Bloggers stealing photos

Just a heads up to people that may take photos of public figures and politicians.

At the beginning of April, I photographed a candidate forum in my hometown that featured two candidates that are running to be their party's nominees to challenge our current US Representative and a candidate for Governor of SD. After the event, I posted a few of the photos to the website of the group that hosted the forum.

I received a Google Alert informing me that my name was mentioned in a political blog that is authored by a local extreme xxxx-winger (doesn't really matter what his politics are, I don't want my business to be associated with either extreme). I go to check it out and I find that he has taken a screenshot of the website that I posted my photos to (with my photo as nearly the only thing in the frame, other than the border of the website) and included a very deceiving caption to go along with a post that I would best describe as an attempt at character assassination of some of the subjects of my photo. The caption inferred that a local businessman was talking to two of the politicians, when it was clear from the photo that he was just sitting next to a woman that was speaking with on of the politicians and the other politician was sitting in a chair about 15 feet behind them. The businessman was obviously not even paying attention to the conversation.

At the end of the caption he put a credit line with my name. My photo had the copyright symbol followed by my name and website URL across the bottom ( hard to see in his screenshot, but easily seen in the gallery - which he also linked to).

Even though he obviously knew that I was the photographer and copyright holder of the photo, he decided he could use it in his post without even bothering to contact me. He figured that it was OK as long as he gave me credit.

I immediately sent him a take-down notice, which he did by the next morning (it was late when I sent it). He then sent me an email asking me to inform him of how I'd like to be credited so he could use my photos on his blog.

He also put a caption in place of the photo that you can see at the following link:
http://madvilletimes.b​logspot.com …s-ignorance-of-civil.html

He also directed his visitors to my personal Facebook account (where I had also posted the photo).

He also had made a new post with some goofy conspiracy theory, as he apparently either can't believe that a photographer wouldn't want him using their photograph to spew his venom or he just doesn't care about the truth.

http://madvilletimes.b​logspot.com …sing-history-erasing.html

I took the photo off of Facebook and sent him an email describing the finer points of the proper procedure of licensing photos, where to find "fair use" in the US Code and that I didn't want my name associated with nasty political attacks. I also explained to him how putting a credit line underneath a photo does not make it OK to use someone's photo without permission.

Long story short, be careful what you put out there when your subjects are political in nature. There are some very loud people that think they can use whatever they can find to advance their viewpoint. Your name and work may be associated with these attacks and it could very well affect your business. People may see your name in the photo or credit line and assume that you are working with the person that stole your photo or support their causes.

His blog is supposedly one of the most highly visited political blogs in my state, and the blogger won't set the record straight as to what happened. Protect your copyrights vigorously and be on the lookout for your photos to appear in places you don't want them.

I highly recommend signing up for Google Alerts:
http://www.google.com/​alerts

DDCSD wrote in post #10078894
I highly recommend signing up for Google Alerts:
http://www.google.com/​alerts

Thanks for posting this. I was clueless that there was such a thing. I really could have used it last month.

Wow! That's about all that I can say right now. I did read some of the comments on his blog and I think that people realize that this person is an idiot. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Did you report this to blogger as well?
Thanks for the link for the alerts

Mike R wrote in post #10078961
Thanks for posting this. I was clueless that there was such a thing. I really could have used it last month.

Dwight McCann has brought it up a few times in the past here on POTN and I'm glad I signed up for it. I have multiple different "alerts" and get them weekly. You get a separate email for every alert that you sign up for. The only downside is that I have the same name as a small-time celebrity, so I get a fair amount of hits that don't have anything to do with me. Small price to pay.

JulieNick wrote in post #10078980
Wow! That's about all that I can say right now. I did read some of the comments on his blog and I think that people realize that this person is an idiot. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Did you report this to blogger as well?
Thanks for the link for the alerts

Most of the people that visit his sight either share his point of view or are adamantly opposed. That is the reason that I didn't want my name and work to be associated with his blog in any form.

I'm not going to bother with contacting blogger about it. He removed the photo, so there really isn't anything else that would require their involvement. I'm working other angles to set the record straight. They really can't be expected to monitor everything that goes on in the blogs on their site, its just not possible.

Really would have preferred to not waste my time on this, but I am the type that will pursue things simply out of principle. Sometimes to a fault.

@JulieNick: "idiot"? I thought the rules of this forum forbade personal attacks.

Minor corrections:
1. "15 feet" appears to be an exaggeration.
2. "obviously not paying attention" is a rather subjective interpretation.
3. "my photo as nearly the only thing in the frame" is an overstatement. By my measurement of the 1024x600 pixel screenshot, the photo occupied 42% of the image.
4. "character assassination" is another remarkably subjective interpretation, suggesting DDCSD's negative opinion of the politician under consideration.
5. "personal Facebook account" -- when will people learn to use privacy settings?
6. "venom"? I have yet to see evidence of that. Again, subjective interpretations made in the heat of upset about something else.

I'd invite you to view the photo yourselves and make your own assessments, but DDCSD has removed all available copies from public view. Darn, that copyright, getting in the way of allowing people to decide for themselves. Alas.

I have previously invited DDCSD to add his explanation to each blog post mentioned in the comment sections, which are open to every user willing to leave his or her name.

(By the way, DDCSD did not obtain permission to use my original text in his above forum post, in apparent violation rules of this very forum. Copyright violation? Fair use? Goose and gander? Discuss.)

And the 'DB' comes to defend him/herself... Derek +1 for avoiding xxxx-wing polititcs.

Good thing he came in here and swayed my view.

CAHeidelberger wrote in post #10079385
3. "my photo as nearly the only thing in the frame" is an overstatement. By my measurement of the 1024x600 pixel screenshot, the photo occupied 42% of the image.

I'd invite you to view the photo yourselves and make your own assessments, but DDCSD has removed all available copies from public view. Darn, that copyright, getting in the way of allowing people to decide for themselves. Alas.

...

Now the blogger has linked to this thread, along with a blatant misrepresentation of one of my statements posted here.

http://madvilletimes.b​logspot.com …on-howie-brings-t-rv.html

The thing that concerns me the most about all of this is that his website states that he is employed by Dakoa State University as a research assistant. I believe that to be a faculty-level position, although I am not familiar with the details of his employment beyond what he states on his website.

Wow this could get interesting... Where's that popcorn smiley?

CAHeidelberger wrote in post #10079385
@JulieNick: "idiot"? I thought the rules of this forum forbade personal attacks.

Freedom of speech I believe. You can not attach other members. Sooo if she said...CAHeidelberger is an idiot...well that would be against the rules...

I now see that the blogger has created an "artist representation" of my photograph and included it in his blog. I wonder if I should direct the blogger to the recent court case Hofmann v. O'Brien, since I know for a fact that he was not in attendance that evening and that the only reference he could have for his illustration is my photograph. Not to mention that he has directly replaced my photograph with his illustration. His illustration appears to be a very close (although crude) copy of the content of my photograph (although it lacks my watermark and doesn't depict the proper blurring of foreground and background subjects the way that my photograph does). He also has removed the credit line, seemingly to claim that this "artist representation" is a completely original work.

http://madvilletimes.b​logspot.com …s-ignorance-of-civil.html

He also send out a nice little shout-out to the good folks at POTN that visit his website.

Creepy character

If You are blogger (not only photoblogger), Your good friends will be:

tineye.com - for Your images on other sites
copyscape.com - for finding Your textes around the web

Regards,

P.S. I'm interesting in link exchange (quality, 'dofollow' ones from other photo-blogs.

The only problem with TinEye is that it can only find what is basically an exact copy of your photograph. My understanding is that it takes dimensions, file size, EXIF data and filename into account (and likely some other things) when looking for a match. Amazing tool though.

It would not have been able to find my photograph on this blog. The photo was stolen using the "screenshot" method and TinEye isn't able to seek out the content within the screenshot, only the atributes of the screenshot.