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Dan Carmichael

8 Years Ago

Mike Is Right

In a recent thread, Mike Savad basically said it is not worth the time - nor the stress - to worry about or go after picture rips.

Mike is right.

A number of years ago I shot a feature piece for a magazine that was about a local tourist whoops-see-do. As it stands, the gentleman who owns the thing happens to be internet-savvy and even more so,. social media competent. For years I have received the email notifications about him pinning, linking, and featuring my stuff. I deleted it all as it came in.

This evening, for no apparent reason whatsoever, I opened on of the notification emails. Nothing wrong with what he did. He's a nice guy, honest, and does things pretty straightforward (actually, he's pretty darn internet-brilliant). But AFTER tracing his link, I started to click this, then click that. What I found was a whole bunch of my images going here, there and everywhere but the one place they did not go was back to me. None of his doing. I was following breadcrumbs of others.

After only 15 minutes of clicking I found so many violations, wrongful links, and otherwise stress-causing rips that I realized were I to go after each one, it would take a day - if not three - of emailing, notification sending, and DMCA takedown filing.

It ain't worth it. In fact, if your panties get twisted too tight over stuff like this, it could easily turn into a full time job combating it. Mine aren't (twisted too tight) so I'm not pursuing it. Because it ain't worth the time nor the stress.

So what DO you do? Well, you don't give others anything useful to begin with. First, watermark what you can when you can. Second, never publicly post anything that can be negotiable. If somebody can rip a pic and print a postage stamp, a wallet size, or God forbid, a greeting card size image who the H cares? There ain't no profit in that anyway. The big profit is in the big stuff.

Bottom line? Don't sweat it. Mike is right. Thanks Mike.

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Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

An active community of stock sellers occasionally finds images thieves who post whole portfolios of stolen images on stock sites. The sites are notified and the offenders are banned. Its like a neighborhood watch.

Don't sweat the small stuff but don't be an enabler either.

 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

yep, while sometimes you might get money back, it's often not worth the stress tracking them down. proving they are all yours (many sites put you through hoops). and being annoyed by it. once you know about it, you want to do something. ignorance is really bliss. however if someone is selling my image or claiming it as their own, then it's worth hunting the sucker down. but still that's time out of your day you can be doing almost anything.

i'm on a board that tracks people down, they get lawyers involved, and it's always this person or that person took my stuff. and its an all day job, hardly worth going after people. at most if i see my work on a blog, i sign the blog and use it as a link point.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Jim Hughes

8 Years Ago

I'm pretty sure some of my photos have 'escaped' and I"m not even going to think about it anymore. I've even seen reprocessed versions of them on Pinterest. DMCA is just a bad joke at the expense of photographers and artists, and Congress should be ashamed of it Pinterest is... don't get me started.

 

Dragon Photography

8 Years Ago

Do you sign your work guys? Does that help with less thievery?

 

Drew

8 Years Ago

The thing is, one needs to go after the one's that are making money off your work. Otherwise it's not worth the effort.

 

Marlene Burns

8 Years Ago

neither a signature nor a watermark will deter thieves.....and the latter just confuses customers on faa..they dont read the statement that it will not show up on the print....

 

Dragon Photography

8 Years Ago

Some don't read lol our just don't pay attention?

 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

i sign all my work, but people will still take it. i've seen them crop it right off. many people think that if its on the net, its a free for all and you can take any image you want. you often see it here --- i took an image from google and i painted it, is that ok? and then they argue when we say it isn't ok, then justify it to themselves that its totally ok. which its not. other people think its ok if you don't add the words SAMPLE or something across the center.

i stopped on guy from using my piece and saying that he not only painted it, but it was totally his. and when i told him it was mine he was like - wow you were inspired to make this because of my piece? dude mine is a photo, yours is a painter, and then he finally took it down and led me to the site where he took it from, and that site took it from another site, cropping my name off and taking credit for the image. those are the ones i usually go after.

someone on flickr took my image and modified it. to this day i still can't remove it because yahoo has too complex a system to remove things.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Liz Leyden

8 Years Ago

I have always had Pinterest DMCAs taken down well within a day.
Flickr too, but I haven't tried for a while, so their system could easily have got worse.
Worse is all the sites from countries where copyright laws are weak to non-existent. Once on one of them, your image is effectively 'gone without trace'.

 

Dan Turner

8 Years Ago

"Once on one of them, your image is effectively 'gone without trace'."

If it is in fact "gone without a trace," what's the worry?


Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

 

Liz Leyden

8 Years Ago

I didn't say gone without 'a' trace.
I meant that it couldn't be traced, so is effectively orphaned. (Actually, it might be tracable via GIS, but it might not).

 

Joseph C Hinson

8 Years Ago

Mile might be right for him and you might agree which is is well and fine. I have had some nice luck recouping money owed to me by mostly local to me retailers who use my photos without attribution, permission or payment.

 

Joseph C Hinson

8 Years Ago

I do think Mile is right on most things though

 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

if you want to chase people you can. and you can get money back from some. its a lot of stress. once you find one image, you'll find two more then 8 more and it just increases the further you look. the looking and everything else takes a bunch of time. if you have the free time then you can go after that. in fact it may be a good way to earn a living, just chasing down people who "borrowed" the image. still its very time consuming. i have a cousin who's sole job is looking for people that steal music, so they can charge for the use.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Dan Turner

8 Years Ago

"in fact it may be a good way to earn a living, just chasing down people who "borrowed" the image."

Careful with that. It's called copyright trolling. There are law firms who make the bulk of their revenue that way. They look for *potential* violations as a means of grossing large revenues by shaking down those who cannot afford an attorney, but are willing to pay a settlement fee to that law firm.

The practice has little or nothing to do with protecting copyrights. It is extortion by legal means.

If you or anyone you know receives such a letter, start here: http://www.extortionletterinfo.com/

For about $200, the attorney there will send the extortionists one letter. He rarely has to send a second one.



Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

 

Joseph C Hinson

8 Years Ago

I don't chase anyone really. Just sit at a computer really. If it gets too stressful or too much work, I pull the plug as soon as the image is gone.

I doubt many folks could make a living raking in copyright violations.

 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

getty does it all the time. still though, if people take my images, and they aren't buying my images - its not trolling at all. it's common business sense. go after the people that took my stuff. now if i baited people by placing a large image some place and people took the bait, then i'd agree. but its not extortion when my images that were never designed to be stock, are being used as stock, and simply taken without permission. you can call a bill anything you want though.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Abbie Shores

8 Years Ago

We just had a story here of someone that goes after infringers and has made over $3000 that she would not have made otherwise for that use of her work. It is hers. She should be the one earning from it.

Although it may not be worth the time in many instances it is always worth sticking to your guns.

Do not ignore law breakers if you do have the time. The more people who get away with it, the more people think they can do it.



 

This discussion is closed.