Eject this thief, please

W.W. Webster

Another Smugmug site at http://www.amal.smugmug.com/ has stolen the header images banner from my site and is displaying these as a banner in his/her Smugmug footer.

Can someone at Smugmug please take the appropriate action? This is an infringement of my ownership rights (which are clearly described on my site), against which I would expect Smugmug to take immediate action.

Furthermore, as this is clearly not an innocent act, but is deliberate, out and out plagiarism and theft, I believe this person (from Malaysia, it appears) should be completely ejected and banned from Smugmug.

Shay Stephens

Looks like they are being leeched off your site. You could change them to say something like "I am an image thief" or something in the mean time

jwear

well this will interesting to see what they do at first I did not get it, only because of your name but looks like he just stole your stuff .And how is it that anyone can just copy pictures from your home page or gallery like that go get em

[Deleted User]

If you click on an individual shot from the banner, it links to Ross's site! The doofus hasn't even bothered to redirect them to his own area.

-Richard

W.W. Webster

Curiouser and curiouser!
On further investigation, I find that this toe-rag accessed my site around seven hours ago and looked at some of the images concerned. Had he/she tried to copy these, right-click protection would have applied and a very clear message would have appeared.

But what I can't understand is that the last page this rat bag looked at (as shown on the Statcounter navigation clip below) was what purports to be his customisation page, but it appears to be actually MY customisation page!

amal.jpg

How do I know the customisation he looked at is mine? I can't be absolutely sure, but what I do know is that it is identical to mine in every detail of every section, including the fact that my header banner coding is in the header section, not the footer section where this low-life has put it for his site. I thought my customisation was only accessible by logging in with my password.

I have a terribly insecure feeling right now. Can someone at Smugmug please tell me "what's going on here?"

devbobo

Since Andy is away at the shootout, if this is still an issue.

Please send an email to SM support

Cheers,

David

W.W. Webster

devbobo wrote:

Please send an email to SM support

Thanks for your advice, David. I have done as you have suggested.

ivar

W.W. Webster wrote:

How do I know the customisation he looked at is mine? I can't be absolutely sure, but what I do know is that it is identical to mine in every detail of every section, including the fact that my header banner coding is in the header section, not the footer section where this low-life has put it for his site. I thought my customisation was only accessible by logging in with my password.

Actually, the customization is accessible to everyone if you know how to reach it. That's how alot of problems get solved over at the customization forum. As long as a link is provided, anyone can go have a look see to see if he/she did something that caused a problem.

In this case, Amal did copy your customization from your images. I know that because i looked at his code, and it still included all the references to your site. He actually copied some stuff which shouldn't be there at all (Multiple div's with the same name).

I'm sure that support will take a look at it for you.

W.W. Webster

ivar wrote:

Actually, the customization is accessible to everyone if you know how to reach it..... I'm sure that support will take a look at it for you.

I appreciate anyone can look at any page source or CSS. I've done it myself, to try to work out how something has been achieved, but without ever stealing anyone's intellectual property. You guys may also have a 'way in' (which is fine with me, as you do a great job, and never abuse the privilege).

But that's not the same as any Joe being able to navigate around the password protection to gain access someone's actual Smugmug customisation page, or any other part of their site for that matter. Is that what you are saying is possible 'if you know how'? Shucks, why do we have passwords?

As for my banner, there's no magic in how this is created, but the issue is that someone has not merely stolen the code, but the images themselves. That's what I want dealt with.

Thanks again for your interest in this problem, Ivar, and keep up the good work.

ivar

W.W. Webster wrote:

I appreciate anyone can look at any page source or CSS. I've done it myself, to try to work out how something has been achieved, but without ever stealing anyone's intellectual property. You guys may also have a 'way in' (which is fine with me, as you do a great job, and never abuse the privilege).

As far as i know, Andy who works for smugmug, is the only one with the 'way in'. The rest who hang out here, are just volunteering, no 'ways in' for us.

W.W. Webster wrote:

But that's not the same as any Joe being able to navigate around the password protection to gain access someone's actual Smugmug customisation page, or any other part of their site for that matter. Is that what you are saying is possible 'if you know how'? Shucks, why do we have passwords?

As for my banner, there's no magic in how this is created, but the issue is that someone has not merely stolen the code, but the images themselves. That's what I want dealt with.

No one can navigate around passwords to take customization, but the thing is, it is not needed to do that. Just go to any page, and look at the source. You will instantly be able to see what html customization has been put in (if you know what to look for) Same thing for the CSS, i can pull up any style sheet, if i am at a page, password protected or not. This is all a good thing for most of us, and cause no problems in 99.99% of the time.

Personally i don't think of it as a problem, being able to see someone's code. Like i said, it causes almost no problems. But unfortunately, sometimes people abuse the possibilities. And that should be taken care of. Stealing something, wheter it is tangible or not, is just not done.

grannyrobin

W.W. Webster wrote:

Thanks for your advice, David. I have done as you have suggested.

I've emailed the owner of the other site, asking that the material be removed because this is our usual policy in cases of copyright infringement.
-grannyrobin

ivar

grannyrobin wrote:

I've emailed the owner of the other site, asking that the material be removed because this is our usual policy in cases of copyright infringement.
-grannyrobin

Looks like he complied

grannyrobin

ivar wrote:

Looks like he complied

Great!
-grannyrobin

W.W. Webster

ivar wrote:

Looks like he complied

Thanks Robin, and the team at Smugmug Help.

Cason

Is it possible that he copied the code so he could have the footer and just did not have the time to change the links?

You mentioned another site did this. How are you finding this information out? I'm wondering how you were able to find this site out of thousands of other SMUGMUG sites...

W.W. Webster

RTP wrote:

Is it possible that he copied the code so he could have the footer and just did not have the time to change the links?

That's a very generous interpretation of events, RTP! The milk of human kindness must be surging through your veins!

I prefer to believe he was, at best, a plagiarist, but, almost certainly, a common thief. Irrespective of where the links pointed, they are my images! He claims on his other site to be a 'freelance photographer', but then tramples over the intellectual property rights I have in my images at Smugmug. Sheesh!

RTP wrote:

You mentioned another site did this. How are you finding this information out? I'm wondering how you were able to find this site out of thousands of other SMUGMUG sites...

Did I?

Could you be referring to the StatCounter report extract which I clipped to a previous post, showing who had been looking at my site and where they linked from? This is a free service (with a chargeable option) that a lot of Smugmuggers are using to track visitors to their sites. A search of the Smugmug Customisation forum will turn up some useful information if this is of interest to you.

Shay Stephens

W.W. Webster wrote:

That's a very generous interpretation of events, RTP! The milk of human kindness must be surging through your veins!

I prefer to believe he was, at best, a plagiarist, but, almost certainly, a common thief. Irrespective of where the links pointed, they are my images! He claims on his other site to be a 'freelance photographer', but then tramples over the intellectual property rights I have in my images at Smugmug. Sheesh!

I wouldn't get your nickers in too tight of a twist. It came across to me also that this was an instance of copying the code and not getting your images replaced for his in time. Let's not turn this into witch hunt. You can get people to produce their own work a lot easier if you don't slap them with "common thief" labels that get them on the defensive and then refuse to do any more than barest legal minimum to get you to shut up.

When I am presented with a site that has copied my work, wording, style, etc. I approach them from a more positive angle of looking out for their (and mine) artistic integrity, looking out for their (and mine) customers who might get confused about who they were dealing with. Many at the first contact will happily make substantial changes that satisfy both our needs and the matter is over without an enemy being made.

Others need a little more convincing of the virtue of developing their own creativity and expression on their website. But in both cases, taking the high road has been successful. My suggestion to you at this point is to cool down. Sleep on it and don't let this eat at you. Otherwise, this little slight to you can turn into an unbalanced vendetta that bears no resemblance to the actual harm done.

A side note about "intellectual property rights". This is a bad and confusing term the industry has coined. People should refrain from using it. What you want to use is "copyrights".

W.W. Webster

Shay Stephens wrote:

My suggestion to you at this point is to cool down.

Shay

I have done, long since! I was simply affording another poster the courtesy of a reply. But sleep is some way off, it's not even noon here!

Cason

Oops... I read your intial post wrong. Sorry.

Cool feature with the stats though. I need to look into that.

W.W. Webster

RTP wrote:

Oops... I read your intial post wrong. Sorry. Cool feature with the stats though. I need to look into that.

No worries!