Stolen photos

[Steve Foss]

Here's a link to an online photo gallery that contains many stolen photos. The photos stolen are mostly bird and animal images, and I know several of you on this board have your own Web sites or online galleries.

In the cases of the stolen photos, the person has cropped to trim off the copyright symbols and photographers' names.

You can comment on each photo, and there's also a button to click when you enter a gallery to report abuse to the gallery hosting site. I know of four other photographers so far whose work has been stolen and who are starting to leave comments and reporting abuse in that gallery.

It's not just the galleries that show birds and animals on the thumbnail for the gallery, but the seasonal galleries also have a lot of nature images.

You might take a gallop through and see if you recognize any of your own work.

[Royce Aardahl]

Lottsa wierd nuts out there I guess.

[jonny_redhorse]

I checked the sight Steve....I didn't see any of mine there....thanks for the heads up!

[Quackaddict9]

just clicked on the link, there were no images found. Maybe the user deleted all the photos?

[Steve Foss]

Looks like Picasa zapped the album. Good.

[2dog]

The pictures are still up.

[Dbl]

Looks like she is reloading photos, hopefully just the ones she took this time.

[Steve Foss]

It'll be interesting to see what goes back up. Assuming everything that gets put back is her own work, then everything that's left off was other people's work. It'd be funny if she doesn't put up any nature photos at all.

[Dbl]

There were a number of really nice shots originally, her's don't really look like tham at all

[Steve Foss]

I know four of the photographers whose images she pirated, and they are talented photogs. All four issued protests to "Myra" and Picasa. I hope one or more actually files a copyright infringement suit. There won't be much money in it, but such lessons need to be taught and learned.

[Dbl]

I agree Steve, let her have it!

[buzzsaw]

I looked through there and didn't see any of mine, but I wouldn't hesitate to go after somebody who did something that schtoopid.

[Steve Foss]

And the fact that she (if Myra really is even her name) cropped out the photographers' names and copyright symbols was to me plain evidence she knew what she was doing was wrong.

[MT Net]

Someone pirated a photo from my Webshots album. The strange thing was the pirated photo was poor, before I knew what I was doing, ( still don't, but have improved since then). I have much better photos out there and could not figure out why a lousy image to be pirated. Must have been sentimental reasons.

I never understood stealing other's photos and claiming as their own. Where's the pride in this?

[SledNeck]

Is it against the law to have someone elses photograph in a webgallery if you are not using it for monetary gain or anything like that?

[Dbl]

Is it against the law to have someone elses photograph in a webgallery if you are not using it for monetary gain or anything like that?

US Copyright Act of 1976, Section 106: " The owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: (...) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work." The U.S. law permits copying of images or text for "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research."

My understanding is posting someone else's images in their own gallery would be a violation of copyright law unless it was used for one of the above purposes. This usually only applies to newspapers using a photo from a gallery in a newspaper article. If you are using a persons photos without permission you can be sued for copyright infrigement. In my eyes that would include an on line gallery.

More importantly posting other's photos in your gallery would normally be a violation of the hosting service itself. That is why it pays to read the terms of service when you sign up. Keep in mind I'm not a lawyer but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night