Someone has stolen my photos, what should I do?

My photography page:

http://www.facebook.co​m/mjphotographysydney

This person has stolen an entire album from my page (and possibly photos from others as well) and labelled it as his/her own work.

https://www.facebook.c​om/SabounePhotography.​com.au

The album she has stolen from my page is "Disha's 21st Birthday". Is there anything I can do? Whats the best way to go about this.. I've never had anyone steal my images before so a bit unsure. Thanks for the help in advance!

Wow.

- First, make sure you can prove they are yours.
- Second, report it to Facebook immediately.
- Third, get in touch with the culprit and let them know that the photos are yours and a re being used without your consent and that you have reported it to FB and demand they be taken down immediately or you will consult an attorney.
- Document everything.... Times and dates and pieces stolen and where they have shown up. Check their business site, if they have one. Google search their company and nome. Make sure you find all of their uses of you images.

Above all. Try to keep your cool and keep it businesslike. Make your intentions clear and concise.

Good luck!

And, save lots of screenshots.

Next also, put a watermark on your images so you can easily prove it's yours, doesn't stop them taking them, but makes it much more easier to prove

nathancarter wrote in post #17458440
And, save lots of screenshots.

That's right. Document it.

This seems to happen a lot. Is it a mental disorder? This and "stolen valor" - people claiming to being in the military, but never served or never served in the capacity they portray...I just don't get it.

The people at http://stopstealingpho​tos.com have no problem calling out people like this.

Copy the whole webpage the album is on as well. In Firefox you can do this by simply hitting Control S, and then select "Webpage Complete" in the pull down menu that is brought up. That way, when she deletes the page, you will still have it documented.

Just curious...How did you find them?

1. Contact the site mentioned by John above (Stop Stealing Photos, http://stopstealingpho​tos.com/). It is always good to shine a spotlight of publicity on these people.

2. Contact Facebook - go to https://www.facebook.c​om/help/40028785002771​7/ to read up about reporting copyright infringement.

That's crazy. Definitely 'Wall of Shame' worthy. Didn't even rename the person or date.

Once you can prove it -- get that info to the authorities. there are heavy fines for intentional copyright infringement ... and you can get a piece of that action as well. Contact a copyright attorney for an explanation of your rights and ability to claim damages.

BUT :: Document it, Documents it, Document it !!! First and complete before anything else.

A lady inbox messaged me on Facebook and told me that this person was stealing my photos (and they requested to be kept anonymous)

Interesting. Photostealers can do a Google search on this photographer and see if anyone else has had phphotographs stolen. One thing I noticed is that you do a lot of Asian work, this other photographer doesn't, so I'm inclined to think they want to enter that market. Do you know how to do a Google search by image? Simply copy a few of his images that aren't yours to your hard drive. Open Google images and the folder you stored them in. Drag the image to the search box and it will search for other instances. You might be in for a slanging match if you get phostealers to out them, so you'll need extra proof the images are yours. Have you set your name in your camera's copyright menu? They'd have to prove otherwise. I think Photostealers and stop stealing photos are the same. They have a Facebook page too, but they've had to rename it to Photostealers I think.Good luck.

jc1350 wrote in post #17459146
This seems to happen a lot. Is it a mental disorder? This and "stolen valor" - people claiming to being in the military, but never served or never served in the capacity they portray...I just don't get it.

I know what you mean. I was at the VFW with fellow retired Navy SEALS Brian Williams and Bill O'Reilly and we were talking about how much this bothers us.

I checked out the pictures on both pages. I noticed that yours were posted in July 2014 and the thief posted them March 2nd or something very recently. They also have been resized to a smaller size and have a watermark put on them. Obviously a way to try and make them seem like the thief owns the image. But the larger size and much earlier time posted points towards you as the original owner. Definitely report them as stolen to Facebook, attempt contact with the thief, and the Stop Stealing Photos group.

I am even considering writting the thief and mentioning that I saw the pictures last year on a FB page I follow. See what happens.