(And at the same time lie to all of your FRIENDS who say – wow what a beautiful photo…and you say thank you?) NICE FRIEND? {UM, I DON‘T THINK SO.}
Have you ever noticed all the photos with no caption and you ask about it and never get an answer, no mention of what kind of camera was used or where it was taken?
TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION!
The other night my Internet protection source suggested I update to their latest edition. Since I love the service they provide I said YES and then had to go to bed while they did their magic because it took forever. Even with my high speed…
How surprised do you think I was in the morning when I checked out my new and stronger protection system while turning on Gather and found (are you ready for this)?
Photos stolen (oops I mean borrowed) from the Internet were all flagged with the web site of the original photo attached. WOW!
Well, since this is a sore subject to me, I went running to the two Gatherites I KNOW don’t own a camera because 99% of their offerings to Gather are not theirs. Low and behold not every photo was flagged but many were it made me laugh out loud.
Now, before you jump all over me, let me say I’m not a camera snob. If you don’t own a camera or have a huge case of photo envy, as far as I’m concerned you can post from the Internet BUT do it honestly and say…. IT’S NOT MY PHOTO BUT I THOUGHT I’D SHARE. (Check out the publishing rules and regulations.)
This topic has been broached a million times and there is a line drawn down the middle of Gather between those who say honor intellectual property of others and those who say; if its out there I can lay claim to it. I prefer the side of truth and justice and creativity.
So, if on my PC this can happen, perhaps Gather should look into this type of technology. Obviously it is around and I would think a site like “Gather” who must worry about being sued would be able to find a creative way to use this technology to their advantage.
My Internet Protection is from Symantec.
I had to do some adjustments to make it possible for me to use my Gather account to look at and comment on photos and articles after my upgrade. By making those changes, I’ve lost the magic. I can still see items from photo bucket, flickr and a few other sites but not all the sites anymore – damn, it was so much fun and now its gone.
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Comments: 105
Ronald, I've considered marking my photos, but never have. Does everyone here do that? Do you all think it's a good idea to sign or watermark your photos with a logo?
As do I. I've seen many, many people here take credit and profit from work that is not theirs. I don't know how some of them sleep at night. One word of advice: if you do decide to report the liars and thieves, do so anonymously.
Personally, I have started watermarking my best photos, the ones special to me, but I don't bother with all my postings.
Another issue is that in order for a watermark to be effective it really needs to be in the middle of the pic so it can't be cropped out by the thief. I really don't like to see my photos marred with writing across the middle, however faint. I'm still going around in my head about that one.
It's a difficult issue, but I do agree with Kyra--if I suspect that someone steals their photos, I deny their connection request, or I sever the connection if it somehow has slipped by me.
Great article +10
No place is safe on the Internet - I've seen photos from Webshots here too. I'm thinking of getting rid of my albums there.
http://www.uconomix.com/ I use a free program called U Mark Lite 1.1 to mark my photos. I've only recently started doing it. It take a bit of playing around with the program but the end result is good.
I don't know if it's important to mark the photos, but it makes me feel better so I will.
Dan I'm sorry your photo was stolen. I borrowed one of yours for a day to use as my wall paper but I never keep other Gatherites photos. Your blackbird and cat tails was pretty nice. Did you ever contact the person who stole your photo or contact a lawyer?
When it comes right down to it if you share it some people may copy it.
I don't give 10's to people who obviously didn't take the picture.
Some people do it knowingly and others just don't have the smarts to know that it is morally wrong.
I once participated in an art exhibition with a teacher and group of fellow students. The teacher had used the space before which was in a converted warehouse and I noticed that there was no security whatsoever. I asked her what would happen if some of my art was stolen and she just smiled and said that I should take it as a compliment.
I take the same attitude to whatever I upload to Gather and also at Webshots where people are free to download any of the images and use them for screensavers. Webshots even provides statistics on how many downloads of your images have been done each week and I feel pleased when those stats are high. If I have any images I feel might have commercial value I withhold those and might only upload them after I have offered them for sale elsewhere.
There is always the consolation that your own copy of an image is likely to be at much higher resolution than anything which can be downloaded from the web and should it ever be necessary to prove ownership your original is likely to have a date and time stamp from the camera, which can be found by clicking on 'properties' with your image enhancement software.
Copyright is also something which is open to interpretation. If you download an image of the Mona Lisa and use some Photoshop filters to make it look slightly different, then the resulting image is yours and you now own the intellectual rights to it.
I think of uploading an image as sharing. If someone wants to take it and pass it off as their own(without any modification,) then I feel sorry for them that they wouldn't prefer to be showing something they themselves have created.
Interesting Jan L, your thoughts are so similar to mine but so different. As an artist who used to do a lot of art and craft shows, I was always NOT complimented by people trying to photograph my work or drawing sketches so they could go home and copy it. Rarely was it literally stolen off the wall but it was stolen off the wall if you get my drift. I was and still remain nasty to those that attempt to do that. My suggestion to those who behave that way is to buy one and then they have purchased the pattern.
In the past, when this subject has been brought up there always were two sides.
I'm wondering now that the technology is here to identify those who steal, if they have decided to keep their opinions to themselves. Perhaps steal is too harsh - it always used to be a discussion of who owns what, copyright laws and personal intellectual property rights.
How are they taken - our non creative gatherites just look for pretty pictures anywhere on the internet - perhaps doing a search for a certain flower, a cat, etc. You find the photo you like, copy it and put it on your computer someplace and then upload it to Gather and pretend its your own if you don't care about hosesty and honor, or upload it to Gather and say - I found this on the Internet and thought I'd share.
If one admits its from the internet, there is a possibility they will lose some connections and if not that, most Creative people don't feel the necessity to comment or rate a photo taken by a professional and posted by a novice as the novice's work.
I still like the first sentence written by gather about publishing (a FAQ). You can publish anything as long as it's YOURS!
I have tried to have someone copy something I had written on another website, but it was so obvious, and it was also very clear that this person wrote nothing original. I flagged the person, and emailed the customer service, who took away the writing pretty quickly. I am not sure if they banned the person from the forum, but I never saw that pen name there again.
I certainly hope the flag was removed! This is well within fair use and Gather terms of service, if you quoted, attributed and added your own content. Some less than intelligent people have gotten trigger happy with the "report" button. I hope that Gather Support takes the time to educate those who flag improperly in those cases.
At the bottom of this page there a a place to report "this as potentially inappropriate". Click image, click copyright, click impersonation if they haven't admitted it's borrowed, and cut and past the web address of the borrowed or stolen photo and put it in the comments section. Push send. That will be the end of it.
It takes a long time and a lot of hard work and planning to catch just the right shot.
I personally have not seen others photos taken and misused. What I have seen is people going to photobucket, flickr, web shots and other photo websites and copying photos and using them here and calling them their own. Most of these photos are identifiable because the quality is not there and most show some pixicalation.
Gather says if your photos are "borrowed" from this site, they will not be good enough quality to do anything with.
Food for thought.
Interesting software that ids the photos! I've had probs with Semantic products and am leery of using them.
I never cared if someone uses a low-res posting for their own use but to republish it is going to far.
A few months ago I sold exclusive rights to a photo that I had posted to gather.
No problem, I deleted it from gather and sent the hi-res to the customer. Two weeks later they called and told me they saw the low-res on another web site and asked if I would take care of it. They could have made me pay them back.
Sorry, I don't do that to others and expect the same...it just gets my dander up...if I say I Photoshopped something then I did but it was my work to begin with not taken from someone else's site...my photos and art are my intellectual property not in the public doman...I share what I take with others so they can enjoy what I saw...
Thank you for posting this article... :o)
I've seen several of the Windows backgrounds posted here, and the poster was claiming them as their own.
Thanks for providing a very well presented forum to discuss this.
Too many articles on this end up as rants - we who want to post, need to be edumacated in order to protect ourselves and our own work.
I look forward to learning about the http://www.uconomix.com/ application - I have looked it up and will check it out in the morning.
Having said that , I don't use it on my inages here. It would ruin them. I have started putting my name and copyright some where on the photos. Maybe they aren't good enough to blow up to a decent size but someone unscrupulous could use them for notecards or something.
Maybe I should make my Gather photos quality worse? I load them up at 900 on the biggest side and 100 dpi's.
I too am a camera hound!! I take photos of everything that inspires me. I to have had my photos used without my knowledge.
It would be nice for those who like my photo's to at least say, "hey this came from mrsroadrunner", or of course my other screen names.
We all are aware, or hope we all are aware, how people are. If I see one of my photos somewhere, I am the type to say something. All of us who take pictures, to share on the web, should understand to back up your RAW photos and put them in a safe place.
One can go a step further and put them in a sealed envelope and mail them back to yourself. The federal Government which is the US Postal Service puts there seal with the date on this envelope and if someone is making millions of $$$$ off you, you can prove, in court in front the God and the judge, that that is your photo......
Nice blog!!
..
U wishing ya laughter
Blessings
You know I have noticed several "borrowed" photos while checking out this site, and if I come across a pic that is obviously taken from someone else then I will not comment on it. It is not fair, in my opinion for someone to earn points or "credit" for a photo that is not rightfully theirs.
I usually don't take time to write a whole lot about my photos tho, and I don't have any sort of fancy camera so I don't feel it necesary to post the type of camera I used for the shot....
My husband and I own a home based business and we produce courses for a local College for night Continuing Education classes in a specific subject. We hired the people qualified to teach the courses and wrote the programs. One of our teachers didn't want to bother the students with the price of a text book and photo copied pages out of one she had a home and did not give credit and did not get permission and the author was tipped off by a student who knew better and she sued the college, us because we developed the courses and the teacher. It was a scary and unpleasant experience and yes, we fired the teacher.
I never thought of putting what camera I use on my photos, but it makes sense. Hmmm, some of my pictures are old scanned in pictures that I might not remember what camera it was, lol.
I have seen some people put that their work is copyrighted on here and I wonder if I should do the same. Then again, that doesn't really stop anyone from using it and not giving credit. It's a sad world we live in.
I wrote another article - maybe you want to check it out?
LOVE AND LONG SPOONS