This is a story about a stolen image. I have dealt with this having found someone that stole someone else’s image and tried to pass it off as their own. I reported the stolen image to the real owner of the image and had the culprit removed from the photography site he was passing the image off as his own.
I have blogged about this (Photographer on the Web – Part 6 – Protecting Your Images) and I also cover this in my “Photographer On the Web” workshop. In the workshop I also give out many links including www.TinEye.com which you will see in the following video.
This is an incredible story, one that should be shared and one that should be thought about. In this video, Noam Galai, the photographer and the face in the stolen image tells his story.
Before you freak out about your images, note these were posted rather large on Flickr.com. They should have been posted smaller or should have had water marks. Note that smaller sites like DeltaPhotoClub.com and such have fewer viewers than the millions on Flickr and so images are less likely to be stolen.
Most photographers get very upset when they think about someone stealing their images. However, most don’t give a second’s thought about copying software or borrowing music for a slideshow or for personal use. Think about the millions of dollars and all the work that goes into creating software like Adobe Photoshop CS5. If it’s OK for you to download an illegitimate copy, or a copy of a commercial Plug-In, why is it not OK for someone to STEAL your image?
So, please watch the video, learn from it, and if you are a borrower of music or software, think about what your doing. Paying for a great tool like Photoshop is worth every penny.
Also, as a final and funny note, listen to Noam talk about a Stock Site. How interesting.
This Video was created by the fine folks at fstoppers.com. A great site, please check it out. This video is linked from YouTube. To support Noam, please check out his new on-line store. I just purchased a T-Shirt!
Original Image by: Greg Schurman |
Note that award winning photographer and Delta Photo Club member Greg Schurman (BlooTung.com), has also had an image ripped off (above) and doing a TinEye.com search on this also gets seven pages of results.
Have your images been stolen?
© 2011 François Cléroux
(Version 1.00 – August 2011)
Please feel free to leave comments, corrections, ideas, thoughts or suggestions.