Not Only Stories Get Plagiarised

[Graeme]

Imposter enters Wellington photographer's sky shot in international competition

 

Some people have a lot of nerve.  

[Headstall]

The thief sounded like a pathetic excuse for a human being....

[Cia]

"It was a bit cheeky." *snorts* Understatement! The plagiarist's response is very common when it comes to photography and art, unfortunately.

 

On a note that relates to authors here, this is something that is recently being emphasized by publishers and self-publishing authors in the know. You must, must, must read all copyright notices on art--even stock you purchase--to know if it's usable for what you intend it for. Not all models are willing to be portrayed on covers or promotional art for erotic content, gay or not, for example. And just swiping any photo off the internet that fits your needs when you're promoting your work is not legal either; it has to be purchased and used according to the copyright too.

 

Even "free" online photos or artwork often have caveats under the creative commons licenses for non-derivative works allowed, proper attribution requirements, etc... Failing to do that can result in a lot of headaches if you have to take down the art or recreate it and can even result in lawsuits if it was used to garner income. In the end, it's always better safe than sorry!

[Ashi]

Yeah, horror stories like this was often uttered when I was in photography class.  Big *ss, very distracting and unattractive watermarks aren't the guarantee of everything, but at least it deters the people from simply copy to their hard drive and start entering the contests, without even have to do some back-engineering work under Photoshop.  These days people steal like it's nothing.

 

I personally had such experience.  One day, my cousin congratulated me that my photo was selected to a popular foodie blog (it was a photo of a restaurant).  I asked him what website, because I didn't remember I gave anybody permission to use my photo during that time period.  When I went there, indeed, it was my photo, swiped off from my Flickr account.

 

I asked the owner to remove the photo, a very similar response to the one Graeme found in the article was given to me, "You posted it on Flickr, what do you expect?"  "I will remove the photo, but if you don't know this is the Internet, then you have a lot of things to learn," she said.  I swear if I have the money and time to waste, I'd sue her.  The photo has watermark on it, and on Flickr I specifically put "All rights reserved."  It's not even Creative Common (and as Cia mentioned, even under Creative Common, you need to follow the rules).  Sure, it's just a travel snap, but AS LONG AS she asked, I'd give the permission, I don't even need financial compensation for that crappy shot.  Is that too much to ask?