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

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Here is what I noticed right of the bat.... A large portion of the pictures that they are "borrowing" have a human hand in them. This tells me that they intentionally picked pictures that looked as though these were the actual animals being sold. The fact is, that if you are in the biz, you pride yourself in the animals you help create and enjoy the bragging rights that go along with it. This biz is clearly stealing the bragging rights of others. They claim they have been doing this for over 10 years, but yet no pics. Seriously this should not be taken lightly as if these were my animals that were being viewed under false pretenses I would be upset. For those of you that had pictures used I can think of no bigger insult. You bred em you deserve the limelight.
 
I've been watching their website to make sure nothing of mine has popped up there. Something here isn't sitting right with me, though. A digital camera can run anywhere around $75 on up. A lawsuit for copyright infringement and litigation can run upwards of $7,500 on up. You'd figure anyone with a decent IQ, or any common sense with any business savvy would simply snap pictures of their inventory. Either -

A.) They don't have the inventory they're trying to sell; whether they're using drop-shippers, or they really don't have what they claim...

B.) They don't own a camera....

C.)They love throwing money out the door in various lawsuits involving copyright infringement...which is a federal offense...

or..

D.) They really think they're entitled to anything posted on the internet; photos included. If so, they really need to brush up on copyright laws and restrictions.

If anyone has had their photo stolen, get in contact with a lawyer. Most of the time, a cease and desist is enough to work, but if not... they can't say they weren't warned. Exif data and full resolution images are normally enough to prove that you took the photos... and I'd love to see them defend that the photos are theirs when several makes and models of cameras were used to take the various images on their website.
 
It doesn't make any sense why a legitimate, reputable business would use other pictures to represent their animals, just destroys their credibility from the very beginning...But at the same time, I've never understood why people care where pics they post on the internet end up. I would see it as more of a compliment.
 
RyanT said:
I've never understood why people care where pics they post on the internet end up. I would see it as more of a compliment.
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Oh NO NO NO :eek: If somebody contacts you and says "hey your photo would work great on our website, can we use it?" it is a compliment . If someone flat out steals your picture and slaps a price tag on it acting like its their animal it is FAR FAR FAR from being a compliment!

We have uploaded THAT photo to our Flickr account (which was set on is set on 'all rights reserved' licenses) To use on our website. I don't want my photos taken for our website to start popping up on other peoples website especially without credit.

If I wanted my photos shared and used I would upload them to a public domain website stock photos for everyone to use.

Repeating what I said earlier:

I admit I was a little alarmed when I saw my photograph under google shopping with a BUY NOW price tag next to it. It is my chameleon taken with my camera in my house and what was someone else doing with it acting like it was theirs??



Now if someone where to save one of our photos and set it as a wallpaper on their computer just because they liked the picture, I would have no problem with that.. but posting it on a website acting like it your photo is WRONG
 
Miss Tuniwha said:
I am trying to figure out why it's ok to steal people's photos.. if you saw your kids on someone elses page, and saw them talking about how great they were, gave them new names etc etc etc.. how would you feel?? no malicious intent.. just a fake family they made up with YOUR photos of YOUR family.. that they found on flickr perhaps..

is it still ok?


I am guessing no.. so why is it just "ok tra la la" when it's an animal.. that is still YOUR animal, YOUR photo, YOUR time and YOUR money.. Ignorance is bliss I suppose eh?
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This is a very good example.

If they are taking photos from other breeders and posting them on their website as theirs it is ruining the credibility of the breeders picture... and outside person may look at it and think , hey I saw this pic somewhere else and not know who REALLY has the animal.
 
typically even for websites where you have the option of letting other people use your pictures (or other copyrighted material) they are still not allowed to use it for commercial purposes. if they're making money off of it, even indirectly, and they weren't given permission to use it for that, then they owe you money. at least that's my loose understanding of it.

if they aren't trying to misrepresent their animals, why didn't they ask permission of all of the owners of the photos? why didn't they post credits for photos under each photo? and why didn't they at least clearly mention on their website that the photos do not represent their actual animals?
 
RyanT said:
It doesn't make any sense why a legitimate, reputable business would use other pictures to represent their animals, just destroys their credibility from the very beginning...But at the same time, I've never understood why people care where pics they post on the internet end up. I would see it as more of a compliment.
Click to expand...

A reputable and legitimate business wouldn't use someone elses pictures to represent their own unless it is so stated on the picture.
 
RyanT said:
I've never understood why people care where pics they post on the internet end up. I would see it as more of a compliment.
Click to expand...
Then why care if someone steals an animal off of your table at a show? I mean, you had shown it off publicly, and someone thought it was nice enough to risk stealing. It is a compliment, right?
 
m00kfu said:
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? :p
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That show's intent to steal copyrighted materials.... :NoNo:
 
The act of stealing multiple photos off of the internet I feel is bad enough but from their reply they see nothing wrong with it. As if the people that posted them put them there for their use, then to insult the owner of the picture because it was easy to steal. IMO this business has no ethics and does no deserve income.
 
This is why I have started slapping a large watermark on every photo I upload. Sadly it takes away from my photography :(

I've spent a lot of years honing my skills only to mess up the images by a huge watermark if I want to show them off.
 
Anyone supporting them, however few of you there are, imagine this. Your wife posts a picture of herself online. Someone takes said pic and uses her to represent their "inventory" on pay-to-watch webcam site. That just doesn't fly!
 
RyanT said:
But at the same time, I've never understood why people care where pics they post on the internet end up. I would see it as more of a compliment.
Click to expand...

Thats probably because you've never taken a photo worth anyone stealing. Similarly, a lot of people wouldn't understand why some of us would be upset if we saw or heard of someone killing a snake, just because it was a snake. If you've never invested your interests or efforts into something, you probably wouldn't understand why others who have don't appreciate it when people steal, kill or abuse their work and interest. If you spent hundreds and even thousands of dollars on your camera, lenses, strobes, memory storage and photo editing software and then devoted endless hours and who knows what resources to getting photos you were proud of only to have someone take your work without your permission so that they could make money off it, you wouldn't find it to be a compliment. Its theft. When a publisher contacts me and requests to use my photographs in a book with proper credit and compensation for its use, that is a compliment.

Chris
 
Chris Anderson said:
Thats probably because you've never taken a photo worth anyone stealing. Similarly, a lot of people wouldn't understand why some of us would be upset if we saw or heard of someone killing a snake, just because it was a snake. If you've never invested your interests or efforts into something, you probably wouldn't understand why others who have don't appreciate it when people steal, kill or abuse their work and interest. If you spent hundreds and even thousands of dollars on your camera, lenses, strobes, memory storage and photo editing software and then devoted endless hours and who knows what resources to getting photos you were proud of only to have someone take your work without your permission so that they could make money off it, you wouldn't find it to be a compliment. Its theft. When a publisher contacts me and requests to use my photographs in a book with proper credit and compensation for its use, that is a compliment.

Chris
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:iagree:

Well Said.
 
figg2112 said:
I admit I was a little alarmed when I saw my photograph under google shopping with a BUY NOW price tag next to it. It is my chameleon taken with my camera in my house and what was someone else doing with it acting like it was theirs???
\
I turned to the chameleonforums for advice because I didn't know if I should do anything about it.. It was suggested I post on here which I did .
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What you did wrong in my opinion that prompted their knee jerk reaction was post about them on the cham forum and then here without contacting them first and getting a responce...

You are a grown woman and I can not understand for the life of me why you went to the cham forum for advice on a subject that really has nothing to do about chams...

You could have easily looked up copywrite laws on the net, gotten the info you needed, and sent your email to them...

The BOI is a great tool but sometimes I feel it is abused at times... Something this simple could have been easily sorted with a simple email...

I am not saying you are wrong for being pissed that your photo was being used but I think you could have handled it differently...
 
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