it might come in useful.

http://tineye.com/

P.S. It costs nowt.

Thanks, that looks really useful.

Does this look familiar

http://www.madbearoutdoors.co.uk/categories.asp?cat=13

Well done, I think that's no. 3 alright.

With this info, combined with what we already know I should be able to put the fear of god into this guy so he'll never try this sort of thing again.

Ok so.. Big business knows the law has a legal department.. has a budget for buying images.
Young lad in his bedroom trying to get in on the boom business cheaply for bushcraft selling on the internet.. Probabaly brought up downloading mp3 movies etc and thinks nothing of downloading and using an image off the internet as its free right ?



I think the only way to keep your rights on photos on the net is to use copyright information in the exif and physically watermark them!!, and even this will not solve them being stolen but will prove that they are infact your photos!. I wrote a script a while back (linux) to do just that I take photos off the camara resize them and stick a copyright notice on all the photos before I use them anywhere. Although my photos are rubbish and nobody would want them

I think people should be educated in the digital theft!! as it is certainly not the way to go..

The problem with exif. is it won't stand up to manipulation.

This picture for example is a combination of three shots, if it's saved as a jepg it will retain one set of exif data.

If it's saved to web from Photoshop after combination though, the exif. is usually ditched.

I'm going to have a play with that search engine tomorrow....

 

[Eric_Methven]

Does anyone know of a stock legal speak letter to send to someone who does this?
Care to share? (So long as it's not copyrighted).

Eric

 

[maddave]

Found this image search engine, you upload an image, and it searches for similar images on the web.

Dont know if it's any good or not, but it might come in useful.

http://tineye.com/

P.S. It costs nowt.

Tineye rocks !!

 

[Jared]

Does this look familiar

http://www.madbearoutdoors.co.uk/categories.asp?cat=13

Ahah!

I initially thought it was off unbeatentracks.co.uk as they sold cast iron kit. But couldn't find it. Didn't think of madbear.

 

[Too Much Kit To Carry]

Hi Gary,

Shame you have had your pictures ripped off and it must be really upsetting with all the effort that you have put in but instead of getting heavy handed, making threats, etc. to people that have used your images how about asking for a credit and a link to your websites?

It could help you boost your reputation as Bathe It Daily or was it David Baily

Cheers,

Phil.

 

[Wayland]

Hi Gary,

Shame you have had your pictures ripped off and it must be really upsetting with all the effort that you have put in but instead of getting heavy handed, making threats, etc. to people that have used your images how about asking for a credit and a link to your websites?

It could help you boost your reputation as Bathe It Daily or was it David Baily

Cheers,

Phil.

If it had been an even slightly reputable company I would have considered that but firstly, he did not ask and relied on the fact that I might not find out.

Secondly, he is selling real tat and frankly I would not want anyone to think I had anything to do with his outfit.

Some reputation is not worth having.

Cattle die, kindred die,
we ourselves also die;
but the fair fame never dies
of him who has earned it.

(Havamal)

 

[sapper1]

Wayland , after reading lots of your posts and hearing how highly thought of you and your opinions are,then visiting your website I would seriously consider buying from another site that had a picture of you in its banner.
Perhaps this is what this person has done ,a well known outdoorsman with his pcture on someone elses site does seem to say that you endorse him,his business and his products.
Throw the book at him mate.

 

[Wayland]

He's taken it down after a warning shot across his bows.

I think that's job done for now. I will be sending him another post to show that he is being watched and that we know where all the images are from.

If there's any more trouble I'll set Ray's legal team on him....

 

[ANDYRAF]

I agree with Sapper1 if I had come across that ad I too would have assumed a connection with your good self. Mind you I would have soon noticed the rip off kit though.

Andy

 

[Wayland]

I have just sent him this final message so there can be no misunderstanding.

.

Thank you for removing the image.

It is a common mistake to believe that images found on the internet are free for use.

Copyright is automatic and images are the property of the photographer, so unauthorised use is theft in the same way that bootlegging a film is theft.

In addition to this, the use of a recognisable person without a valid model release in an advertising image, is also a civil offence as they could reasonably be interpreted as endorsing your product.

I know the owners of all three pictures that were used in your logo now and I will be watching to make sure there is no similar infraction on your sites in the future.

One of the other image owners is not normally so forgiving and has successfully sued a number of sites for similar offenses before.

Consider this a friendly warning.