Unauthorised use of photographs

[phil]

Hi All

I have just received an email from Ray Gabriel allerting me of unauthorised use of my photos. Thanks Ray.

I would recommend to any web site owners with a gallery that they check here http://www.pauki.ru/species/index.shtml to make sure that their photos have not been used or edited. I have located a total of 38 of my photos, all of which have been edited and my copyright removed only to be replaced with www.pauki.ru. I did not look at the entire gallery, only the links that i knew I had photos of, yet still found photos of 14 different photographers including arachnopets, Mark Pennell and J.Skotzky to name just a few.

 

[Telson]

I looked at the pics they have up for all the species I have and none were my pics, but I certainly saw a LOT of VERY FAMILIAR PICS!!

 

[kellygirl]

The H. maculata is Kelly Swift's picture turned to the side... just because you "alter" the picture doesn't make it yours!!!!!!!!

What can be done about a situation like this?

-Kelly

 

[Guido]

nothing i think, unless you have them copyrighted

 

[Deliverme314]

Originally posted by Guido
nothing i think, unless you have them copyrighted

We could always sick your avatar on them... the mob would not put up with this! No but seriously... that is really cruddy.

 

[Guido]

let me talk to Big Joey, and see if he can get littlle joey to come down and break there f'ing heads

 

[ArachnoPapa]

Hi,

Well I think, and since this can be a hot topic I said I think. That IF the pictures have legitimate copyright then you should send in by person, mail, or internet your complaint. They have people that are assigned to take care of it and/or tell you your first steps to do.(I am not a copyright professional so I dont know if just putting copyriht on it makes it really copyrighted.) Just hope it at least brings some respect to the situation.
Second disable the ability to copy what ever parts you want from your website.
I know that I copy and paste from the web all the time. But if I see copyrights I usauly leave it alone. I dont think there is to many web surfers that dont do this at least time to time.
What I dont do is claim them as my pics. I use them mostly for desktop backgrounds or to save in a picture folder to be able to quickly show friends what I am talking about. Or save info for easy access to get back to if on internet or not.
I would never use my T website with out permission first If I had access/or way to get it. Then of course give credit where credit is due. Sorry if anyone takes offense to this. I am not a crime lord or anything just not to different than most people in this area IMO.

Papa.

 

[phil]

Hi
I am not against anyone using my pics for personal use, or using them for a website, as long as i am asked, and the photo is not edited, not to much to ask. here's an example
copied pic

my pic

 

[darkeye]

The last time I waded through the US copyright laws, the intent was that if YOU took the picture and could PROVE it, it was protected under the law, regardless if it had a copyright mark on it or not. If YOU published a picture- no matter where you published it- it was protected. HOWEVER, since I am not familiar with the copyright laws of other countries, I can't say exactly what to do about it.

Complaining to the web hosting service only gets you so far. Perhaps we should form the "Federation for the Abolition of Non-allowed useage of Graphics" ... "F.A.N.G."

United, we may have more 'Bite'...


:8o

 

[ArachnoPapa]

Hi,

Sorry to see that Phil, He even put his name on it.
At least give credit jees. Good luck if you do anything.
Papa.

 

[Guido]

i agree, he should at least give credit to whom took the picture

 

[noboyscout]

I'm sorry to all but I'm afraid this is just the case of some one finding out how to edit the script from a website. It's a shame people don't use their talents to pursue things in a lawful manner.
It's obvious that this person is a talented individual and he/she just doesn't understand common courtesy. This sucks and it's not fair for the people who get exploited but it is a common occurrence all over the Internet.

 

[Valtinho]

copyright laws

As far as I know, any material that you create is automatically copyrighted for your llifetime, plus an additional 70 years. You do not have to register your work with the copyright office (which I believe costs about 20 bucks), but it certainly makes proving that you are indeed the author a lot easier.

The poor man's copyright is to have your work stamped by a notary, or snail mail it to yourself (and not open the envelope). But these are not fail safe methods, and not recommended.

The problem here is that US laws only work in the US, and other countries can do whatever the hell the want! I don't think there is anything you can do, aside from simply asking the guy to remove the pictures from his/her site.

Check out the US copyright office site at:

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

 

[sunnymarcie]

So does anyone speak Russian?
I think that web site is in Russian:?

We need to tell him, as a group that we do not like what he did.
There are a ton of pictures from people on this board. And he has
taken their name off of the photos and put his on in the place of it. To me thats is STEALING no matter what side of the globe your on!

Here is the contact info:

E-mail masterweb@pauki.ru

 

[noboyscout]

Phli I just checked out that site again. I noticed that while he put his name on your picture he does give credit to where he got the picture from underneath it.

 

[FelixA9]

Originally posted by noboyscout
Phli I just checked out that site again. I noticed that while he put his name on your picture he does give credit to where he got the picture from underneath it.

It's still lame though because they are removing the credit from the picture and slapping their own on it. Essentially ripping people off so they can use the pictures as advertising material.

 

[Buspirone]

They steal your pic then steal their bandwidth. Get a BOT like WebReaper or similar to download their entire sight over and over again. I've shutdown websites that use free hosts in the past(by accident) saving a site to disk for archiving purposes. I think webreaper looks for a bot file that a webmaster can use to prevent the site from being ripped by such software but I've never come across a site except pay ones that have ever used a bot file.if a site does use a bot file adobe acrobat full version will do the job .

 

[phil]

Hi

here's the reply i received from the webmaster, re: removing the pics.

"NO"

what can i do now, as far as i can tell, he has his own domain? the cost of legal help is not within my means, any advice appreciated.

What kind of lowlife crap is he?

below is a list of names who he has stolen pics from. here is his email address, 100s of voices are louder than one voice. masterweb@pauki.ru

P.Messenger, Genevieve, Darrin Vernier, arachnopets.com, J.Asel, Yann Evenou, Rhys A.Brigida, Fabian Vol, Frank Somma, Mark Hart, Kelly Swift, Danne Rydgren, V.R.Joseph, Martin R. Nicholas, Martin Huber, Tony Skvarenina, Mark Pennell, wolfgang-eisenreich.de, Bryant Capiz, Lionel Dabat, Jay Stotzky, Michael Richardson, Thomas Ezendam, Scott Bemis, and many more with no name. all images from the list of photographers carry his website on the image.

regards

phil

 

[Buspirone]

It looks like the site is hosted by http://valuehost.ru/

 

[sunnymarcie]

Well I looked around at the host site and it is available in English.
I found their customer care section and sent them a nice long letter

For anyone else that wants to do that here is the addy;

support@valuehost.co.uk

Maybe if enough of us put up a stink they will take this thief down!