Post by amanda on Jul 24, 2009 12:11:16 GMT 1
Tony - There are several measures that could be taken, however, thieves usually always find a way to retain images. Its also up to Dave what measures he is willing to take and protect the material on Anna's Site, which could take much time and effort for him. Below I've typed up an example of how we've managed to protect our Site from image thieves for good, in the end, I pay for copyright and we pay for a majority of our photos.
As Tannim has stated above, we've taken several measures to protect our website (Thewlis Rox) from constant image theft. First we locked the gallery to keep track of how many registrants had capabilities of viewing (and possible re-posting) our images. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, we had a user blatantly steal several images (without bothering to alter them if that!) and re-used them to make a layout. We were able to find and confront the user based on their registration to their gallery (which contained their email) - we had our copyright agent contact them and we had the conflict quickly resolved to our satisfaction.
Our Site is heavily copyrighted by an Institution based out of New York - which protects our Site from image theft. We contact our agents and they issue a warrant for a theif to surrender our material - if they fail to do so by our time limit - they get taken OFFLINE (and have to pay quite a heavy fee to get back online). Also, that website/blog has potential surrender to us, meaning their domain over thrown and given to us since we are the rightful owners of content. Tannim and I spend hundreds of our personal funds on photos, so we can OWN the rights to them and take legal action if they're stolen or our watermark removed.
Now that our gallery is watermarked, we've re-opened it. Being a graphic designer, I know that many skilled individuals are very handy at Photoshop, they have capabilities of removing watermarks. We've double shadowed our marks (with different shades of white) and placed them in difficult spots of images to remove. We've also done this on our YouTube community, to avoid video content from being stolen. Now anyone who steals an image from our site cannot deny where the image came from. Of course properly crediting the source and photographer is very important as well.
The images being stolen from here is a very interesting case, especially since this is Anna's OFFICIAL website. In the end, the pictures are of Anna, and she holds the rights of her own image. I think Dave's scans and the photos he finds that are being blatantly stolen is a very disrespectful act towards his hard work and dedication to the Site and to Anna. At least those that take material from any Site, should do the proper act and remember to credit when re-posting elsewhere, its a sign of respect and a 'thank you' to the person (in this case Dave) who took the time and effort (and likely invested money) to provide viewers with the imagery.
Whooo, sorry to rant there, but being a webmaster myself and all the time and money that goes into managing a Site, it definitely stings when your hard work is stolen and no recognition is given in return. Our goal is provide to the fans, it hinders our time invested on the Web when a majority of it is unnecessarily spent protecting our material and imagery - that valuable time should go to improving and bettering the Site for you guys.
Back on topic...
As Tannim has stated above, we've taken several measures to protect our website (Thewlis Rox) from constant image theft. First we locked the gallery to keep track of how many registrants had capabilities of viewing (and possible re-posting) our images. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, we had a user blatantly steal several images (without bothering to alter them if that!) and re-used them to make a layout. We were able to find and confront the user based on their registration to their gallery (which contained their email) - we had our copyright agent contact them and we had the conflict quickly resolved to our satisfaction.
Our Site is heavily copyrighted by an Institution based out of New York - which protects our Site from image theft. We contact our agents and they issue a warrant for a theif to surrender our material - if they fail to do so by our time limit - they get taken OFFLINE (and have to pay quite a heavy fee to get back online). Also, that website/blog has potential surrender to us, meaning their domain over thrown and given to us since we are the rightful owners of content. Tannim and I spend hundreds of our personal funds on photos, so we can OWN the rights to them and take legal action if they're stolen or our watermark removed.
Now that our gallery is watermarked, we've re-opened it. Being a graphic designer, I know that many skilled individuals are very handy at Photoshop, they have capabilities of removing watermarks. We've double shadowed our marks (with different shades of white) and placed them in difficult spots of images to remove. We've also done this on our YouTube community, to avoid video content from being stolen. Now anyone who steals an image from our site cannot deny where the image came from. Of course properly crediting the source and photographer is very important as well.
The images being stolen from here is a very interesting case, especially since this is Anna's OFFICIAL website. In the end, the pictures are of Anna, and she holds the rights of her own image. I think Dave's scans and the photos he finds that are being blatantly stolen is a very disrespectful act towards his hard work and dedication to the Site and to Anna. At least those that take material from any Site, should do the proper act and remember to credit when re-posting elsewhere, its a sign of respect and a 'thank you' to the person (in this case Dave) who took the time and effort (and likely invested money) to provide viewers with the imagery.
Whooo, sorry to rant there, but being a webmaster myself and all the time and money that goes into managing a Site, it definitely stings when your hard work is stolen and no recognition is given in return. Our goal is provide to the fans, it hinders our time invested on the Web when a majority of it is unnecessarily spent protecting our material and imagery - that valuable time should go to improving and bettering the Site for you guys.
Back on topic...
;D
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