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05-16-2007, 10:27 AM   #1
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Flickr Censors A Photographer's Plea

I just saw this story on slashdot and thought the members here might be interested in reading it.

Slashdot | Flickr Censors A Photographer's Plea

The links within the paragraph send you to the various pages detailing the story. Click on the "Yahoo cache" link to read her original Flickr blog post. The last link has some details on the company's side of the story.

To sum it up, her photographs were being modified, renamed, and resold without her knowing by a London based company, which had purchased the rights to them from another company that did the actual "stealing." When she posted about it on Flickr, her post was deleted.

Btw, she uses Canon equipment.


Last edited by igowerf; 05-16-2007 at 10:35 AM.
05-16-2007, 12:15 PM   #2
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With the vast number of images that are shared on sites like Flickr this is a serious problem. It's important when posting your image to a public share like that to put some type of copyright and/or watermark on the image to help prevent this type of theft.

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05-16-2007, 01:24 PM   #3
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I think the easiest thing you can to protect yourself from this kind of thing is to only post a low res image when using forums/web album sites/etc... particularly when anyone from the public can see or download them without your knowledge.

I only have DSL, so I only upload maximum res files I intend to print anyhow, and that goes to the printer I use, which doesn't have public albums.
But to others definitely provides a warning that this could be happening to any number of their images.
05-16-2007, 01:46 PM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by MShawn63 Quote
With the vast number of images that are shared on sites like Flickr this is a serious problem. It's important when posting your image to a public share like that to put some type of copyright and/or watermark on the image to help prevent this type of theft.

Shawn
Good point Shawn; but would a watermark have protected the files in question? Can't a simple layered watermark be removed just as easily as it was applied?

Has anyone used Digimarc? I noticed that unless you pay for the $499 "professional" level of service you can't track your images across the net.

05-16-2007, 02:22 PM   #5
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A watermark is flattened into the photograph when you save it as a JPG file for web publishing so it can't easily be removed without reconstructing portions of the photograph.
05-16-2007, 02:30 PM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by MShawn63 Quote
With the vast number of images that are shared on sites like Flickr this is a serious problem. It's important when posting your image to a public share like that to put some type of copyright and/or watermark on the image to help prevent this type of theft.

Shawn
Image theft is one thing. Flickr deleting a post because she complained about her images getting stolen is outright disturbing.
05-17-2007, 12:49 AM   #7
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Tried the Site...Semi Down

I went to the site to try to send them a message..Wanted to put the fear of God in to them. Nothing works,but the opening page. My buddy is a "Killer Shark" lawyer. I swear, if I do get through to those bastards, they will never, I mean never steal or use anyones images without the artists consent. Don't ever F--K with me or my fellow artists..I can and will do some serious damage to anyone who does...And when they do what they have done, that "IS" indirectly F--King with me, i.e. Artist Copyright Bern Convention 1981 statute.

If I do get to them..I'll keep you all informed.

The Site: // only-dreemin UK / canvas prints / art for the modern space / ©2004-2007 //

PS..I am now PHONING them.....

05-17-2007, 01:08 AM   #8
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On the Phone

Steve the owner...Claims that he was set up..The Jury is out..He says it was choreographed. He is very nervous. I started the conversation with a lengthly diatribe telling him what I will do unless he compensates the artist.

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05-17-2007, 04:04 AM   #9
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I followed the original post and discussion before deletion as well as follow-ups.

Whichever way the things really are, that company's inability to grasp the seriousness of the problem, their underestimation of the power of the Internet and their lack of communication skills is just astounding.

They somehow don't seem to grasp the idea, that only way to save their face and reputation at this point is to post public explanation on their website, regardless what their bookworm layers may tell them. But no, they hope they can stop the avalanche of angry web-users with trickle of private emails to selected persons. I mean - how severely Internet-challenged can a company be in 2007?

But then again, some companies would rather lose their public reputation than few thousand pounds. Can't blame them if that is how they have their priorities set up...
05-17-2007, 05:45 AM   #10
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Has anyone noticed that all areas of that site except for the home page are throwing up 404 errors? Looks like someone is a bit guilty there.

The images that i upload to flickr are max 1000x670 for landscape shots and 607x900 for portrait orientation photos, both being at 72dpi so goodluck anyone wanting to steal one and print larger than a 6x4

But seriously, the only fool proof way of protecting your images from being stolen on the net is not upload any in the first place.

Edit: sorry Ben, i should have read the rest of your post again before posting this
05-17-2007, 08:36 AM   #11
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The article says that OnlyDreemin was sold the stolen photographs by Wild Aspects and Panoramics LTD, which is also based in London. OnlyDreemin reacted by taking down all their photographs to make sure that they were no longer selling stolen art, which is why everything on their site is 404.
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