 Kerby Pfrangle |
Image theft I help a child model (Keshia) who I had on Better Photo as my people model for about three years. For the past year we have had an account on One Model Place.com for her. http://www.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?ID=249879 and we are having people steal images of her off of her OMP account. We had a 20 image slideshow made and 13 myspace accounts (We had them all removed for stealing images, underage profiles and imposter profiles) and now we found two images on a site calle Bellazone. We wrote to the moderator at that site this morning to get these images removed. My questions are: How do you get people not to steal images? How do you find out who is taking them? Mark if you read this could you please reply. Thank you.
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Mark Feldstein |
Well Kerby, unfortunately, to some plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery. Stealing I guess tends to be human nature especially when it comes to works of art. The first step is to make sure they're all registered with the copyright office and to make that fact known wherever you're posting them. I think you know that drill. I don't know if the actual technology exists these days to prevent someone from lifting an image off a web site. There are folks here far more versed in that area than I am. However, it's the reason why I don't post my best stuff on my web site because I think where there's a will there's a way to steal it for any reason. Next is read the posting agreement for the web site and see what particular rules you agreed to at One Model Place or MyPlace or whererever the work is posted. That's important and print copies of the agreements. You may have consented to something in terms of usage that you didn't realize you were consenting to. But if someone is actually pirating your work and acting contrary to any agreement you authorized, you have lots of recourse including the cease and desist letter I've written about here often and then a request for damages. How much damages depends on the type of infringement. The web site moderator or whomever is running the site can put you in touch with the person who posted your work without your consent. Make sure you send any letters by Certified Mail. The question of liability, both the individual and the web site host, is something you should discuss with a lawyer who does intellectual property in YOUR neck of the woods, not out of state. Alternatively, try and find an intellectual property lawyer where the web site is based. Also, Keshia and/or her parents or legal guardians have rights in this deal as well, again depending on the infringement and the underlying facts of this. I also offer you my standard precaution which is don't discuss the details of this on line beyond what you've offered here. Keep them confidential between you and your attorney that you meet with one on one.
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Todd Bennett |
Kirby, To add to what Mark said, there really isn't a way to stop this, where there's a will there is a way. There are things, however, that you can do to deter them. One is a low resolution in the photo for your website. 72dpi is fine for viewing photos on a monitor therefore if you set the resolution low they have less information to work with and the prints at 72 dpi would be terribly small and if they try to enlarge them they would be crap. Digimarc is another option where it allows you to put a watermark on your photos and those can be tracked across the internet. The only real way to stop it is to not put them on the internet to begin with.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Best thing, register, and watermark them if you have them on the web. Unfortunately, even though not worthy of a printable picture, with the ever increasing rise and shift to web based businesses and business practices, I predict the theft of web images to become more prevalent. There's more uses for images that you can only use for a web site since many sales occur over the internet. A person or company can lift an image and get pretty good usage from it without needing a printable size. So the future looks like more of a need to protect your images.
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Todd Bennett |
Good point Greg!
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Kerby Pfrangle |
Hi Mark, Todd and Gregory, This is is a big pain and inconvience having to get the images off the net when people take them. I have a portfolio on OMP and they take them off of my site too. It takes about three weeks to get a myspace portfolio off. She been shot by several different photographers so it not just my images that are getting taken. I guess I could register my images but my work is in no way comparable to other work in her portfolio. I may try what Todd suggested and make them smaller than when someone tries to take one they nothing to make bigger. I like that idea. Thank you Gregory, Todd and Mark for responding.
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Oliver Anderson |
Kerby...you gotta post them at 72-90dpi...thats the only way to prevent them from getting ripped off. water marks also help because most people don't know how to remove them...although I've seen a couple people on this site have explained how its done... You gotta get the girl a good model management agency and they'll take legal action if their property is stolen. My friend won a $12million dollar settlement from a male enhancement company that stole her image for their adds...the worst part is the product didn't work that well...jk
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