I don't watermark my photos. I guess I'm an idiot for not doing it but I'm not so sure it would have helped in this situation... A few days ago I noticed that photos from my Level Eleven bit-tech project logs started showing up on various wonky-looking websites. No write-up...all photos. All 256 photos!! No credit given or links to my website. These sites are filled with ads including pop-under ads. Tonight someone registered at Reddit.com for the sole purpose of posting links to my photos at these scam websites. This seems to be a very successful scam for them. Any thoughts on what to do, if anything?
Two things to look at: 1. Are the sites where the pictures are being posted hosting said pictures? 2. Are the pictures just being posted to those sites, but being hosted elsewhere? If option 1 is true: Do a simple whois on the domain name and see if you can get the contact information for the site owners. If you do get some info (email addy) contact the site owners and request that the pictures be taken down as they are infringing in your copy rights. If option 2 is true: Find out which hosting service the pictures are being stored at and contact them with a copyright infringement complaint. If you get nowhere going this route, you can always figure out the actual hosting provider where the offending sites are being kept and contact them complaining about the offending sites. This may or may not work depending on where the hosting company is based and whether they are 100% legit or not. If you post some example urls of the offending sites I can do some digging for you if you'd like. cheers Sebastian
Don't forget option 3. If the sites are just linking the images from your host, replace them all with goatse. That'll learn them.
Ah yeah... Just search for .htaccess hotlink prevention and do a conditional replace to serve a nasty picture for browsers trying to show your images without the appropriate referrer. It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is... Just three lines of code in your .htaccess file and that's it. Something like this: Code: RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?mysite\.com/ [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ RewriteRule .*\.(jpeg|gif|bmp|png)$ full url to nasty picture here [L] Just replace mysite with your site's url and full url to nasty pic with... well you get the idea.
Here is the first site that came to my attention two days ago. Warning: Not responsible for malware infections. http://www.cracktwo.com/2010/09/level-eleven-very-sharp-handcrafted.html With 256 photos you can bet the first thing I did was check for hot-linking. lol I refuse to link to the currently offending site as they are getting enough traffic from Reddit. It is a site called expirationchug. The photos are exactly the same but they replaced the title with "How to Make a Cool Computer Case"
Something interesting that I have just noticed. All the photos were copied except the ones that have text on them. I marked several of the photos by writing the word "Draft" across them using Picasa. Could it be a bot looking for un-watermarked photos or am I just up too late? Really weird.
Thanks. It is not so much about the credit but more about people making money from my efforts without any consideration. I wouldn't mind at all if they just mentioned my name and posted a link to my websites. I think that is the general agreement that makes many things work on the Internet. The mass copying of only the photos from a project log is somewhat disturbing. I'm not sure what to think of it.
cracktwo.com is hosted on a secureserver.net domain (Go Daddy's hosting), so send a DMCA takedown notice to Go Daddy.
Thank you for the reply. I've been told in the past that people don't need my permission to post photos copied from a third-party website like bit-tech. I might try the takedown notice thing if he doesn't answer my e-mail. Sounds like a lot of fun. </sarcasm>
Knowing how GoDaddy operates; that site will be down and gone sooner than you can find the next one. GoDaddy are super strict when it comes to DMCA complaints and being based in the US they really take this stuff seriously.
Bunk. If this were true, anyone would be free to copy anything by searching for it in Google image Search and copying it from there rather than going through to the original site. It's your copyrighted work, just because you have given a 3rd party permission to republish the works that doesn't put them into the public domain.
The actual images are hosted with blogspot... so you could also contact them and file a complaint. This is even better for you since blogspot is owned by the big G, so they'll be even quicker to take them down.
I just sent a DMCA thingy to GoDaddy for both sites. Both use GoDaddy...no surprise there I guess. So how is it that Boing Boing used photos of my unfinished work I posted at Collectors Weekly? Engadget then copied the photos from Boing Boing. Engadget told me that if I wanted credit for my work that I should use my real name instead of my on-line handle. Right now there are websites copying Boing Boing's new article they posted this morning (trying to make nice with me). No one is asking my permission to do that...nor should they have to. At least these places are linking to my site and that's OK.
That expirationchug site is hosted with this hosting provider: limestonenetworks dot com Just contact them and send DMCA about the site; they're US based and will most likely comply rather quickly. It all boils down to how strict you want to get with your IP (Intelectual Property). If you really wanted to; you could ask Boing Boing and Endgadget to take down your images, but why would you? Those are legit sites that will give your work tons of exposure and they are giving credit where credit is due. It is true that in all practicality no one needs to ask for permission to post your content, but just because I can go to your site, save the pictures you posted and then upload them somewhere else does not give me the legal right to do so. Especially in the case of that site you posted where it is obvious that the intent is just to make money off of Adsense by stealing content. No matter what anyone tells you; you are the owner of the rights to the images and only you get to decide where they are shown. That whole thing with Endgadget about you needing to use your real name is bull... Have they never heard of pseudonyms?
Here is the Engadget article. Interesting to note that Collectors Weekly is listed as the Source. Some guy named slipperyskip is named as the photographer. Collectors Weekly was really happy with all the traffic they were getting, at least until I deleted my photos there. http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/26/a-modern-danish-case-for-your-modern-danish-computer/ An e-mail from the author..."I can't spend 30 mins digging around trying to find out the real name behind every alias of every post we get tipped on. If it's important that your work be attributed to your real name I'd recommend you start posting under your real name on other sites." That kinda blew my mind. I'm still not sure what to think of that. Maybe he's right.
Thank you for contacting Go Daddy. We are not actually hosting this site. We are the domain name registrar only. This domain is using a free forwarding service to re-direct all inquiries to a server or an IP address where the content is actually located. This forwarding service has been terminated, and the domain will cease resolving to that server/IP address within the next 1-2 hours. We have also included below the location that the content is actually stored, and that they were forwarding traffic to. You may want to contact the party or parties responsible for that server or IP address as well. Target of Forwarding Service: 74.125.77.121 =============================================== I tried to do a look up on this IP address and got Google. That can't be right. Any help interpreting this stuff? I would appreciate it.
It's Blogger (owned by Google). Boing Boing had another post recently, too. cracktwo is now down for me.
