Site full of what looks like stolen images

I was looking through my site to see the views from a session I did yesterday. One of the hits came from a site and they list one of my photos.

Website is http://www.photonicyat​ra.com/popular/today/

My photo
http://www.photonicyat​ra.com/popular/today/i​-jMh7zBr/A

Here is the link to my photo in my gallery.
http://www.mattymx.com …C#!i=3190648318​&k=jMh7zBr

I've contacted the owner, but have had no response. While looking for my photo, I noticed that there are a ton of images watermarked by several other photographers and they are all for sale on the site.

I know that there is little anyone can do so I'm spreading the word. If you see an image that is yours or someone that you know of, let them know.

mattymx wrote in post #16848650
I was looking through my site to see the views from a session I did yesterday. One of the hits came from a site and they list one of my photos.

Website is http://www.photonicyat​ra.com/popular/today/

My photo
http://www.photonicyat​ra.com/popular/today/i​-jMh7zBr/A

Here is the link to my photo in my gallery.
http://www.mattymx.com …C#!i=3190648318​&k=jMh7zBr

I've contacted the owner, but have had no response. While looking for my photo, I noticed that there are a ton of images watermarked by several other photographers and they are all for sale on the site.

I know that there is little anyone can do so I'm spreading the word. If you see an image that is yours or someone that you know of, let them know.

The site is hosted by SmugMug. You can submit a "DMCA Notice of Alleged Infringement" to them. Take a look here for the directions:
http://www.smugmug.com​/about/terms/#Copyrigh​t

mattymx wrote in post #16848650
Here is the link to my photo in my gallery.
http://www.mattymx.com …C#!i=3190648318​&k=jMh7zBr

John,

While I am not sure, I can not see where the host site where the stolen image is listed is on Smugmug. Mattymx does have his images on the Smugmug site in the link listing it as his.

...its identity theft as well. Just looked up the guys facebook page and was about to point out the irony that the photographer had posted this link. But after a bit more clicking around I found the real photographers website: and his site is full of original images. The fake Mr Nanda even stole the real Suchit's about me page. So a bit of warning: there is a real Suchit Nanda out there and he isn't responsible for this website, so don't go harassing the poor guy.

Hawks Feather wrote in post #16848849
=Hawk's Feather;16848849]John,

While I am not sure, I can not see where the host site where the stolen image is listed is on Smugmug. Mattymx does have his images on the Smugmug site in the link listing it as his.

I wasn't talking about Matty's site.

If you go to the index of the offending web site: photonicyatra.com, you'll clearly see the "Powered by SmugMug" text at the bottom right.

Additionally, photonicyatra.com resolves to 208.79.45.23. According to ARIN, this IP block is owned by SmugMug:

NetRange:       [B]208.79.44.0 - 208.79.47.255[/B]
CIDR:           208.79.44.0/22
OriginAS:       AS11266
[B]NetName:        SMUGMUG[/B]
NetHandle:      NET-208-79-44-0-1
Parent:         NET-208-0-0-0-0
NetType:        Direct Assignment
RegDate:        2007-06-08
Updated:        2012-03-02
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/​rest/net/NET-208-79-44-0-1

Thanks for that info. I clicked on the buy photo and it is set to the default price so there is no way it's connected to my site. Still no contact from him regarding my email.

banquetbear wrote in post #16848856
...its identity theft as well. Just looked up the guys facebook page and was about to point out the irony that the photographer had posted this link. But after a bit more clicking around I found the real photographers website: and his site is full of original images. The fake Mr Nanda even stole the real Suchit's about me page. So a bit of warning: there is a real Suchit Nanda out there and he isn't responsible for this website, so don't go harassing the poor guy.

The website is registered to a Suchit Nanda, so this scumbag registered it under the other photog's name, if your theory is correct. If that's the case, Mr. Nanda should take action to claim the domain and take down the site. Run a whois on the domain name and start contacting people listed.

...looking at things a bit more closely: is it possible there is a bug in the smugmug search tool that is pulling popular photos into this search stream?

I just substituted:

http://www.photonicyat​ra.com/popular/today/

with smugmug:

http://www.smugmug.com​/popular/today/

And the same images popped up.

Seems like this is a smugmug fault, not Mr Nanda. Seems I got that bit wrong too. My apologies.

It looks like some kind of smugmug weird mishap. Weird to say the least.

This just went from strange to bizarre. I checked out both sites yesterday and today received an email saying that it was his/their belief that it was a Smugmug problem. In the email I was given a link to my Smugmug http://www.jerrylatta.​biz/popular/today/ and when I clicked the link it went to Smugmug's Popular/today images with some of my images and those of (I think) many other photographers showing. My assumption (I know never assume) that since it was linked to MY Smugmug account that it would only show MY popular today images and not many photographer's popular today images. Many of the same images are on here: http://www.smugmug.com​/popular/today/i-rvbqbcP which I don't really have a problem with since it is Smugmug's and not mine.

I did send in a report to Smugmug and received the following" "We are aware that the "popular photos" link for all of SmugMug can be shown using the site owners name in the url or just by using:
http://www.smugmug.com​/popular/today/
We are looking into this issue already and appreciate your patience as we dig deeper."


John, I am sorry that I didn't look further at the site in question and that you did.

I have exchanged several emails with Smugmug and they are working on their problem. I think I can safely say that Suchit at http://www.photonicyat​ra.com did not steal anyone else's work. I certainly hope that Smugmug can get this changed so that any member of Smugmug who has their own site name listed won't have this happen to them.

For any members who have a Smugmug account and don't understand what is happening, just put /popular/today/ after your custom web name and you can see what will happen. YOUR website name will appear followed by many popular images from the day. Some might be yours and many will not be yours but they will all show under YOUR website name.

Hawks Feather wrote in post #16850977
=Hawk's Feather;16850977]I have exchanged several emails with Smugmug and they are working on their problem. I think I can safely say that Suchit at http://www.photonicyat​ra.com did not steal anyone else's work. I certainly hope that Smugmug can get this changed so that any member of Smugmug who has their own site name listed won't have this happen to them.

For any members who have a Smugmug account and don't understand what is happening, just put /popular/today/ after your custom web name and you can see what will happen. YOUR website name will appear followed by many popular images from the day. Some might be yours and many will not be yours but they will all show under YOUR website name.

I have a SM site and there is a setting 'Account Settings > Privacy > Allow Collections'. I have mine set for 'off'.

Hikin Mike wrote in post #16851022
I have a SM site and there is a setting 'Account Settings > Privacy > Allow Collections'. I have mine set for 'off'.

I too have my Privacy Collections set to 'off'.

It seems that if someone views an image in your Smugmug site enough times it gets added to the popular images of the day and will show up.

Hawks Feather wrote in post #16851386
=Hawk's Feather;16851386]I too have my Privacy Collections set to 'off'.

It seems that if someone views an image in your Smugmug site enough times it gets added to the popular images of the day and will show up.

I saw you PM before I saw this thread. It seems like SM has a big bug to fix.