Ever have your pictures lifted from a site and used to sell something?

[drkstar00]

The pics of the 'Clone de Bandai Super/Strike Valkyrie' a quarter of the way down this page are of my Taiwanese Valkyrie. They were lifted from this site and placed here:

http://www.robotechcollections.fr/collection_macross_autres.shtml

While slightly humerous to me, I do feel that it's false advertisement, and if I could type french, I'd post somewhere that the product the purchaser would be getting is different from the one shown, because the one shown is not for sale and is sitting on my dresser.

Edited September 17, 2010 by drkstar00

[jenius]

Yep. Pictures from my site are used on Harmony Gold's convention tour without permission and with my tiny stamp removed. Also, I took pictures from a French site for a Gakken review (and credited the site) only to find that the original pictures were here on MW and had been lifted and cropped by the French site to remove their citing.

[sketchley]

The only thing that can be recommended is putting a watermark over the image itself, in such a way that removing the watermark is extremely labour intensive (I want to say that watermarks cannot be erased, but alas, if someone is truly motivated...)

[eriku]

Just do what I do and take such crappy photos that nobody wants to steal them.

[AcroRay]

I've had the same thing happen to me. I've also had entire chunks of articles I've written wind-up in eBay descriptions as well.

[EXO]

I dont think you can do much of anything. You can put ugly watermarks on your pictures but after that what? You're going to scan the web for people using your images? It's really up to the buyer to research his or her buy. First thing they should ask is if that's an actual picture of the product, then ask for more pictures.

[pud333]

I dont think you can do much of anything. You can put ugly watermarks on your pictures but after that what? You're going to scan the web for people using your images? It's really up to the buyer to research his or her buy. First thing they should ask is if that's an actual picture of the product, then ask for more pictures.

This. It's the internet, so people are gonna lift what they want and use it for whatever they want. It's such a small thing though, that there's no point in pursuing any sort of legal action or anything of that nature. If they're nice, they might remove the images if you send them an email telling them to, but really, there's no point. I take scenic photos and post them on the internet now and then, knowing full well they may be used at some point by someone else.

[TheLoneWolf]

It's been a while since I've taken French, but it doesn't look like that site is selling anything. It's just a gallery of Macross and Robotech toys. The prices listed are just their estimates for each item's worth.

Like pud333 said, if you post photographs to the Internet, then you had better accept that other people will use your photos for their own personal uses. If you don't want other people copying your photos, then don't post them.

[bigkid24]

I remember someone stealing pics from MW member, soze, to put in his ebay auction. Not only did he steal the pic but he just linked to the pic, didn't even take the time to download and re-up the thing. I think soze changed the pic to a toilet full of crap so that it link right into the guy's auction.

[anubis20]

Only time was when this guy took my pics of a tranformer and he used them in his ebay description. He wasnt even selling the exact same item, it was something similar. I was hoping that he was just linking to them so i could change them to a porn image or something but when I looked at the code he had them saved in his photobucket account.

Edited September 17, 2010 by anubis20

[anime52k8]

I don't really spend my time trolling the internet looking for my pictures I took to show up uncredited or otherwise on somebody's website/ebay auction, but I'd like to think that somebody is using my stuff somewhere.

Actually I'm kind of pissed that I've never seen a photo I've taken showing up somewhere without my permission. I'd like to think that I do generally good work, so why does nobody want to use it?

[jenius]

I'll steal your pictures. Just post lots of pictures somewhere of Macross or Robotech toys I don't own... or knock-offs... and let me know where you posted them and I'll do you the favor of using them.

[Tober]

Yep. Pictures from my site are used on Harmony Gold's convention tour without permission and with my tiny stamp removed. Also, I took pictures from a French site for a Gakken review (and credited the site) only to find that the original pictures were here on MW and had been lifted and cropped by the French site to remove their citing.

If you took the photos HG were using then you own them, regardless of weather it's their product or not. If you can prove this claim you could really kick their asses for copyright infringement. Poetic justice really.

I don't really spend my time trolling the internet looking for my pictures I took to show up uncredited or otherwise on somebody's website/ebay auction, but I'd like to think that somebody is using my stuff somewhere.

Actually I'm kind of pissed that I've never seen a photo I've taken showing up somewhere without my permission. I'd like to think that I do generally good work, so why does nobody want to use it?

Well if you do feel like trolling then the website tineye is a reasonably robust reverse search engine for pictures. It's not perfect and still in beta but I've had some good results come from it.

[Kicker773]

That's why I don't post anymore pics. If I do.. its small pictures.

[fifbeat]

I don't know. I'd take it as a compliment... at least you know there are people out there looking at your work.

My thing is: if you put it up on the net, say bye bye...

[ff95gj]

My Photobucket quota got exhausted real fast, until I checked usage and that my pics were posted in a Thai forum.

Frankly speaking, I am flattered.

[Renato]

This is the "for sale" section of his site, NOT the page you mentioned. Notice the prices in euros.

http://www.robotechcollections.fr/vente_collection.shtml

You were too quick to jump to conclusions. Your photographs are not being used as false advertising. It was just his way of cataloguing bootlegs and rarities. Doesn't anyone but the Lone Wolf and I remember any French anymore?

I wonder if Mr March was annoyed when he found that Bandai had used his coloured lineart for their poster promoting the VF-100s line last year.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

I like mr march's website with its nice coloured images.

Hope he doesn't get angry at me. I made a nice macross tshirt for myself with the konig monster printed on it.

I think as long as you are not trying to make money from it, it should be ok. It's like the argument about emulator roms. Most of the people downloading are just getting them for personal usage not to try to profit off it. Lot of the content had long since vanished and too hard to obtain anymore so fans will be fans and try to use alternate means. (For a long time I had to use a emulator to play street fighter III after my dreamcast game console died out making it impossible for me to play the game anymore I figure I'm not harming anyone, so why should I suffer? )

I suppose I should feel ashamed that my avatar was stolen from the creator of the vf-2 and now I should owe him $110101101010 dollars or whatever... but nah I'm feeling ok still. I'm not as bad as Harmony Gold am I?

Edited September 18, 2010 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[sketchley]

I think as long as you are not trying to make money from it, it should be ok.

If you want to get technical, refer to Wikipedia's section about using pictures in articles posted on their website.

Also, when it comes to copyright, it depends on the country. For example, the USA has a "fair use" clause. As in, it's ok to use one or two images or a short clip of a TV show/movie, as long as it's in an appropriate usage. (Ergo, posting screen caps in a review is fair use, using copyright images as an avatar is not).

Copyright is also not limited to only financial restrictions. Japan, for example, has two: financial copyright, and creator copyright. So, it's possible in some situations that the financial copyright has been sold (or is no longer under protection), but the creator's copyright is still in effect. Ergo, using an image as an avatar may be a breech of copyright if it's in a context that distorts or destroys the copyright material (ie Totoro as a serial rapist).

Anyhow, my main point: read the wikipedia section. It's insightful and reminds me of one of my father's expresions: just because everyone else is jumping off the bridge, doesn't mean that you have, too.

[ae_productions]

I use anymoon.com's pics all the time as my computer background.

Ha ha!