Google Reverse Image Search — Have you had any images stolen?

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TLD

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Topic # 161733 18-Jan-2015 02:53

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I have a feeling this will be old news on this forum, but I just discovered it today. Google Reverse Image Search I've tried Tin Eye in the past, but it didn't find anything, but I have just found more than a dozen of my images used without my permission. Some of them are claiming to be image of things nowhere near where I took the picture! The one that miffed mt the most was on a baby Jesus website — I so don't do religion!

The tool is amazingly fast. Open the site in one window, and your online images in another, and just drag the images across. It never takes more than a second. How is that even possible?

That's my HDR sunrise behind the vines
The second MX Rider. This has been pinched several times!
And that's my Giant Weta on the screen behind the news reader.
My tight rope walker, but this is kind of in a good cause.

Those are just three of many. I was amazed at how many of my pictures have been borrowed, but I guess it is karma as I have used a few Google images in my composites.

Trevor Dennis
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Reply # 1216772 18-Jan-2015 03:43

Where had you originally uploaded the images?

JayADee

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Reply # 1216778 18-Jan-2015 07:29

Your photos are really good, no wonder they got thieved! Looks like you may need to watermark your name right smack in the middle.

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Reply # 1216780 18-Jan-2015 07:35

you mean those 3 commercial entities just "borrowed" your images without informing you?

DaveDog

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Reply # 1216793 18-Jan-2015 08:15

Now where's all the people who will tell you nothing has been stolen? Online theft of images (and Hollywood movies) is very real in my opinion and there needs to be more done to stop it.

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Reply # 1216795 18-Jan-2015 08:28

but how? (to stop people downloading a pix)

gzt

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Reply # 1216811 18-Jan-2015 08:59

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Will you send a free catalog with your invoice? ; )

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Reply # 1216812 18-Jan-2015 09:02

I've had it happen. Mostly I just ask people to take them down. Legal action in the UK is difficult and expensive, it's easier in the US. Make sure you have a watermark on all your images, where possible, and embed metadata about the copyright and your details. Can help. If people remove a watermark in the US it increases the penalty.

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TLD

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Reply # 1216815 18-Jan-2015 09:10

The pictures were all on flickr. I more or less stopped uploading to flickr after they changed the UI, and my rural broadband connection made it such a painful experience. We got VDSL2 a few weeks back, but I have got out of the habit of using the flickr groups now.

At a bit of a tangent, I just checked my flickr stream and had a very nasty shock. Several images from my iPhone had arbitrarily been added — seemingly automatically. Three of these images were close ups of my wife's face after she burned herself, and definitely not for sharing. I find that scary beyond words! So now I've got to work out how it happens so I can stop it.

Trevor Dennis
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Reply # 1216819 18-Jan-2015 09:23

Rotfl... Technology! My sincerest empathy. (I recall you laughing at those who bought hi dpi laptops for Photoshop lol !

Moral of story, everyone gets caught out with technology whether you are a movie star or a normal citizen. I have too many I can't be bothered trying to be perfect

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Reply # 1216821 18-Jan-2015 09:26

And so we help each other here :)

freitasm

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Reply # 1216847 18-Jan-2015 10:36

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TLD: The pictures were all on flickr. I more or less stopped uploading to flickr after they changed the UI, and my rural broadband connection made it such a painful experience. We got VDSL2 a few weeks back, but I have got out of the habit of using the flickr groups now.

What is the license they have on Flickr? I've used images from Flickr but made a point of using the advanced search and selecting only Commons licence with commercial use allowed. This is perhaps one of the problems.

The metadata idea is ideal as I doubt most people would clean images before using them.

The most interesting cases are the news ones. TV and content producers would have no problems complaining if you used their content but seems news sites media have no problems using someone else's images/footage when they can get these from Twitter, Facebook or Flickr - it's "news" and it seems they don't understand the concept of copyright.

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TLD

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Reply # 1216852 18-Jan-2015 10:58

One of our camera club members teaches a SeniorNet class, and she told her group about using Picasa to organize their pictures. The next week one of the old ladies came in livid because Picasa had put pornographic pictures on her computer. After a stunned silence, my friend asked if she was the only person who used the computer... That lady's husband had some explaining to do when she got home!

I found the problem with my inappropriate uploads. It was a flickr app I'd recently installed, and the default settings are to upload and share _everything_. That tells you something about how folk use their pictures nowadays.

There is a photographer's adage:

A good photographer takes a hundred pictures and keeps ten.
A great photographer takes a hundred pictures and keeps one.

Apparently this applies very much to Andis Apse who ruthlessly culls out his second rate images. Then he leaves them a few weeks, and goes through and culls out some more.

Probably the best speaker I've encountered at photographic conventions, is British landscape photographer Charlie Waite. He said several things that have stayed with me and I try to adhere to, but he also told us about a meeting he had with a Brit wedding photographer. Charlie asked the guy 'how many pictures he'd taken that he was _really_ happy with?'. 'About ten thousand' came the reply. Either that person was the greatest undiscovered talent ever, or his standards were very low.

If you only show people your best pictures, you can trick them into thinking you are better than you really are. BTW I have maybe six images that I am really happy with out of the many thousands taken.

Trevor Dennis
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Reply # 1216853 18-Jan-2015 11:08

I haven't had one. Yet. Every time I re review one I thought could make the cull ... There was something wrong with it! Back in the days where you had one roll of film and no Photoshop ...

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Reply # 1216855 18-Jan-2015 11:14

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I'd hope flickr automatic upload does not use CC as default license but pretty sure the terms selection is separate.

The wedding photography may be a case of fit for purpose. Is the premium pro wedding photog happy he has documented hundreds of weddings and provided the best images from the day to the client? Happy clients? Job done : ). Different criteria. Kind of like asking a programming shop if they are happy with the quality of code produced.

But I get the point here it's a good one ; ).

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Reply # 1216856 18-Jan-2015 11:17

key words: best images of the day; client (aka $$$). it is impossible to be technically perfect for an event shoot. but pretty good is good enough. stunning would be ideal, but you are talking about 1% of the population who actually worries about these things.

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