Stolen Photo by http://www.bluepulz.com/

[Cornelia Klier]

Hello all,

today I came across one of my photos of CMA CGM Norma
http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=702343

at this report
http://www.bluepulz.com/?Id=2452

within the http://www.bluepulz.com/ news agency.

I was never asked for permission !

It seems it's a pretty new agency and I'd say, folks watch out for your photos and check whether they have nicked other people's photos as well.

PLEASE look also the other articles and photos, some photos do look very familiar to ones I have seen here

Greetings,

Cornelia

[Thomas Millard]

Regrettably, this commonplace and is one of the downsides to having photos posted on line. Some databases (airliners.net) for example offer watermarking for approved work, others, like stock libraries (agencies) limit access to thumbnails and only allowing paying clients and or members to full size copies.

Bottom line, there is almost no sure fire way to prevent from having you photos stolen. It all depends how determined the thief is to have that photo. Depending upon where you live, you do have legal recourse, but you have to weigh the costs involved in taking it through your civil courts.

Thomas

[Fred Vloo]

Photo of the Berge Stahl I think is from Max Mueller. http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=781372
We know the risks of having our photos on this site without restrictions.
nevertheless we keep an open eye and warn each other and mail to the perpetrators.
And if you like, the admins can write to them on behalf of the owners of the site. When we all report these people with their full names here and in other fora, they can be found by Google as perpetrators. Most people don't want that
Cheers Fred

[Guest]

fredvloo wrote:
And if you like, the admins can write to them on behalf of the owners of the site. Cheers Fred

Hi Fred

That used to the agreement under the previous site ownership, Kenth did post a message back in the day saying that he would write to anyone seen to be using photographs from the site commercially. Not sure that the same applies under the current ownership - probably better just to pursue any infringement ourselves as that will carry just as much weight.

Regards

[polsteam]

Thanks for info.

This publication (Internet news portal) does not seem decent. Decent company would not hide real (at least mailing - snail mail) address.
The only way of contacting them is by e-mail.
And they encourage contributors of text and photos (they invite journalists and photographers to co-operate). What guarantee I have I will be paid publication fees, when the Website does not even reveal the real address of the company (publisher) that is running it.

I cannot figure out even the country where this Website is "produced" / published. Traces I found are Germany, Denmark and USA...


After your complaint - have they removed your photo?...


    - - - - -


Copyright breaching is an "every day problem" these days. Also on the forum of shipspotting.com.

It has been discussed here dozens of times in dozens of forum threads.

I do not want to offend anyone. Please (anyone), do not take it personally, but I am little bit fed up with "golden advices" in the style of "you have to get used to it", "the best way to avoid theft of your photos is not to display them on public websites".

It is pretty obvious for any average clever person that if I display a photo in public it (technically) MAY be taken by anyone and used without my permission or even knowledge. But this 1) is obvious and 2) this is not the point.

When someone posts a message on the forum with information about just discovered another case of Copyright breach (like Cornelia did or as I sometimes do or several other users do) - this post does not ask for a reply (seen for the hundredth time on this forum) like "don't display pictures to avoid them being stolen".

Posts with information on another case of Copyright breach have the following purposes:
- to let fellow shiplovers and shipspotters know about the breacher to enable them to take action if their pictures are also stolen (if they discover this after checking the site, where the case of Copyright breach was detected and announced on the forum)
- to enable people who already have the experience with particular Copyright breacher to share their experiences (for example whether complaint was effective, what to do in this particular case, etc., etc.).

It is pointless to provide such useless "advices" as "don't post pictures on-line to avoid your Copyright breached" for the hundredth time on this forum in reply to every new post with information on new case of Copyright breach.

I understand that some persons may be NEW to this problem, to such threads on this forum or they may be newly registered on this community...
But probably "netiquette" desires / stipulates that - before entering the discussion - someone should review the threads so far to avoid repeating same "golden advices" for the hundredth time.

Posting information on new cases of Copyright breach (and forum thread devoted to this) is a sign of solidarity with other shipspotting.com users (whose rights might potentially be breached on the same website reported) and a kind of mutual help. Therefore real help and advices of EFFECTIVE dealing with Copyright breach (in general or in particular case described in new thread) should be posted and not useless remarks (repeated on the forum for the 100th time) like "if you don't display pictures they will not be stolen for sure"...

[miraflores]

COOLWHOIS shows for bluepulz.com: (Faroe Island)

http://www.coolwhois.com/d/bluepulz.com

Bluepulz remembers me in WAREZ, SERIALZ, GAMEZ (illegal Hacker sites)

Rgds.
Juergen

[Tony des Landes]

I agree that this does get repeated over and over.

One suggestion might be to have a sticky forum "Sites of Shame" where members can add those sites that have used photographs illegally.

Hopefully this will avoid creations of new forums each time a breach is discovered where the same discussion about watermarks, forced logins etc starts again.

Tony

[Cornelia Klier]

Hello Ken,

why can't we have this topic on the forum on a regular basis ??
Please, specify why, I'd like to know which are your arguements.

I think, we SHOULD have this topic on the forum as often as copyright infringements do happen !!

We need to happen these topics on the forum, not to get caught in the neverending story about watermarks etc. and so on, but we need to have them there, to alert other members of possibly copyright infringements on their photos too !
I'd say, these topics are a kind of neighbourhood-watch, we can help eachothers this way and it makes the community stronger if we are keeping an eye on eachother.

Such topics do not have to be discussed, but are just to understood as a warning to everyone, to check these agencies etc. for their own photos. These topics I think, could be made sticky (but impossible to answer on!) by administrators, IF that is a possible.

Such messages may even be removed after a period of 4 weeks (or such).

Greetings,

Cornelia

[Fred Vloo]

I agree with Cornelia.
It is up to us to make these discussions more mature.
And as always, you don't have to follow these topics.
Without these discussions this forum is sooo boring ;-)
Have fun Fred

[Tony des Landes]

The point of making it "sticky" was that it would always be at the top and allow members to add links to offending sites as soon as they come across any.

It would also mean that all the offenders were recorded under one forum and make it easier to see those sites.

Tony

[Cornelia Klier]

Hello Ken,

I think this is a good decision !!! A special forum called "Copyright Issues" or something like that, where things like that be put, to alert following members.

It would as well be away from the other folks then, who do not care much of this.

However, I think the attitude "if you don't like your photos stolen don't put any online" will never be valid.

Or how would you think about "if you don't want to be robbed, don't leave your house" or something like that ? Well not THAT drastic but I think you get what I mean ;-)

[miraflores]

Some days ago I was informed by a shipspotting member that the company
http://www.crystal.fi/
http://www.euroceanica.com/
have stolen 4 of my fotos and have even removed my watermark.
They also took fotos from other shipspotting member, as

http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=1042298
http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=85246

I send them several Mails to London and Helsinki, without any reply.
So I took little action, removed the original fotos from my website and replaced them by other fotos.

http://www.sh-touri.de/fotos/crystal_pearl_scan.jpg
http://www.sh-touri.de/fotos/crystal_amethyst_scan.jpg
http://www.sh-touri.de/fotos/crystal_skye_scan.jpg
http://www.sh-touri.de/fotos/euro_atlantica_scan.jpg

The texture shown on the fotos I also placed into the source text of my homepage, with guaranty that the crawler from Google and other search engines will find these fotos.
I hope this will help a little bit for the future.
Rgds.
Juergen

[Max89]

Hey friends,
Concerning my photo of "Berge Stahl" I mailed bluepulz yesterday evening to name the copyright holder of this photo. Otherwise they have to delete this one.
Look, there's my name under the photo now!
We will see whether they ask for permission as of now or they take what they want once more ;-)

greetz
Max

[Fred Vloo]

Strong action Juergen ;-) That will learn them.
Now sent a letter to the big boss of this company with the URL of your website (usually mail to the big boss will not be opened by others) and the photos will be gone in a day.
Cheers Fred

[miraflores]

Hi Fred,
this morning at abt. 10.00 Hrs my mail was read in London and 1 hour later the fotos were removed, but only my 4 fotos.
But I will remain the 4 fotos on my website for some more days and repeat such action if necessary.
Regards
Juergen