Info Floridaherps.com Copyright infringement - I found my photo their website

While looking at pictures of chameleons on google I found one of my photos posted on someone else website.

the website is http://www.floridaherps.com/categori...ds/Chameleons/

The picture is the one under "panther chameleon" It is a picture of my Ambilobe panther chameleon,Wembley taken by me probably about 2 years ago.

I am in the process of contacting the owners of the website to inform them that they have used my photo without permission... but i suspect there are other photos on the website that are also being used without permission..

I have attached the photo in question

Dessirae Scarborough

wow

Not sure if the link above is working. Here is another

http://www.floridaherps.com/products/Panther-Chameleon.html

It can be found by looking under LIZARDS --> CHAMELEONS

I guess they took it off of their site because it is no longer there.

I emailed them requesting that they take the photo off informing them that the photo was used without permission.

I got a somewhat rude response from them via email... However the photo was removed shortly afterward

can you post your email conversations with them?

Yea, looks like they used our photos as well to represent their blood pythons ( watermark clearly says metalmonkeyexotics) , thanks for pointing that out. The site likely stole a lot of pictures.

Connie silvernaile

Subject: Copyright photo used - removal request
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, March 31, 2011 3:58 pm
To: [email protected]
Priority: Normal


To whom it may concern,

It has come to my attention that a photo on your website was used without
my permission and I am requesting its removal.

I am the original owner/photographer of the picture. The picture is
located under the Panther Chameleons category.

A copy of the photograph being infringed is included to assist with its
removal

Thank You
Dessirae Scarborough
www.chamalotchameleons.com

I attached a copy of the photo so they would know what I was talking about. I also decided to put my name on the photo before sending it to them so it wouldn't seem like I was sending it to them to use.

Reply:

Subject: RE: Copyright photo used - removal request
From: "Florida Herps" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, March 31, 2011 4:48 pm
To: [email protected]
Priority: High



Hello Dessirae,

I mean no disrespect, but emailing us out of the blue claiming this photo is yours because you placed your name on it isn’t going to cut it.

I viewed your website, didn’t see the photo in question.

As you can see, I can put my name on a photo as well.

If your photo already had a copyright or name, or watermark, etc. on it we would of course never used it. Even if it was on Flickr marked copyrighted, we wouldn’t touch it.

if this matters that much to you I would suggest watermarking or putting your name on all your photos, because I just watched your entire gallery slide show and saw ZERO photos marked copyright or anything.

Have a nice day,

Lillian Erickson

*Attached on the email was another photo taken off OUR home page of our website (www.chamalotchameleons.com) with a fictitious watermark on it. Attached below I am surprised they went thru the trouble really

My reply

Subject: RE: Copyright photo used - removal request
From: [email protected]
Date: Thu, March 31, 2011 7:16 pm
To: "Florida Herps" <[email protected]>
Priority: High

You do not have to put a copyright logo, date, or name on the image for it
to be protected by copyright. Unfortunately, too many people (including
you obviously) think that if it doesn't have such markings directly on the
image, it is fair game, even though it is not.

Regardless, I see that you have removed the photo, thank you.


Dessirae

I emailed them a bit ago about their "Muellers Chameleon" this is the response I have gotten.


No! We are correct!

Please do your homework, and unlike in your email below we spelled the
"Chameleon" correctly, you left out an "e". So you just spent your time
emailing us about what you "thought" was a typo only to misspell the main
word in your topic? Really? Are you kidding me?

http://www.melleridiscovery.com/caresheet/PFcaresheet.htm Read the first
paragraph. Like I said, do your homework before being emailing a company
about your ignorance and 3rd grade spelling level.

Have a great day,
Lillian
Florida Herps, Inc.
3809 Lorraine Road
Lakewood Ranch, FL 34211
(800) 975-5880 – Toll Free - 10am to 6pm EST – 7 Days a Week
(866) 261-3820 – 24/7 Toll Free Fax Ordering
(941) 448-5438 – Customer Service / Wholesale Accounts
(941) 224-0540 – Text Messaging / Skype / International Services
[email protected]
www.FloridaHerps.com
www.SuncoastReptiles.com
www.ReptiLabs.com
www.SuncoastReptileRescue.org



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2011 6:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Muellers Chamleon??

Hi, I was on your site, from a thread on a forums, you have posted a
Mueller's Chamleon. The correct name for it would be a Meller's Chameleon.
Chameleo Melleri. =



(Also in their email they sent a care sheet. The care sheet has the correct name of the Chameleon.) Pathetic.

This is pretty pathetic on thier part.You would think that if they had "quality" animals then they would want to take pics of there own,not others.Just goes to show you how dirty this hobby has gotten.It truly is sad.

I am surprised. I bought a female saharan uromastyx from them about a month ago and she came to me healthy and beautiful. The person I talked to before I purchased an animal was very polite and answered every single question I asked. Too bad the person that answered you back had to be so rude. I hope they take off any photos that aren't theirs, apologize for the rudeness of the person that answered you and set everything straight.

Jessica Wagers

Wow!!!! just wow.....

Hah, they actually removed our logo from the corner on the blood python picture that they used of ours, but it still has our name right across the middle. Wonder how they'll explain that one?

I'd be very interested in seeing them attempt to defend themselves, has anyone notified them of this thread?

got a reply

I would like to post the response email reply I just received. I did remove the two other companys mentioned..

I am currently looking at my flickr account now and see I DO have the settings set on *All Rights Reserved...


Subject: RE: Copyright photo used - removal request
From: "Florida Herps" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, March 31, 2011 8:03 pm
To: [email protected]
Priority: Normal


Hi Dessirae,

(Love the spelling of your name btw!)

We would have removed it just to make you happy with no more than a simple 1
line email - "please remove this photo". It was the fact that you felt the
need to go slamming on forums we found rather uncalled for. It did drive
some extra website traffic our way, thanks! (Not trying to be mean here)
You cannot even prove that photo is yours. I'm not arguing with you, just
pointing out a fact. I could upload to my camera and date stamp it 2 years
ago, watermark it and put my name on. How would you ever prove it wasn't
mine? We've been doing this along time, we have used photos taken from
Flickr for some items we don't stock often or in your case - we just redid
our website in Feb - completely new ecommerce company and everything. We
sold out of our Blue Bar Panthers just after Xmas. So when adding animals
to our new site and we got to that reptile we stock from time to time and
didn't have a current or decent res. picture - we go to Flickr. We only use
Flickr because it asks the uploader if they would like to allow downloads of
their pictures. Google doesn't do that, so we go out of our way to make
sure we aren't taking them from a breeder (keep in mind 90% of our stock
comes from smaller breeders and we sure appreciate everything you do as well
in this industry). If the poster on Flickr tagged the files as "do not
download" we would respect that or any other copyright notice. The photo
you say is yours was taken from Flickr well a couple months ago and we just
left it there as its an ok picture. Plenty of better ones of course, but
we'll worry about photos when we get more in stock ourselves. We are not a
"flipper" or whatever places like **Company name Removed** or *** company name removed** does.
We have two places in Florida and have had customers coming to pick out
their new family members for almost 16 years. We've only been selling
retail for 3 years and like I said our new website is brand new. I am sorry
if we offended you by using your picture, we sure meant no disrespect.
And I don't know about your customers, but when we sell those spendy chams -
our customers want current pictures of their EXACT lizard. So we do that of
course, just don't have any of those in stock at the moment to photograph.
Anyways, we got some extra web traffic from your posts, I got to view your
stunning gallery of chameleons - very nice - and we did what you asked. So
its all good to me!

Take care,
Lillian

At least they were nice about it. They haven't responded to me yet. I still won't buy from them or ever will. By the way Desirea (sorry about the name spelling! D I always look at your site! I love to go through your chams! ^___^

After seeing this thread, I noticed that the two photos they use for their Senegal Chameleon page were taken off of my Chameleons! Online E-Zine (an online chameleon magazine in production since 2002). After contacting the author of the article these photos were taken from, I was able to confirm that these photos were taken without permission and was asked, as the publisher of the photos, to handle it. Here is the email I sent to them:

from Christopher V. Anderson <[email protected]>
to [email protected]
cc [email protected]
date Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 11:49 PM
subject Senegal Chameleon Photographs
mailed-by mail.usf.edu
hide details 11:49 PM (38 minutes ago)

To Whom It May Concern:

Your website (http://www.floridaherps.com/) was recently brought to my attention with regard to your use of photographs taken from the Chameleons! Online E-Zine to promote the sale of your animals without the permission of me, the publisher, or the photographer, Kristina Lucas Francis. The following photographs on your website are photo taken off the Chameleons! Online E-Zine (http://www.chameleonnews.com/08FebFrancis.html; direct URLs to images: http://www.chameleonnews.com/08FebFrancis_files/Ch.-senegalensis-005.jpg and http://www.chameleonnews.com/08FebFrancis_files/Ch.-senegalensis-008.jpg):

- The two photos of Senegal Chameleons, Chamaeleo senegalensis (Direct URL to images: http://www.floridaherps.com/product_images/q/898/Ch_-senegalensis-008__47681_zoom.jpg and http://www.floridaherps.com/product_images/b/611/Ch_-senegalensis-005__69752_zoom.jpg; Images posted on your "Senegal Chameleon" page: http://www.floridaherps.com/products/Senegal-Chameleon.html)

For your information, penalties for Copyright Infringement can include monetary damages (up to US$100,000 per infringement), all profits earned through the use of the copyrighted material and legal fees. Further, according to copyright law, photos are protected by copyright from the second they are taken, regardless of whether or not a copyright watermark is expressly placed on the photo in question.

As the publisher of the material being infringed by your company, and the agent for the copyright owner, I have confirmed that you were not extended permission to use these photographs and as a result, your use of said photographs is in violation of International Copyright Law. Please remove these photographs from your site immediately or you will be invoiced for their use, we will effect the removal of these photographs from your website through your hosting company in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and pursue legal action.

I expect your prompt response and attention to this matter.

Regretfully,

Chris Anderson

--
Christopher V. Anderson
Ph.D. Candidate
University of South Florida
Department of Integrative Biology
4202 E. Fowler Ave. - SCA 110
Tampa, FL 33620-5200
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.chamaeleonidae.com

Click to expand...

I've not yet received a response but I've also since noticed that one of the photos is also on their facebook page. I will be requesting this photo be removed as well.

Not exactly a respectable business in my opinion based on their blatant theft of copyrighted material...

Chris

Once again,WOW.I just cant believe a "profesional" business can have such business ethics or lack there of.

If they dont have enough confidence in there OWN animals to take pictures of there OWN animals,then why would they expect anyone to purchase there animals.It's not like it takes forever to take a good quality pic and upload it.This should not be taken very lightly.I wouldnt want someone else to take credit for what I produced.

It did drive
some extra website traffic our way, thanks! (Not trying to be mean here)
You cannot even prove that photo is yours.

Click to expand...

Well Lillian, I guess if you buy into the "There's no such thing as bad press" ideology, you should be just jumpin for joy, I mean here's this thread that has the potential to give your company huge exposure, but for what:

1.) stealing ( that's when you take something that doesn't belong to you and use it, regardless of your own personal ignorance of how the law works) photos of animals from other breeders and photographers.

2.) Misrepresenting your animals (by stealing pictures of animals that don't belong to you.)

3. ) making snarky, "prove it" comments to people that respectfully request you stop using their copyrighted photos...

4.) When any company engages in questionable practices it makes me question, Just what else would they be willing to do to save or make a buck?...they can't even take their own darn pictures or have their suppliers do or supply the same, Where else does Floridaherps.com cut corners and can I expect the same type of snarky, tongue -in-cheek attitude if I were to buy from them and something goes wrong?

Your right though, you got "extra website traffic" from myself and I'm sure many others that have now put you on the...
Do NOT Buy From List"(Not trying to be mean here)"

ForkedTung said:

Well Lillian, I guess if you buy into the "There's no such thing as bad press" ideology, you should be just jumpin for joy, I mean here's this thread that has the potential to give your company huge exposure, but for what:

1.) stealing ( that's when you take something that doesn't belong to you and use it, regardless of your own personal ignorance of how the law works) photos of animals from other breeders and photographers.

2.) Misrepresenting your animals (by stealing pictures of animals that don't belong to you.)

3. ) making snarky, "prove it" comments to people that respectfully request you stop using their copyrighted photos...

4.) When any company engages in questionable practices it makes me question, Just what else would they be willing to do to save or make a buck?...they can't even take their own darn pictures or have their suppliers do or supply the same, Where else does Floridaherps.com cut corners and can I expect the same type of snarky, tongue -in-cheek attitude if I were to buy from them and something goes wrong?

Your right though, you got "extra website traffic" from myself and I'm sure many others that have now put you on the...
Do NOT Buy From List"(Not trying to be mean here)"

Click to expand...

EXTREMLEY well put.I couldnt have said so myself


I would like for them to come here and atleast try to defend themselves.or appologize.I know that if thy will steal photos they will continue until they pay the consiquences.