Did you steal my silk photo?
Monday, May 03, 2010
UPDATE - 5 May, 2010 - eHow UK solved the problem! Thank you eHow for removing my photo, much appreciated.
Imagine my surprise whilst surfing the net this evening to discover someone (not the first) who has taken one of my photos, of my handpainted silk, and used it for their own 'article' on silk painting.
As there is no way to contact this person without creating an account and logging in to eHow, I have decided to share the photo on my blog, so that if anyone recognises the name bungalowbettie on eHow, that perhaps they can pass my message on.
Here is the article in question, and MY PHOTO:
So bungalowbettie - my name is Teena Hughes, I'm a well-known silk artist, and I treasure all my photos on all my websites.
If you would like to use any of my photos, the greatest courtesy would be for you to contact me, ask me, and start a conversation. I'm a pretty friendly person, and I generally like to see me given the credit for my own photos on others' websites.
I'm easy to find, after all you found my photo on my website ... so how about contacting me and doing the right thing?
Trust me, we'll both feel a whole lot better if you do.
PS - here's my webpage where this photo has been for 2 years:
Cheers
Teena
on.
4 comments:
No wonder it, is one of the problems of the Network
Happened to me with one of the photos that appeared on Journal of silkpainters guild. The curious who used a shop selling silk products in Spain
I still have the screenshot and the catalog of advertising which included it.
Thanks for your comment artyseda. Not too long ago a woman used a whole slew of my photos to advertise herself as a 'silk artist' on a well-known creative site.
The photos said to come to her classes and paint just like she did in the photos!!! (and it was my hands in the photos and my silk!)
I contacted the website owner immediately and they were horrified that someone had done this, so they printed an apology and gave my photos full credit and linked back to my site.
The artist also contacted me and - she'd never painted on silk before! and said she had no photos to advertise her class. Oh dear, the story got worse.
It's sad that some folk think that ALL photos on the internet are free ...
Cheers
Teena
Actually, I would think that unless a photo site was labelled Free Photos that one would assume that the photographer who created the photo would also claim copyright.
Yet, as you point out, people assume the opposite: Anything on the internet is free. Sigh.
Good for you for tracking them down. Several of my photos regularly pop up on other web sites, with no mention that it is MY photo.
And, as you also pointed out, we are pretty friendly people, and would likely let them use it for free, if asked nicely and linked back to our sites.
Cheers!
Karen
http://www.snapshotjourneys.com/
Hey Karen,
thanks so much for posting. Your photos on your travel website are fabulous, and yes it is a constant battle. I guess all we can do is acknowledge that any photo we post online may be stolen. If we find one and can track it back and stop it being plagiarised - great. If not, we can't lose sleep over it.
Recently I've asked a few people whether they think all images on images.google.com are free -- guess what? These are business people and lay people, and every single one said they are sure they are ALL FREE for everyone to use, "otherwise why would Google make them so available?"
I was gobsmacked, and realise we really have no control over them whatsoever when most online web visitors think like this.
So we just need to keep writing, and enjoying what we do :-)
Thanks for dropping by,
Cheers
Teena
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