I did want to call this blog post ‘hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned’…………..but I’ve toned it down. I’ve slept on it. You see the universe is a funny thing. About two weeks I shared on facebook how one of my sweet buddies Sarah of A Beach Cottage had her images used by businesses to sell their products. Grrrr it made me cranky for her and that’s what I told her. Then I’ve had two incidents in the past week or so where my content has been taken and passed off as their own. And let me tell you it makes me angry and shake and then angry again. Then I sleep it off.
You see I always play nice. I use my own photos. I ask permission where it’s necessary and I always err on the side of caution. People don’t always do the same and I’ve had a tough lesson in that. Firstly I had a lovely reader send me a link to a fabric giveaway on an aussie craft blog, ohhhh I went to have a look at the blog, checked out her recipe page and oh there is a thermomix cake recipe, oh that looks familiar, my toffee apple tea cake. Oh even the wording on how I arranged the fruit. Better check mine. Yep that is my recipe. Send a polite email and go to bed (well I went about my day then went to bed). Next morning it’s still on my mind and I haven’t heard back from the blogger so I go and check. Well actually on closer inspection not only is the recipe word for word and a recipe by xx blog but that is my photo. I looked at my photo and looked up close at hers and yep my photo too. I mean come on at least if you’re going to call a recipe your own then make it and take your own photo. I spent an afternoon in my kitchen for that blog post. So a please remove that recipe and image was sent. Now apparently something else I’ve learnt from my 2 incidents is that no one wants to own up to it. Apparently it was the web developer who did it and just a stuff up. As my mum always loved to say, yeah right!
Ok so I’ve moved on from that and then my neighbour texted me yesterday to say heh keira is in the newsletter from xx a children’s services business on the northern beaches (where I live). Oh that’s funny I deleted that newsletter this morning. Better go and look at it. Sure enough down the bottom was a big photo advertising their back to school consultations (which you pay for) and it’s a picture that I took and edited with some wording and use in my own back to school photos. Well I’m mad now. So I start to type an email and decide no I’m going to call. Now if you know me then I’m not a phone person. People will tell you that I text or email but I was on the phone and I was cranky.
I spoke to someone and insisted they remove the image as it’s of my daughter and no permission was given. Oh let me put you through to the director………….silence………….I’m sure this is where she is briefed and puts on a very patronising and fake voice, ‘oh I see, what is your name and website then, and your number, oh someone else in the office must have done that and just found it on the internet, and it went on and so on. And all the while I am made to feel like I’m the person in the wrong and it’s not her problem or her business that have done this. And I did kind of have ‘my crazy lady heart is pounding and body is shaking voice’ to her ‘patronising condascending this is my business and who are YOU to call me up with your crazy lady voice’. I can laugh about it now….just.
I ask for it to be taken down but all that has happened is a very wishy washy apology for the error that a local child’s photo was used because we thought it was a model. Flattering but doesn’t wash with me. Every picture on their website and blog has just been taken from the internet.
Now my armchair critics will be rubbing their hands with glee and someone was brave enough to come on my facebook page and say well pictures of her are on the internet. Correct. She is right. Yes there are photos of my children on my website and on the internet. Everyone has different comfort levels and not everyone shares the way I do and some people share more. I used to watermark my photos as that was the thing for bloggers then it kind of went of fashion and the advice was don’t let the watermark distract from your photos. But this business just a few suburbs away from where I live are using my back to school photo without my permission to sell their back to school consultations and services. For money. And it is my daughter and my photo and my back to school photo. Has this business ever paid for a photo or had their own photos taken or actually looked at where images are taken? Do they have a policy? I would have liked them to own up to it and not just say well we thought it was a promotional photo of a model. Is that their policy just to take images willy nilly and pad out their newsletters and website. It would appear so.
But I’m always going to turn a negative into a positive. I might look at protecting my photos if I can. I’ll think about photos on the blog. I’ll think about how I’ll handle this the next time it happens and how I will deal with the offending business because let’s make no mistake. This is a business charging for services and receiving money and using my photo to make it look professional. And I had to tell her that even if you find an image of google images which was their excuse that you need to put a source. Find the source. Do you have permission to use that image and call it your own. And most of all I believe in the power of the blogger and word of mouth. And I have a big mouth. And let me tell you that anyone who needs back to school services or specialist services (and I have a child who does speech and physio and therapy), well I will be only to glad to tell them about the wonderful experience I’ve had yesterday. Just wonderful, warm and fuzzy.
Do you run a website, blog or business? Do you send out a newsletter? Where do you get your images? Do you take your own photos to avoid any issues? Do you put a source and where the photo came from? Have you had an image/recipe/project taken? How did you feel? What do you think?
I’ve had a couple of my images taken before. I always water mark, but sometimes they just crop them a bit closer to remove the water mark. It makes me so cranky because I pride myself on original photos, because they tell my story. At the other end of the scale I’ve had a couple of emails asking me can they buy my images for use in some magazines. It is always disappointing when other people don’t understand the importance of being original.
exactly! I love my website and always using my own photos and that takes time!!!!
I guess it’s like pirated movies and music. There are heavy fines but you have to catch them and even then it’s only the mass producers that they go after. How many people do you know with ripped movies or music???? Intellectual property law is a specialist field
I think people should respect other people’s work and ask permission before taking. But then again people who just take…..steal other’s work wouldn’t ask because they prefer to steal. So sorry this happen to you, I would be furious if someone stole pictures of my children no matter the reason. I think you should put the name of the business on your blog with the link. I bet they would remove it ASAP
I suppose it comes down to this: you will just have to watermark everything. I think its quite rude of a business particularly to take images of other peoples children without asking. I do save images from the internet/blog or pin them, but for my own use (normally something I find inspiring). I think you can protect your images to stop a simple right click and save from being done, but of course they can simply screen shot them if they want badly enough.
We run a business too and from time to time I will see a photograph of our product on facebook. If I think I can use that photograph I will ask that person, and use acknowledgement or water mark on the photo. Most people don’t mind at all, as long as they are acknowledged. However I would NOT allow for my kids photo to be used willy nilly, perhaps if they were at an event or something particular an organisation wanted to promote then yes. But only with permission.
Stand your ground. Stealing content is not on, and using the photo of your daughter very rude. I think I would follow up that one with a strongly worded letter, am sure from your days of business you could write something that should make them pay more attention.
The person who said your photos were online, so free for all is wrong I believe, if your front door was open while you were putting rubbish in the bin, does that mean your house is free for all, take what you want? No I don’t think so.
People should do the right thing. Ask, source their own. Manners that’s what it comes to and sadly manners in 2013 are gone! Please. Thank you. That would be lovely….
You have every right to be cranky, it’s your daughter after all! Good on you for taking action corrie!
I’ve had it happen to me too. My advice is don’t sit on it for too long. Deal with it fast, because people will steal the photo from the person who stole your photo and it can just spiral out of control. Not everyone who steals photos has an easy way to be contacted, and some who do just think it is ok to ignore your email.
There are plenty of sites where you can purchase stock photos from if you don’t want to take your own photos, and it isn’t hard to email someone and ask them if you can use their photo.
In the past couple of years I have re taken up photography, mostly band photography. I have freely shared my pics with the bands. Mostly they are very respectful and ask if they can share/use the pics etc. However recently I took photos of a show with 8 band members. One of the members is an FB friend of mine. She even asked if it was okay for her to re share the pics I took of her (lovely lady, and I was grateful that she asked) In the following days I saw one band member post an entire ALBUM on his own page, the content of that album were all MY photos !!! Another has used one as their FB cover pic, and shared several via instagram… No permission, no asking… just plain stealing ! The show producer shared my album and credited me to taking the pics. It’s definitely left a sour taste in my mouth and all future shared pics will have a big watermark across them.
Oh, and just for fun, one of the people who stole the photo from the person who stole my photo, even went to the trouble of adding her “copyright” watermark to it, lol.
Noooooooooooooo! That is just plain cheeky! I have had someone do that to me at work. Took an activity that I created, copied it from a word document into a publisher doucment, added a copyright to the bottom and passed it off as her own. I never said anything, but she knows that I know about it! I still shake my head at how low some people will stoop!!!
Just a thought…surely they would have recognised that uniform as a local school? hmm…
Oh Corrie I am just furious reading this! I’m sure it has to be some sort of breach of copyright, at the very least it is plagiarism and at the worst it is downright stealing. I cannot believe people would be so brazen as to not only pinch your images or content but to use them for their own promotional purposes. If that business doesn’t take that picture of Keira down I’d be sending them a friendly invoice to charge for the purchase of your photograph. Not the ideal solution but it would make a point I’m sure! Oh I am just so mad right now!
It is difficult and annoying when it happens but I also genuinely believe many people don’t realise the rules regarding photos or artwork online. I admit I did use an image once shared it on facebook via pinterest thinking the original source would show up. It didn’t, they emailed me I apologised and was very embarrassed as it was someone I knew. I would have been so upset if they had gone public as it was a honest mistake by me.They were great about it and I learnt my lesson.Now it happens to me frequently, quotes I write get used by another sometimes with credit back to me, sometimes they say it’s theirs. If I have time I email them and an apology is given or most of the time I let it be. It is so very difficult to keep tabs on things once posted online. It’s not nice when it happens and an image is taken without permission but we also shouldn’t get too worked up about it because once we hit publish, who knows where anything will end up. The copying of your recipe though that is not so acceptable as a blogger should know better. A business knows business but not necessarily all the on line rules about photos.
Go Corrie! ~#%@! I felt your pain yesterday before you took down the original post and so did a lot of your followers.
Watermarks really are useless, as you say they can be cropped. I’m not that vigilant anymore either. They can be worked and removed anyway. Not that too many people would want mine but hey they are my grand kids usually.
I’m also a member of a Thermomix foodie Facebook page and boy do we post a lot of pics. All there for the taking if someone joins.
Sadly this is becoming an unethical world all about the “me”. So let our children & grandchildren see what makes us angry and sad so they too learn how important it is be a good and fair and kind person as they are growing up.
I’ll now go and google to find that recipe stealer. ~#%@
Oh and here’s a hug for today! (:-/)
I can understand your fury. The first time someone ripped of my words I was seething. Worse they liked the post, then took the like off and wrote their own using my words. I remember seeing the post and thinking are these my words?
As for photographs I use a lot of my own, However when I do source an image I will write the site I have taken it from underneath the post (I personally use sourced images such as clothes and accessories rarely people and definitely not children). However lately I have been using my own images more frequently. I often find my posts on other sites with my website attached- although sometimes I think an email would be appreciated beforehand.
Some of the girls that I know who are cake decorators had to watermark thier photo’s as people were stealing their pictures too and passing them off as there’s
Carol I recently emailed a decorator who has made wedding cakes for us because she was posting all these beautiful photos with no watermark. She does now! She hadn’t given it a thought before and even though it isn’t finite protection it is something.
I subscribe to the newsletter this happened in and even thought as I read it yesterday “Gosh that looks like Retro Mummy’s daughter.”
This particular business should know better. They are not a small scale company making ‘start-up’ mistakes. Any business of that size should have the correct policies in place, to ensure such a thing doesn’t happen. They shouldn’t just be ‘finding’ images on the internet. They should be using images with consent and providing credit for those images.
I’ve sure they would be livid, if one of their articles was ripped off by another business and touted as their own. It’s the same thing!
As you mention, it won’t be hard for any of your readers to work out who it is, without you needing to name and shame. Hopefully they learn a very valuable lesson from this and implement some changes in their ‘back-office’.
I think you have dealt with this very maturely Corrie and commend you. All mums would feel as fiercely protective of their children as you have, but I’m not sure we would have all remained as composed as you!
Its the risk we take I guess. Ive had photos (quilts not kids) used too, one still graces the blog header of someone else’s blog. They have also been used by fabric shops to sell fabric. I feel sorry for them that they aren’t creative in their own right.
As I commented on your facebook post last night this really makes me furious on your behalf. I can’t believe people just think they can take any photo they see & use it as their own. The fact that one of those photos was of your child makes my blood boil ! Even if the photo had been “just a model” as they say they thought it was what difference does that make !!?? It was not their photo & they didn’t have permission to use the childs image for their business. I would be tempted to try & take this further…..at the very least I would “name & shame”…….but I am in a particularly grumpy mood this morning
i absolutely agree with eileen; if an apology and retraction are not immediately offered, i think you have every right to post/publish the name of the company/blog, tell your story and link to it. content theft is quick and easy, and there is so much good work out there to choose from. but it’s theft, plain and simple, and i believe anyone who has content stolen should be able to speak up about it, and reference those who are doing it.
as blogger Jenny Lawson (The Blogess, rated by Neilsen as on of the Top 50 Mom blogs) writes in her post regarding a baffling incident with a PR company (link at end + language disclaimer):
“You are amazing. You are relevant. Your work is worth protecting and standing up for….
Even if you are “a ******* *****.”
of course you were *shaking angry* and of course you had your *crazy lady voice* with you. they’re pretty useful tools! this does not make their infringements any less relevant. go get ’em, mommy-tiger! xoxo, buf
http://thebloggess.com/2011/10/and-then-the-pr-guy-called-me-a-fucking-bitch-i-cant-even-make-this-shit-up/
Good on you for calling the school! I’m not a phone person either but would’ve had that handset dialing in record time if someone used a picture of my child without my permission. The excuse that because it’s on the internet makes it ok infuriates me because it’s absolutely not. It’s terrible the way that some people think it’s okay to rip off the work of others simply because it’s online.
What an awful experience, especially with a photo of your child! That is seriously uncool, and if a children’s services provider thinks that this is acceptable then I would be questioning what other things they think are acceptable…Clearly they have no moral compass when it comes to children’s rights. It sounds like they handled it in a very unprofessional manner as well. Idiots!
xx
This is just not on, and most people know better than this. I save my pics down to a low resolution for my blog so they are hopefully not good enough to steal.. I’ve know my pics have appeared on the internet without my permission and once in a magazine. Good luck Corrie and I love how quickly friends and bloggers let us know when they see a breach of copyright
The person who took your cake recipe and photo was just plain rude. If that person cared about the readers that she has then she would have made the cake herself. The thing I love about your blogs is that you actually make the things you show on here. And as for the newsletter that used the photo of your daughter, they should be ashamed of themselves. The annoying thing is that they couldn’t even own up to what they had done. I love reading your blogs about your family and seeing photos and would hate if you had to stop posting photos of your family because of these types of people.
Is is not a criminal act or at least a breach of competition and consumer act? I am not a lawyer but I would have thought when it comes to images of children and nil permission there would be a law against this.
Corrie I am not really up on all of this but have you thought of copyright, it forbids any copying of any images or content on your site and you could add something to the effect “without permission of the owner of this content”. I go into the homeschool sites and they have a clause on there as to whether othe images or content can be copied for personal use only and not commercial or just a straight “any reproduction would be a breach under copyright”. It comes under intellectual property I believe. Maybe have a chat to a Solicitor who could point you in the right direction to protect you and your privacy.
I started writing you a long comment but I am getting angry for you just doing that so I think I will stop here. Disgraceful is all I can say. I really like that you are so generous and share so many things on your blog for the benefit of others. Thank you
Hi Corrie
My wife’s cake decorating business (Copy Cat Cakes) encounters these issues often. The issue of who created the original design of a cake opens up a whole can of worms.
Most often, clients will send an email of a cake design (or similar) that they would like. If proceeding, my wife seeks permission from the designer (if known). She watermarks all her photos AND acknowledges the original designer in the description “birthday cake for John based on original design by XYZ Cakes”.
My suggestion is next time to ring the perpetrator as a partner of Smith, Jones and Jones Copywright Lawyers and ask for the name of their solicitor so that you can serve them the paperwork for the legal action you are about to undertake!
Or just ring them and ask where you can send the invoice for use of your images?
Wow it was a physio!!!! You would think with a university education you would understand if something is or is not Creative Commons.. Just proves just because you went to a tertiary institution doesn’t mean you have a brain right??
Mel
they run a range of kids services but I’ll never use them or recommend them to anyone! EVER
Yes sorry and I would send that invoice for 1800 and say it’s discounted from 2500 because there was no photographer involved!!! And yes I’m very serious.
Corrie,
I totally support you on your stand. No one has the right to steal from you which is precisely what these businesses have done. What is on your blog is your intellectual property. I agree with some of the other comments, have a chat with a good IT solicitor.
I love your blog and your generosity in sharing your family stories with us.
I’m totally with you. The recipe thing – did she really think you wouldn’t find out?!!
I haven’t had images stolen (that I know of!) but my blog audience is relatively small. Occasionally I use images from other sources (like wikki commons) but always credit the source with a link, and if I think using a certain image would be crossing the line I either ask the owner or just don’t do it!
There seems to be a great misconception these days that once something is on the internet it’s public property, it’s a very tricky thing!
I use my own images where I can pr link it back to Google if I found it there or Pinterest if I found it there.If I am using a picture from Pinterest it is usually a quote or a recipe IE some I put up for Halloween baking fun with kids that were from Pinterest and I stated that in my post.I do watermark my images I take myself as I am a studying Freelance Photographer and do not want my images stolen.I am about to put up a clause under each post that will state people need to contact me to ask permissions to use my images for any purpose,including my posts etc.
Thank you for sharing your experience and how you handled.Even though my space is smaller then yours I do cherish my work and the time and effort I put into it.
I hope you had some chocolate and coffee to help calm you down Corrie!
Jessi
I belong to a 12 WBT Facebook page and one of the members has had an amazing weight loss for which she has worked very hard. She was finding her before and after pictures being used on websites promoting various shonky weight loss tablets, shakes and programmes. Members and friends posted in the comments on these pages that the photos were being used without her consent and that she definitely did not endorse the product. She also began watermarking her photos.
As a side note, what is a “back to school consultation”?
I totally agree with you Corrie. That’s a photo of YOUR CHILD and you can do with it as YOU please, but it’s not for anyone else to profit from. I don’t agree with stealing any photos, but photos of someone else’s child is something else! How could they possibly think it was an acceptable practice? As for recipes, I regularly share recipes on my blog that I have tried and maybe changed a bit to suit my family, but I ALWAYS!, ALWAYS! share the original source (even if I change it a lot) and if they have a blog I share the link to their recipe and recommend others visit their blog. It’s just good manners! And I always use my photos, even though they are often far from the quality of the original recipe’s photo.
And I’m a sleep-on-it-first kind of person too, though in this instance I don’t know if I would have refrained from sharing the business’ name. Well, maybe I would have, but I would have felt like shouting it from the rooftops. Congratulations on exercising restraint.
Wowsers!!!! That is pretty full on and I love your spunk BUT I think as you are a business you need to take it to the next level or you just won’t be taken seriously and probably they bank on that kind of a storm in a teacup outcome for them and that’s why they do it in the first place? So I would be thinking that The Remarkables should be actioning this for you somehow? Surely they have copyright content legal angle they could initiate and or get your lawyer to write to the lovely fraudsters with a cease and remove. I think you need to look at it from a business mind and make sure that your assets are protected. I think lifting your child’s photo and circulating it in your local area without permission is very bad mannered and rude. Not everyone reads your blog so you should be allowed some kind of anonymity if you so choose. I’d be really angry too and it seems that some people have a gift of making you feel bad because you question them on their poor form.
Do love that you got your cranky pants on with these people Corrie! This is really not on, and excuses about ‘web designers’ or ‘staff members’ really don’t cut it. I began using my own photos on my blog a while ago, however I do still use Creative Commons licenced images that I source from Compfight, FlickrCC, Flickr and some other websites.
Compfight is a great one as when you click on an image it you get a window that displays the HTML code to paste into your post so the photo credit is automatically included. Pretty easy. There’s also a WordPress plugin for Compfight.
Stick to your guns, and contact the people straight away. And if all else fails, name and shame!
http://compfight.com/
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/flickrCC/index.php
This bugs me a lot!
I work in marketing and I see my competitors do this a lot. Grabbing images from other sources and posting them without links is really rude – especially for commercial businesses. Sadly, I see it ALL day long on facebook.
That is ironic timing because I literally JUST found that someone had used my photos on their website without permission. Granted they did link to me further down the blog post, but it still annoyed me that they took one of my photos, edited it as their promo button, and didn’t ask.
So yes, it really bugs me too. To be perfectly honest in this instance (because I was linked to in the post) I actually wouldn’t have had an issue with it. However I do have an issue with the taking and editing my photos without asking!
It also annoys me when people sit at home and say “well, you put the photos on the internet, you have to expect them to be stolen!” – So basically we should just expect that people will have bad manners and etiquette? Hmmm, maybe we should but I’d prefer to think that good manners apply on the internet just as they should in “real life”!
On the rare occassions that I use other peoples photos on my blog it’s with permission or if they are creative commons photos then I always link. However I haven’t used any body else’s for several years.
Another bug bear I have is when people take photos of my children and upload them to social media without asking me first. Whether I splash their faces all over the internet myself is not the point – they are my children so it’s polite to ask permission first.
Good on you for ringing the company. Shame on them!!
Ok rant over.
Corrie, I’m so glad that you were assertive and made your point very clear. Please stay safe ♥
Do you know how to put a watermark in your pics? Use Photoshop and put water marks in all of your pictures that way
1. you will know if they are yours
2. most web / newsletters won’t use them because it is to much work to remove the watermark.
Also maybe use low res images when posting.
Also put a disclaimer and copyright notice on your page / FB Twitter etc. Place in a clear place so there is no mistake.
You can also disable right mouse click on your page (I’m not sure how to do that anymore but I’m sure if you ask your web page person they should know how to.
It doesn’t stop the die hard’s but heck it makes it harder on them!
With the internet and the amt people travel these days it really makes the world a very small place. Therefore doing something like this could ruin a business, word of mouth is a very powerful tool, good and bad. I hope they take a good look at themselves and make amends. Unfortunately people have really forgotten their manners and morals these days, especially when they can hide behind a screen! I’ve even seen a friend’s wedding photo in an ad in a chinese magazine! Don’t know how they were going to replicate a caucasian couple in western australia to their chinese customers but hey it was free off the net. Hope your new kitchen is making you feel better
I’m still getting over the fact that some people actually pay for ‘Back to School consultations’, whatever they are.
Sorry that the shot was ripped off. Very naughty, but in this cyber world it is part of the deal unfortunately. So many photos on the web are ripped off and the original creator of the work never even finds out. I only publish shots and projects I am happy to have shared. In fact I feel I provide a service and am happy for my audience to copy any of my projects as long as they link back.
Carolyn
I had a friend take a photo of my friend’s daughter off my computer to use in a presentation (where they needed a photo of a baby) without my knowledge or my friend’s permission. I was furious because it was a breach of trust and my friend would not have liked it. They had to remove it as soon as I found out and I told my friend and apologized profusely that it had been allowed to happen. It’s strange the way people think they can take things without asking permission. They wouldn’t take a photo from an album on someone’s home bookshelf and use it for their own purposes and yet they will take it from your website and use it. It’s like when people photocopy stuff at their work for home use. They wouldn’t go and take reams of paper and toner from the stationery cupboard of the company and yet they think it’s okay to print stuff off for personal use and don’t call it what it is. It’s all stealing in various forms. Our society is like that sadly – on one level something is not okay but tweak it a bit and people are willing to do it. Photos on the web are hard to track unfortunately – glad you have found them being used so they could be asked to remove them. I hope they have learnt from this but it’s sad they didn’t just call a spade a spade and apologize. Now wondering what on earth is a back to school consultation – there are experts for everything these days!
Who posts a photo of a child without parental permission, did they just get off the ark. Just get someone to ring them as your lawyer and sue them. Seriously your own school isn’t allowed to do this without your permission
For my blog, I use my own photos. For my business I use photos provided by my wholesales, or I ask the designers if I can use theirs.
Grrrrr…. This makes me shake. I can hear it in your writing and I’m livid FOR you. There are ways you can protect your images; not just with watermarking. I have yet to look into this too but (depending on what photo software you use) you can build information into the meta-data of a photo file such as your name, contact details, and copyright information and it’ll keep it in the photofile in the same “place” it keeps the date/time your pics were taken… if that makes sense. I know you can do this automatically using Adobe Lightroom (as well as watermarking) when you upload your pics using that software – I’m sure other applications do this too.
I am a Sydney makeup artist so images of my work are what I use to promote myself on my website/blog & Facebook page. I have seen other makeup artists have their images stolen and used by others in the industry. That is an absolute huge no-no!! Misrepresenting your artistic skill and work. I have been playing with watermarks the last few weeks and agree that it can detract from the image. I’ve taken the policy now that I watermark everything for social media but not for my website as unfortunately, watermarking is frowned upon for portfolios. At the end of the day, the photographer owns the copyright to the photo. I need to get a photographer’s permission to use a photo and credit the source, even for makeup work I have done.
That’s not on, good on you for taking action, especially when its images of your kids. It makes me wonder now about all the photos you see on businesses websites.
6 years ago we had some photos done of our daughter. When I went to rebook another session after my son was born I found out they were using some of the shots for their promotional flyers and still are. I would have liked to have been told that her image was being used.
I’m so glad that you did something about it! A big fat watermark diagonally across future photos perhaps? And then a tutorial on how to put big fat watermarks diagonally across photos please?
So wrong! This website may be of interest to yourself and many others!
http://www.copyright.org.au/
This drives me crazy! I take my own photos and put effort into editing them- although I don’t watermark them. This is our work, our words and our images.
Would you walk into a home and take a tin of paint that a painter had mix? Would you walk into a farm and take a bunch of bananas that a farmer had grown? Would you walk into a shop and take a jumper and claim that you knit it?
There is an issue with taking it without permission (or some form of payment)… But then to actually claim it as your own – BIG ISSUE!
Hi Corrie, just wondering if someone used your recipe but credited to you and used their own photos of how it turned out for them are you ok with that? I haven’t used yours before but I have used others but with my own photos and I always credit back to where I found it whether that be a blog or Pinterest etc. I would hate to offend someone and I would also hate if I found my photos on the internet that someone claimed to be theirs. Unfortunately it is a risk to take with the internet though, once you send someone into the World Wide Web it is hard to keep track of where it goes!
oh that is fine! it’s all about the credit to me. Most people ask me and I’m so good with that but to just copy and call it your own like this person did with my own photos! Made me so cranky and the wrong way to do it:)
thanks
Corrie:)
Thanks Corrie! If I try one of your recipes and blog about it I will definitely credit it to you and use my own photos
I work for the mainstream media, in a job which includes ensuring we use no copyrighted photos. The only internet stuff we use is of movies or artists who obviously would like to have their stuff promoted. I would say, definitely put your watermark back on the photos as that is a very clear deterrent to them being used. Its very clearly copyrighted that way. You can personalize it by putting your name or initials on it in a nice way. You take nice photos so they will get pirated if you don’t make it clear that its a No-go for you.
Corrie, they are just lazy and cheap to spend their own time and resources in making their own content. Photos of myself and my family are very precious to me and noone has the right to use them – as I take 99% of the pics myself. I regularly check myself and found a pic of my Fiancé and I myself taken by his late-Father on an authorised website. They took it down after I emailed them but I’m still hurt as the pic is super precious to us. All the best on this.
Just before we moved interstate from a beautiful Lake Macquarie suburb, I captured some brilliant photos of sunset over the lake (it was a fluke, I have no photographic skills). I uploaded some of these to Panoramio. A few months ago a friend directed me to a Lake Macquarie real estate website to look at a house she was about to purchase. Lo and behold the header on this website was the best of my photos, obviously snatched from Panoramio. I didn’t get a response to my protest via email, and because they’d not ‘propogated’ my photo from my blog but from a public website, I didn’t pursue it any further but rather used the experience as a learning curve.
In your case, when your children are involved, it is a different matter and I’d also have been as mad as hell in your situation, Corrie. It really was a low act.
Corrie, I’m sure there’s a way to “lock” your photos to your page so they can’t be saved to someone’s computer/smart phone. I’m not sure how to do it, but essentially when you click on the photo, a message comes up, or even no message, but the save as option isn’t available. And I agree with the others. What a crock. Using a photo of someone else’s child to promote their business. Lazy and deceitful.