Shotgunner website steals my photo

[Romy Ocon]

Hi gang,

A Shotgunner's website has the gall to steal one of my photos of Philippine ducks in flight and use it in their front page.

www.philippineshotgun.com/

I've already written their admin to remove it, or I'll pursue legal remedies.

www.philippineshotgun.com/gb/

I've saved the front page of the site and the guestbook for reference if legal action is necessary.

Romy

[tina mallari]

Grrrrr here we go again !!!! I hope he/she removes your photo from their site right away.

[JP Cariño]

definitely yours

[Romy Ocon]

Cased closed, they have removed the stolen photo from the site.

Here's posting for the record my exchanges with the site admin:



Jade de Guzman <[e-mail]> wrote:

Hi Romy,

OK, will do…

Thanks

Jade


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Romy Ocon
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 5:48 AM
To: Jade de Guzman
Subject: Re: philippineshotgun page

Hi Jade,

I'm sorry but I am personally against hunting, so I wouldn't be in a position to let you use my photo. I've actually taken a lot of flak from fellow conservationists regarding the appearance of that photo in your page, as they thought I gave you permission to use it.

I won't go into the motion of trying to convince you guys to stop hunting.... that's up to you. However, I certainly would actively protect my IP rights. Please remove the photo immediately so we can put this behind us.

Romy

Jade de Guzman <[e-mail]> wrote:

Hi Romy,

I saw your post on the guestbook regarding our site banner using your duck photo. Youre right, it looks exactly the same. I had a Filipino college student do the banner for me last year (for free) and this is what he came up with… since im not really into artwork, and I have no way to contact the guy since he moved to Taiwan early this year – would it be possible to get your permission to use it instead of removing it? Our site is non-commercial and we don’t make any money , its just an informational site with shooting scores, news, etc for people to read. Please let me know if we can leave it up there and put your name somewhere in the links or footer page. Otherwise, then I have no choice but to replace it with a blank blob for the time being. Thank you!

Jade

[Bob Kaufman]

Romy, good thing you were able to track down those who use your photos illegally.

I wonder how we can monitor any piracys that are being done on our photographs?

[Romy Ocon]

Hi Bob,

The stolen photos are often discovered based on info passed on by friends and good netizens...

Romy

[myckle]

Romy and Neon, did you guys also see your photos on the Philippine Pet Finder ?
They were discussing which birds to catch/purchase based on your photos.
They even learned how the Guaiabero nest looked like because of your photos.
Is there a way we can block people from stealing/right clicking the photos found on the net ?

[Romy Ocon]

Sad to hear that, Mike. Once posted on the net, as far as I know, it's very difficult to prevent the pics from being copied illegally. One can just use screen capture (print screen) even if right-clicking is disabled. Or one can even photograph the screen itself with a digital camera.

Romy

myckle said:

Romy and Neon, did you guys also see your photos on the Philippine Pet Finder ?
They were discussing which birds to catch/purchase based on your photos.
They even learned how the Guaiabero nest looked like because of your photos.
Is there a way we can block people from stealing/right clicking the photos found on the net ?

[Eric Patdu]

Preventing right clicks and saving the photos can be blocked through Javascripts. But, the posts in the Philippine Pet Finder are links to the original images so that can't be prevented unless the owners hide the direct links to the photo. But then again, another work around is to direct the viewer to the original website. So I guess, photos on the net are literally "sitting ducks".

[Romy Ocon]

I'm in no way elated by image theft, made even worse if the images are used in aid of illegal wildlife traffic. I had debated with myself in the past if it's worth it posting my bird images in the web, and risk theft and/or illegal/wrong use.

At the end of the day, if there are at least 9 gallery guests touched by my bird photos (and start appreciating our birds) for every single poacher/photo thief that comes into my site, then my decision to post in the web is already justified. That just my personal view though, and I understand everybody's concern on this.

Of course, once I find out that somebody is stealing or misusing my pics, I'd exhaust all possible legal remedies to protect my IP rights.

Romy

[Eric Patdu]

admin said:

Of course, once I find out that somebody is stealing or misusing my pics, I'd exhaust all possible legal remedies to protect my IP rights.

Romy

[Farmer Nestor]

Why not try this site (not free ;D)

www.digimarc.com/

www.digimarc.com/comm/mypicturemarc.asp

More info:
www.digimarc.com/mypicturemarc/how-it-works/default.asp

Image Tracking
www.digimarc.com/mypicturemarc/how-it-works/default2.asp#console