Someone using my pics without permission!

xtnomad

Went to a private track this week end and took over 800 pics.. I have been uploading for days . In one of the forums some one is posting my pics. with the proof mark in the forum.
http://www.motohouston.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14416

scroll down the thread and you will see the pics. with the water mak on them. How are they doing this? And can I provent it? Next they will be posting them as avatars. Any sugestions. :dunno

jfriend

You can't prevent it, but you can make it harder

xtnomad wrote:

Went to a private track this week end and took over 800 pics.. I have been uploading for days . In one of the forums some one is posting my pics. with the proof mark in the forum.
http://www.motohouston.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14416

scroll down the thread and you will see the pics. with the water mak on them. How are they doing this? And can I provent it? Next they will be posting them as avatars. Any sugestions.

If you want to display your images on the web, you cannot technically prevent this. For a browser to be able to view your images, they have to be downloadable to a computer. If they are downloadable to a computer, these folks can download them to their hard disks and then re-upload them to that discussion thread. Since you are a participant in this forum, you could tell either the posters or the administrator of the forum that these are copyrighted images and you don't want others posting them in the forum. A good moderator or administrator will help you remove them, inform the people who did it that this is not permitted and then kick them out of the forum if they do it again.

The three types of protection that you can deploy are:

1) Use watermarks so they can't make good prints from the images they take. It appears you are already doing that.

2) Prevent large sizes from being available so a decent sized print can't be made from anything the browser can get. It appears that you have originals disabled, but not the large size. Since you are watermarking, that's probably fine. You could also disable the large size if you wanted.

3) Enable right click protection. This is only a deterrent, but it will make it so that only a more sophisticated user could save your image to their hard disk and post it elsewhere. It does not prevent anyone who really knows how the web works from getting your image, but does prevent casual internet users from getting it.

Mike Lane

xtnomad wrote:

Went to a private track this week end and took over 800 pics.. I have been uploading for days . In one of the forums some one is posting my pics. with the proof mark in the forum.
http://www.motohouston.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14416

scroll down the thread and you will see the pics. with the water mak on them. How are they doing this? And can I provent it? Next they will be posting them as avatars. Any sugestions.

Yeesh, not a whole lot you can do about that one. The guy has obviously pulled a small image from your site (either by right clicking it or by looking in his cache) and has uploaded them as attached images. Best you can do is to raise a stink about it either privately using PMs, publically, or with the owners of that forum.

In any case you'll probably want to put that in your own thread in someplace that more people will see it. I'll be moving it there shortly.

Andy

The others have answered very well. If you have any questions, please holler...

Thanks.

xtnomad

Thank you for the info.. It helps. One good think from the shot is the track owner emailed me this morning and wants to use some of my photos for thier web site. Guest I will just use some old fastion savoy and deal with it.

TylerW

Get an account on the forum (if you don't already have one) and express your concerns to the user. Motorcyclists are usually a pretty understanding bunch if you level with them.

However, shame on you for letting this guy beat you to the punch - you should have been flaunting your work via that forum and picking up sales as you go!

Jeffro

xtnomad wrote:

Went to a private track this week end and took over 800 pics.. I have been uploading for days . In one of the forums some one is posting my pics. with the proof mark in the forum.
http://www.motohouston.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14416

scroll down the thread and you will see the pics. with the water mak on them. How are they doing this? And can I provent it? Next they will be posting them as avatars. Any sugestions.

As long as the "print screen" button works the watermark is your, our, only real protection. That is why a custom watermark (ie: our logos, names whatever) would be great for pro-account users! HINT_HINT!:D

gus

I found the same thing last week with one of my shots that i took of a downhill bike race. I just ignored it ...it was a bit of a kid that did it & he is hardly going to market the shot with PROOF across it in a small size.

Actually ..just looking at it again..maybe the forum owners should be a little more carefull in your case.

xtnomad

Thank You This Info Helps A Lot
After talking to one of the owners wifes to day and her talking about her husband being in the pics. I posted and her praises about the shots I might just take a lump or two from the bike guys. Now they want some photos to but on thier web site to promote the track. I am going to talk to them this week and see what comes of it. As I was leaving I cought this shot of the next group coming in for the next day. I think if i could work in as the track photog I might start a new pro acount for these guys and make it password protected. I am going to walk softly and watch my step on this one. nothing ventured nothing gained.

rfreschner

jfriend wrote:

The three types of protection that you can deploy are:

1) Use watermarks so they can't make good prints from the images they take. It appears you are already doing that.

2) Prevent large sizes from being available so a decent sized print can't be made from anything the browser can get. It appears that you have originals disabled, but not the large size. Since you are watermarking, that's probably fine. You could also disable the large size if you wanted.

3) Enable right click protection. This is only a deterrent, but it will make it so that only a more sophisticated user could save your image to their hard disk and post it elsewhere. It does not prevent anyone who really knows how the web works from getting your image, but does prevent casual internet users from getting it.

John - just curious - how do you do #2 & #3?

Andy

rfreschner wrote:

John - just curious - how do you do #2 & #3?

They are features available to Pro Subscribers on SmugMug:
http://www.smugmug.com/help/image-protection
I hope this helps!

rfreschner

Andy wrote:

They are features available to Pro Subscribers on SmugMug:

Bummer, no wonder I couldn't find them. Thanks for the info, Andy!