Photos are being stolen from SM Here

Glory2Jesus4Photography · June 15, 2010

EDIT: Update by Andy, June 17th, 2010. The site has been suspended. We've validated this from a whole bunch of SmugMug employees trying the site.

A friend pointed out that he could get some of my photos as backgrounds here
http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=Reg]
I checked it out just typed in my SM nickname and there you go a bunch of my photos all able to be downloaded. Some are even from LOCKED galleries and most have Watermarks still on them. SmugMug How can this happen and how do we stop it. My biggest thing is photos from locked and pass worded non viewable albums.

daylightimages · June 15, 2010

A bunch of mine are on there, too, although they are from a section of my website that I have discontinued -- an old Coppermine gallery. There are none that I can trace directly to SmugMug -- I used my nickname for the site search, but my website has the same name (www.daylightimages.com). In fact, given the names of the files, I believe none are from SmugMug, as my Smuggy site uses a different file naming scheme.

Still, I'd like to see them removed from this site.

Andy · June 15, 2010

Glory2Jesus4Photography wrote: »

A friend pointed out that he could get some of my photos as backgrounds here
http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=Reg]
I checked it out just typed in my SM nickname and there you go a bunch of my photos all able to be downloaded. Some are even from LOCKED galleries and most have Watermarks still on them. SmugMug How can this happen and how do we stop it. My biggest thing is photos from locked and pass worded non viewable albums.

Specifically which photo(s)? Give me a precise link or two please, so I can see the photos also in your SmugMug gallery.

pgwelch · June 15, 2010

I found a couple of my images at the site listed above. Link to the page: http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=pgwelch
Link to page on smugmug where one of the pictures can be found. It is an unlisted gallery, I think you can get in though. http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance/Site-Customization/8042324_czSrH#523586630_kxDU8 or here http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance

Neither one of the 2 pictures on the fotosimagen site are of any importance. The fact that my pictures are being used without my permission is of great importance.

JAG · June 15, 2010

Yes whats with this smugmug? The link above site took me to two pages of MY IMAGES!...take a look at this below...
http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=JAGCreations

And looking at the referrals links in my pro account here is another site that has 30 random images from my smugmug account starting at this link....
http://image.baidu.jp/i?tn=baiduimage&ct=201326592&cl=2&lm=-1&s=9&word=JAGCreations#z%3D0%26it%3D0%26color%3D0%26pn%3D0

They even have my descriptions of albums or images under each image. What is really disturbing is my lil dd is in quite a few of those images on the second link I have listed!

There are a few others on my referral list that I haven't a clue to what they are...one is an s&m site but I do not want to join them (it also has a fee to join) to see what they have of mine. I plan on emailing the webmaster to try and get them to remove my photos.

Also a new one cropped up in the past couple days called singsnap.com. I will most likely join that one to see what they have but I shouldn't have to be doing this. I have been wondering why my site seemed to have taken a jump up in counts per month. I will have to check my anillitics to see when things started to go up.

What is going on??

denisegoldberg · June 15, 2010

Andy wrote: »

Specifically which photo(s)? Give me a precise link or two please, so I can see the photos also in your SmugMug gallery.

Andy -
I can find photos of yours on the site, mine too. There aren't a large number, and they are all small images.

When I looked for denisegoldberg.com, 3 images popped up. I'm sure all three were used in blog posts. Using my smug url, 15 images popped up. Again, I believe all were used in my blog.

I clicked through to the large image of one and saved it. The size? 85kb. Too small to get a good image, and hey - it's advertising for me since it's watermarked.

Everyone...
Keep in mind that if you show something on the web it can be grabbed. We each need to decide what we are comfortable sharing. Don't allow access to your originals, and understand if something is shown in a browser the image is in the screen buffer and it can be easily grabbed.

--- Denise

Andy · June 15, 2010

JAG wrote: »

What is going on??

First image of yours there I checked, it's from this gallery http://jagcreations.smugmug.com/Other/Challenges-and-Competitions/4781458_4rHF3#390416175_SjRuD with external links on and it's a public gallery.

Andy · June 15, 2010

pgwelch wrote: »

I found a couple of my images at the site listed above. Link to the page: http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=pgwelch
Link to page on smugmug where one of the pictures can be found. It is an unlisted gallery, I think you can get in though. http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance/Site-Customization/8042324_czSrH#523586630_kxDU8 or here http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance

Neither one of the 2 pictures on the fotosimagen site are of any importance. The fact that my pictures are being used without my permission is of great importance.

Turn of external links in the gallery:
http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance/Site-Customization/8042324_czSrH#523586630_kxDU8

Glory2Jesus4Photography · June 15, 2010

Andy wrote: »

Specifically which photo(s)? Give me a precise link or two please, so I can see the photos also in your SmugMug gallery.

This is it in a locked non public gallery http://glory2jesus4photography.smugmug.com/Church-Family/STC-s-Rockin-Comedy-time-the/3108310_e4D2s#170046862_Gudfe
and is on their site here
http://www.fotosimagen.com/img.php?t=glory2jesus4photography&img=http://glory2jesus4photography.smugmug.com/photos/170046862_Gudfe-S-2.jpg
Andy you can see alot of your images here http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=Moon+River+Photography

Andy · June 15, 2010

Glory2Jesus4Photography wrote: »

This is it in a locked non public gallery http://glory2jesus4photography.smugmug.com/Church-Family/STC-s-Rockin-Comedy-time-the/3108310_e4D2s#170046862_Gudfe
and is on their site here
http://www.fotosimagen.com/img.php?t=glory2jesus4photography&img=http://glory2jesus4photography.smugmug.com/photos/170046862_Gudfe-S-2.jpg
Andy you can see alot of your images here http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=Moon+River+Photography

They likely got it when that gallery was not locked at some point.

mistifarang · June 15, 2010

interesting and eye-opening thread!
Although I couldn't find (yet) my photos from Smugmug I saw that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of my photos from Flickr.........

JAG · June 15, 2010

Andy wrote: »

First image of yours there I checked, it's from this gallery http://jagcreations.smugmug.com/Other/Challenges-and-Competitions/4781458_4rHF3#390416175_SjRuD with external links on and it's a public gallery.

I must be mis understanding how this works....I thought that I had to have my links turned on and the gallery be public in order for ME to share my photos and to be found on searches such as google (who by the way does not display my images for free download).

Why is it then...that my images are seeming to be harvested from the smugmug galleries...including my descriptions? How are they doing that? Explain to me please how I can be found in searches and avoid my images being used without my permission on these type of sites.

Granted...when I post an image outside of smugmug...such as on dgrin...I run the risk of someone taking an image and using it without permission. That was a mistake I discovered when I found an image on the s and m site that I thought came from the picture association game I play on dgrin. I have since decided not to play anymore. However I was under the impression that my galleries were protected being on a pro account. What am I missing here?

Andy · June 15, 2010

JAG wrote: »

What am I missing here?

Public photos with external links on can be found and linked anywhere, by any number of bots or programs.

As Denise said, if you put something on the internet- expect that it can be grabbed. Watermarks, external links off, rcp on, and blocking Originals (and other sizes too, as you decide) are the ways to maximize your protection.

JAG · June 15, 2010

Well...I had just tried to rewatermark all the albums that had my old watermark from 08 to a bigger one. Problem is that its not working. I have done it to 2 different galleries...set it in the gallery tools and also using the watermark tool to change them and it hasn't done even 1 of them. I am wondering if all this is worth it. I think I will just delete all my galleries except for my customer galleries. Not like I am making enough through the site to pay for itself. Thing is...I really enjoyed using dgrin...but now I am afraid to even post an image here anymore. Especially since I do the challenges that don't allow large watermarks. Some of my best photography is displayed in the challenges.

bohdank · June 16, 2010

Geez... I need to watermark everything. I found pages and pages of my stuff on that site.

Andy · June 16, 2010

I'm also working on initiating contact with this site to get them to stop taking photos and offering them for wallpaper. We'll see how that goes.

Harryb · June 16, 2010

They have pages of my stuff too from Smugmug and my old Pbase galleries.

Ric Grupe · June 16, 2010

Harryb wrote: »

They have pages of my stuff too from Smugmug and my old Pbase galleries.

Maybe (I thought it should always be) everything should be locked down by default and unlocked only when one wishes to do so...instead of the other way around.

BTW, Harry...where's the link for your images? I could use some good stuff!

ebwest · June 16, 2010

Can somebody tell me what they are doing with them. There are a number of mine there too but I can't read Spanish.

Sure would be nice if power users could watermark their images.

samidget · June 16, 2010

I also typed in my company name and there are photos from nearly every gallery I have posted. None of the galleries had the external link button checked. This has got to be stopped.

jfriend · June 16, 2010

Ric Grupe wrote: »

Maybe (I thought it should always be) everything should be locked down by default and unlocked only when one wishes to do so...instead of the other way around.

BTW, Harry...where's the link for your images? I could use some good stuff!

This depends upon your point of view. If sharing with friends and family is your first priority, then today's default settings are perfect. Since I don't sell my images and thus there is no income on the line, I'd rather it be easy to share with my friends and family than worry about whether someone is stealing my images.

Second of all, this site that everyone is up in arms about appears to just be an image search site. Everybody wants your images to be found by Google Images so what's the big deal here. It's an image search site. Many of my images are shown here. The thumbnails seem to be cached at the local site, but the larger versions of the images are linked directly from my Smugmug site. If I remove access to those larger images, the ability to access the larger images from this site goes away too (the thumbnails do not disappear though).

It's a fact that NOTHING that Smugmug does can keep a site like this from collecting images that you put on the web. If you put them there so a browser can display them without any human intervention required, then any site can take what you allow a browser to display. That's life on the internet.

Right-click protection doesn't change things. You can limit what sizes are displayable on the internet. You can watermark (if you have a pro account). You can password protect.

If you really wanted to stop this (which seems ill-advised to me), the only solution I can think of is to require some human challenge before entering your site. For example, if you set a site password but supplied the password right in the hint, then no machine crawler would be able to enter your site. This would, of course, also stop Google Images, stop regular Google search, stop Bing, etc...

denisegoldberg · June 16, 2010

samidget wrote: »

I also typed in my company name and there are photos from nearly every gallery I have posted. None of the galleries had the external link button checked. This has got to be stopped.

Your galleries are set to be available for public access. Any image that is shown in a web browser can easily be grabbed - it is sitting in the browser cache on the local machine. This is not a function of SmugMug - it's a function of the browser.

--- Denise

Ken K · June 16, 2010

Stolen Images
Hello Everyone:

Just a heads up that a bunch of my images are on this site:

http://www.fotosimagen.com/

They have taken from both my SmugMug galleries and from my NatureScapes portfolio.

Ken

Art Scott · June 16, 2010

I found one of mine there also.........they are in Peru and the domain
is registered thru Go Daddy,,,,,,,,,but contact info showing:

Administrative Contact:
Melendez Oros, Michel Sandro domains@inkastech.us
InkasTech
Pumacurco 650
San Cristobal
Cusco, Cusco cusco 84
Peru
+51.084240417

The above info is a cut and paste from the WHOIS data base.............................

daylightimages · June 16, 2010

jfriend wrote: »

Second of all, this site that everyone is up in arms about appears to just be an image search site. Everybody wants your images to be found by Google Images so what's the big deal here. It's an image search site. Many of my images are shown here. The thumbnails seem to be cached at the local site, but the larger versions of the images are linked directly from my Smugmug site. If I remove access to those larger images, the ability to access the larger images from this site goes away too (the thumbnails do not disappear though).
...
If you really wanted to stop this (which seems ill-advised to me), the only solution I can think of is to require some human challenge before entering your site. For example, if you set a site password but supplied the password right in the hint, then no machine crawler would be able to enter your site. This would, of course, also stop Google Images, stop regular Google search, stop Bing, etc...

Now that I've thought it through, I tend to agree with John. If this is nothing more than an image search site, then basically it's free advertising. (I clicked on my photos on the site, but all of mine are from an abandoned part of my website and all give 404 errors; none of my SmugMug stuff has made the site). If it links back to your original gallery, then I tend to think in terms of no harm, no foul.

The only concern here is security, but unless your galleries were locked 100% of the time, whatever crawler they used could have visited while your shields were down (to use a Star Trek term).

Free advertising is good.

RogersDA · June 16, 2010

Yahoo.com is on the case.

http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157624276135822/

Andy · June 16, 2010

RogersDA wrote: »

Yahoo.com is on the case.

http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157624276135822/

I have also contacted this site.

jfriend · June 16, 2010

daylightimages wrote: »

Now that I've thought it through, I tend to agree with John. If this is nothing more than an image search site, then basically it's free advertising. (I clicked on my photos on the site, but all of mine are from an abandoned part of my website and all give 404 errors; none of my SmugMug stuff has made the site). If it links back to your original gallery, then I tend to think in terms of no harm, no foul.

The only concern here is security, but unless your galleries were locked 100% of the time, whatever crawler they used could have visited while your shields were down (to use a Star Trek term).

Free advertising is good.

I'll amend what I said earlier. They appear to be an image search site, but they are not linking back to our actually gallery pages like they should.

Andy · June 16, 2010

I've put a call into the webhosting/isp of this site as well. Stay tuned.

Harryb · June 16, 2010

Ric Grupe wrote: »

Maybe (I thought it should always be) everything should be locked down by default and unlocked only when one wishes to do so...instead of the other way around.

BTW, Harry...where's the link for your images? I could use some good stuff!

Apparently these fools are stealing everything that is in view. Why would anybody steal an image in this format?

It has to be some automated process where they just grab anything they can get w/o any kind of quality control. It doesn't cost them anything and any $ they get is pure profit.

daylightimages · June 16, 2010

jfriend wrote: »

I'll amend what I said earlier. They appear to be an image search site, but they are not linking back to our actually gallery pages like they should.

Then I'll amend what I said, and join the "this is a big concern" crowd. As I said, I haven't been able to find any of my SmugMug photos on the site so I couldn't check where the thumbnail links were going.

I noted in the Flickr discussion group that the thumbnails of photos pilfered from Flickr weren't linking back there.

Photos are being stolen from SM Here

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