Illegal Use of Cichlid Photographs

[Mark Smith]

Just a note to let everyone know that Golden Fish Aquarium, located in Lakewood, Colorado, website: www.goldenfishaquarium.com, has been illegally taking our photos of cichlids, mine and Ad Konings to name a few, without our permission, or payment for their usage, and using them on their website to help them sell their fish.

I did call them today, and after demanding that they take down my photos, they promptly hung up the phone.

[zenins]

It is very difficult to control use of images once they are posted on the Internet.

If you watermark them or put text across the face of the fish that is difficult to remove,
it ruins the photo for those who just want to look and appreciate the fish and the photo

Once in a while, I see my photos being used on a website or in a club publication.
As long as I get credited as the photographer, I am usually okay with that,
otherwise I ask for credit.

Of course if they ask first, I always say yes, after all, photography, like tropical fish, is just another hobby for me
and I am flattered when someone wants to use my photo

If the photographs are part of my business or livelihood, then it is another situation entirely, and perhaps lawyers have to be consulted ... it gets messy

[Mark Smith]

I see your points, Zenin. Thanks.

[Lisachromis]

The problem is permission. They need to ask. It's copyrighted whether or not there's a watermark on the photo.

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

[Alex Calder]

I have a very humorous thread on my forum written by our founder a lawyer. It goes into pictures and copyrights and backs up Lisa.

Or you could find out who their host is and report them to their provider.

They are hosted by Psychz Networks.

From the acceptable use policy of the host, found at http://www.psychz.net/support/acceptable_usage.html

In general, you may NOT use your Psychz account:

* In a manner which violates any law, regulation, treaty or tariff;
* In a manner which violates the rules, regulations and policies of any network, server, web site, database or service provider that you access through your Psychz account;
* In a manner which is defamatory, fraudulent, indecent, offensive or deceptive;
* To threaten, harass, abuse or intimidate others;
* To damage the name or reputation of Psychz, its parent, affiliates and subsidiaries;
* To break security on any computer network, or to access an account which does not belong to you; or
* In a manner which interferes with other customers' use and enjoyment of the services provided by Psychz.

Follow this link and report the abuse to them. Be polite yet firm and watch those images disappear. Should this fail mention reporting them to godaddy (domain registrar) to get their domain turned off. Remember you are not attacking the provider you want to get to the offending site.

http://www.psychz.net/helpdesk/index.ph ... &_a=submit

[Mark Smith]

Thanks for the tip, Alex. They have actually removed my images, but Ad's, Erwin Schramls, and others remain. The watermarks on my photos were photoshopped out, interestingly enough.

[Dan Woodland]

This thread brings up a question in my mind: Is there an efficient way to search for misuse of your content other than looking at every site with photos and video? Unfortunately I've also seen someone can now steak your video from you tube even if you have embedding blocked!

[Alex Calder]

There is absolutely no way to stop someone from taking anything posted publicly on the net.
It is a trivial matter for a decent programmer to write code designed to circumvent protections.
This was one of the reasons I hesitated protecting images in the CB, I decided I would code in
some nuisances to deter the average user.

The only tool i know of is this one: http://tineye.com/

[zenins]

This thread brings up a question in my mind: Is there an efficient way to search for misuse of your content other than looking at every site with photos and video?

It depends on what the text is on the same page.
If you have posted a nice photo of say, Melanotaenia praecox (Dwarf Neon Rainbow), then do an image search on Google for Melanotaenia praecox and another image search on Dwarf Neon Rainbow, you might recognize your photo by the angle of the fish or the back ground or what ever ...

[zenins]

oops, forgot I was on a cichlid forum ... substitute Green Terror Aequidens rivulatus for Dwarf Neon Rainbow Melanotaenia praecox

[PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn]

This thread brings up a question in my mind: Is there an efficient way to search for misuse of your content other than looking at every site with photos and video? Unfortunately I've also seen someone can now steak your video from you tube even if you have embedding blocked!

if you use firefox theres a plugin you can use

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8922

buts its the same as the tinyeye mentioned earlier

[Mark Smith]

A quick update to all:

The owner on the store, after having a discussion with him on the phone, did send me a check in the mail for the use of the photos today.

This is the only time anyone who has illegally used my photos has actually paid for them upon confrontation.

[Dan Woodland]

A quick update to all:

The owner on the store, after having a discussion with him on the phone, did send me a check in the mail for the use of the photos today.

This is the only time anyone who has illegally used my photos has actually paid for them upon confrontation.

I'm sure this will reamin the exception not the rule.

I removed all of mine from the web. I found some of my videos, You Tube supposedly protects, and photos used elsewhere without permission. That won't happen again.

[zenins]

A quick update to all:
The owner on the store, after having a discussion with him on the phone, did send me a check in the mail for the use of the photos today.
This is the only time anyone who has illegally used my photos has actually paid for them upon confrontation.

Glad you got some $ for use of your photos

So, can they now use your photos any way they want, for as long as they want ?

[Mark Smith]

No. If they want to purchase my photos for unlimited usage, the cost would be commensurate.

[snakeskinner]

I don't seem to have a problem with people using my photos.........

Of course, it could be because my pictures suck! hehe....

well, I just went on the website and it appears there are a lot of photos missing so possibly they decided to remove the ones they didn't have permission for.... Kyle