Business Sense - Who's stealing your Photo's? Copyright Violation

Google google google. What's next? If you have spare time you might want to take some of your photos and drop them into this website.

You'll notice in the image above a picture of the camera in the right. All you need to do is drag and drop a photo into this search bar and magic happens. You will get results on every were this image is sitting. Or better yet who JACKED YOUR IMAGES. With out permission or a dedicated live link back to you. (that just gets me all fired up) I even get hotter when they are using my photos to sell the same services. I get RED HOT AT THIS POINT. Really? Who does that ?????

Image blurred to protect the identity. 

One website in Canada did stone work. (screen shot of web page)  They had my image of my work placed on there service page...They had altered the size. After contacting them the said that they had no idea that the work shown was not their work. - Come on! You don't know your own work?! You're really out of touch with your clients jobs. He was very kind and did have it removed with in 30 day's.

Another one I had to correct below:
..........
Completed Projects & Project Ideas

The following pictures will show some examples of some of the many different custom stone projects that people have done with the types of stone & rock we sell.  These are NOT projects done by our company, but rather just example images we have found of excellent stone projects.   Our clients have used our stone for everything from outdoor kitchens & fireplaces to retaining walls & patios, similar to the sample pictures you can see here.  Again, we are not claiming that these projects are our work.  Our goal here is merely to spark your imagination.  Our stone has also been used for beautiful columns for driveway entrances or fence posts on an iron security fence.  Other projects have included stairs, mailboxes, and custom commercial signs.

Now even though he puts in the disclaimer that this is not his work. YOU MUST STILL have permission to use someones photo. His buddy who designed his website clearly did understand that this is a Copyright Violation. You wouldn't go to a store and steal something why do people think its ok to do the same with images? 

Notice any missing photo's?

After seeing this I went one more step this year and started doing all my watermarks across my images. 

Related Blog: 

Watermarks - Protect Your Intellectual Property

Its really sad you have to go to such measure to insure others will not steal from you. Really sad that people just think since its on the web its free game. NOT. 

So when your ready to start - pull up your image and search as show above.

search from google saved as screenshot

While writing this I used this image of a fire pit and guess what I found? Yup my work and another waller Dean's fire pit. You have to ask... have to ask for permission! Unless the image has free use listed in the description. Click to see the full Google results of this image search click here. I got my eye on you! 

Websites that are NOT For Hire - I'm ok with - such as Pinterest. I'm not ok with business that sell the same or similar services as I do. (Promoting their biz while riding my coat tails) 

Professional Photographers have been fitting this battle as long as the web has been around. While taking the time to search the web to understand my Legal Rights. I found 

Ming Thein / Photographer. He wrote an amazing Blog on the topic Thoughts on copyright, intellectual property, images and Section 114A. He really hits all the key points with language we can all understand. Please take the time to check out his Blog/Website. If you're into Photography he offers a great deal of educational/training information. 

How does GOOGLE Image Search work? Read more about it.

To sum up this Blog. But a watermark on your photos to protect you and your work. 

Watermarks - Protect Your Intellectual Property

Many thanks to Google and Ming Thein work well done!

Watermarks - Protect Your Intellectual Property

You might have noticed this on my photos in the last month. 

Watermark- Yes! Do you use them? Did you hear about the 12 high school students whose pictures ended up on a Porn site? Yup that's right. Is this something you should be concerned about?  I don't know.  Do you have kids? No kids, no worries...wrong you should always be worried. 

Do you also know someone can use 10% of written content as long as the source has been credited?  YOU CAN NOT - CAN NOT - take someones photo(s) without permission! CAN NOT. 

What got me started? I had a meeting with a local landscaper architect.  In the summer of 2011 I was asked to bid as a sub contractor on one of his jobs that included Dry Laid Stone Construction. In my area dry stack stone is something landscape companies do by building walls 12" high around trees for flower beds. Maryland really does not have much in way of Dry laid stone construction. I was so excited to see someone including dry stone in their designs - I had to meet this wonderful designer.

When the time came this year to meet the designer who cares enough to include green building into his landscapes I was pumped. During our meeting at his office I was able understand what he does and explain to him what I do.  As we sat and spoke about the current job I had bid on, he showed me some of the photos he had in his photo library--- wait he shows me some photos of stuff he likes. Ok yes photos of work he had pulled from the google image library off the web. Dry laid stone construction he liked.  As he scrolled down I spotted 3 of my jobs right on one page. WOW that's cool! Wait cool or not cool? 12 high school students......

I was honored to be in his portfolio of LIKED dry stone construction. Since my website is built on blogger but owned my google - my images become public.  This lesson gave me the opportunity to promote the safety and protection of using a watermark. I don't want my stone walls to end up on some (XXX rated).gorockin website. That might not be pretty. And, this is no laughing matter. Instead this is a copyright violation. You need to protect yourself, your work, your images. You need to keep someone from hyperlinking and or taking credit for your work. 

Making a watermark! This task takes a little more time to add to each photo, but is well worth it if the watermark can protect you and promote you all at the same time. But wait theres more if you buy now!!! We'll throw in this great safety device to keep others from JACKING YOUR PICS. Just pay shipping and handling. 

Don't be taken - add a watermark on your pictures.  

Free programs like Picasa (owned by google - go figure) can create a basic watermark with copyright very easily. You can find just about anything on the web and there are many programs you could use. I use Photoshop in order to mark my photos. Something is better then nothing. Any photo you put on the internet needs to have a watermark.

PS. A water mark is also what someone might find on there coffee table after setting down a cold beer without a coaster. Not to get the two confused after a long day of stone walling.

Related Blogs:

Ming Thein / Photographer - Thoughts on copyright, intellectual property, images and Section 114A

Business Sense - Who's stealing your Photo's? Copyright Violation