Grrr... stolen photos!

[littlepickle]

Okay, not mine (that I know of). Since I've been selling makeup for a living I've been trawling through other people's listings to get ideas for my own, or make sure there aren't fake MAC listings etc. And I have been noticing the obscene amount of stolen photos out there! Why?! I know this is by no means a new thing, but as a person who works really (really, really) hard on my own images, I feel absolutely terrible for all the people who are having pictures taken without permission! Today alone I have seen and reported handfuls of images from flickr, makeupgeek.com, livejournal, cosmetic-candy.com, etc. Rant over. Just had to be mad for a bit.

 

[LMD84]

yeah sadly it happens a heck of alot and sucks major ass. the only thing i can say is watermark your images to help prevent this from happening.

 

[littlepickle]

That's the thing, so many of the images I have seen ARE water marked, and still people do it - no shame! :s

 

[LittleMaryJane]

Are you talking about stolen photos being used in people's sales? If so, that's not cool... I want an accurate picture of what I'm potentially buying.

 

[littlepickle]

Yes, on Ebay and Trademe and the like.

 

[blazeno.8]

That bites. It's hard to stop, but if the person is lazy and just hotlinking, there is a way to discourage it: an image swap. Some bridal site was hotlinking my photos and so I copied the exact file name from my account, deleted the picture, and then renamed another picture with the exact same name. Needless they stopped. Unfortunately this doesn't work if they've save the image and are now hosting it themselves.

 

[tthelwell]

Yes it's a terrible thing that I guess comes with the territory. I have had my makeup pics stolen recently and added to people's portfolios on Model Mayhem and Facebook.

It's just really dishonest to their viewers and potential clients and even more so to the owner of the pics.

I had expected this at some point because of my blog but not so soon. I guess I just I have to deal.

 

[LMD84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blazeno.8 That bites. It's hard to stop, but if the person is lazy and just hotlinking, there is a way to discourage it: an image swap. Some bridal site was hotlinking my photos and so I copied the exact file name from my account, deleted the picture, and then renamed another picture with the exact same name. Needless they stopped. Unfortunately this doesn't work if they've save the image and are now hosting it themselves.

wow! that is very clever!

thanks for the tip

 

[LittleMaryJane]

^ Yeah great idea. I would just delete my photos whenever someone hotlinked but this is better--you could upload anything in its place

 

[reesesilverstar]

Yes! I have been on sites looking for swatches and recognize a TON of pictures from here and some blogs I follow. I don't understand how you could be selling a product and have 15 different watermarks, none of them in the same lighting and ppl actually buy from you.

It is a weird situation and I wish there was something ppl could do because it's not right.

 

[LC]

I've seen my pics show up on random people's fb pages that i'm not even friends with...people are nuts!!

 

[Door]

Stealing other people's pictures sucks big time.

After reading the original post, I remembered having read about the same problem before. I've learned that it's possible to add a "tracking code" (invisible water mark) to your pictures. If someone steals your picture you'll be able to track the bastard who did that.

Here's a link to a site that provides more information about different methods of image protection Image Security: Visible Watermarks, Invisible Watermarks, copyright notification, download prevention, encryption, steganography and more