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Taking photos, blogs and comments of others on the internet and passing them off as ones own.

Why do people do this, in your opinion? Are there any benefits to doing it? Has anyone to your knowledge passed off something of yours as their own?

14 years ago, May 22nd 2009 No: 21 Msg: #73671 Delete Edit

system
TravelBlog System User

H Posts: 1,526

1 posts moved to this new topic: Taking photos of strangers or visa versa Reply to this

14 years ago, May 22nd 2009 No: 22 Msg: #73676 Delete Edit

josworld
Johanna

B Posts: 151

Were those blogs on TravelBlog. TravelBlog members are allowed to use the photos of other TravelBlog members in their blogs without asking permission, so long as they imbed the photo into the blog as a link so the owner of the photo is acknowledged.

---Mell

Yes on TravelBlog.

and no, my photos were not embedded as links.

... it's really no biggie . As I said, I was flattered.

Anyone is more than welcome to disseminate any information I publish on the internet as long as it is used in a positive way or for a good cause. I had teachers and students asking for permission to use my photos and blogs, which I gladly granted with or without acknowledgement. After all, internet is for information sharing, right ?

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14 years ago, May 22nd 2009 No: 23 Msg: #73677 Delete Edit

deleted_49612
deleted_49612

D Posts: 24.6K

Here are a couple of related threads.

Copyrights, plagiarism or just being very nice and harmlessly promoting your blogs?

Photos - copyright and using other peoples work

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14 years ago, May 22nd 2009 No: 24 Msg: #73711 Delete Edit

His Dudeness
Ralf Kreuze

B Posts: 327

Hmmm... I have never even thought about this whole thing... Didn't know people did it, and don't know if people have done it with mine... Personally I don't really care, even if they make a fortune on my writing... I guess because I really don't spend that much time on it all and I do it for my friends and family anyway, so as long as they are happy, I am happy... Who ever else does whatever with my blogs is something I can't be bothered about... I mostly write my blog in about half an hour and most of my times is spent uploading the photo's in some infernaly slow internet cafe... I have had some requests to use my photo's or sometimes my blogs for use on travel magazines or other such related subjects, I never refuse. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 22nd 2009 No: 25 Msg: #73714 Delete Edit

Marcoelitaliano
Marco Daprile

B Posts: 109

Jonathan, what happened to you is rather extreme, you will admit that. And of course, in that specific case, things must be seen under a different light, that has nothing to do with copy and paste some stuff from one place to another. But generally speaking these sorts of things are harmless and that's way I don't understand all this fuss. I mean, if you were a professional photographer or writer who sell his stuff you wouldn't freely publish it on the net, would you? Hence, if someone else use it and pretend it's his own work, well, why should you get pissed off?
As for me posting pics from Wikipedia, yes I'm guilty... Well, those pics have been posted under the name of the copyright owner (wikipedia, that's it), so it's a compliment I pay to them rather than a theft. And, Claire, if you go further back in time with that copycat thing (or whatever is called) you will find I did that to others too... and never asked for a written permission either. So what? Does that mean I was pretending to be someone else (Marcopedia, maybe, or Marco Bansky)? Reply to this

14 years ago, May 22nd 2009 No: 26 Msg: #73718 Delete Edit

deleted_49612
deleted_49612

D Posts: 24.6K

Hence, if someone else use it and pretend it's his own work, well, why should you get pissed off?

Because nobody likes a copy cat, maybe.
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14 years ago, May 22nd 2009 No: 27 Msg: #73723 Delete Edit

Stephanie and Andras
Stephanie

B Posts: 883

Well the issue about "freely publishing it on the net" is that the internet isn't free. And just because it's on the internet doesn't mean it's in the public domain. The internet just happens to be the medium that you're using to promote your work. I know quite a few writers who write online, either freelance or through contract, as their job. Newspapers are now online, magazines are online - no one would think it's okay to steal those. I mean if one person published a book and then someone else tried to pass it off as their work, that wouldn't seem okay, so why is it okay just because it's online?

And most writers DO charge and get paid reprint writes for material that is re-posted, either elsewhere online or in print, so even if you give someone credit, you're still stealing income from them. Some chose not to charge if it's for a non-profit or, like Ralf mentioned, if it's something you did without a commercial aim in mind but it's up the author/artist to decide that.

There is a WikiMedia Commons that is in the public domain, just as on photo sites like Flickr (Creative Common License) there's an option for people to allow their photos to be used freely by others, but no one should assume that's the case. Photos on websites, photos on blogs, photos everywhere else you can't use (at least not commercially) without permission. You could print off a photo to hang on your wall, but you couldn't print it off and start selling it or distributing it.

Copyright's don't just protect print media, they protect online rights as well. At least in the U.S, it's not a moral matter or right or wrong, it's simply the law.
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14 years ago, May 23rd 2009 No: 28 Msg: #73732 Delete Edit

Ali
Ali Watters

B Posts: 5,200

I'd just like to bring attention to one of the oldest forum topics on travelblog A Basic Guide to Copyright

Hopefully it explains a few of the concepts here in an understandable way. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 23rd 2009 No: 29 Msg: #73747 Delete Edit

Marcoelitaliano
Marco Daprile

B Posts: 109

Ali (and Stephanie), I believe there is the law and there is the spirit of the law. In this case these rules were set to avoid that someone might take advantage from someone else's work, and when that is the case (let's say someone who copy a series of blogs and then publish and sell them making a profit out of it) the offender should be punished. But if someone for the mere reason of a sick ego decide to copy and paste others' stuff into his blog -and this was my point- well, the whole thing seems very harmless to me. Sad for the person who did it, but definetely harmless for the "victim". At the end of the day if we keep blogs of photoblogs is because we like to do it, not because we make a living out of it.
And, finally, there is a third, even lighter scenario, when someone uses, mentioning the font, stuff he/she doesn't really have the (written) right to use: i.e. me posting a few pics taken from wikipedia to illustrate a story for what I couldn't possibly have pics of my own. or, let's say, writing a blog titled Harry Potter Forever mainly using lines from old Harry Potter books. Would you really call that "plagiarism"? Come on, it's a matter of common sense. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 23rd 2009 No: 30 Msg: #73748 Delete Edit

deleted_49612
deleted_49612

D Posts: 24.6K

I just removed the copyright picture that was on my Italy blog. I had no idea that people get so upset about others using their pics like this. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 23rd 2009 No: 31 Msg: #73754 Delete Edit

thecrashpacker
The Crashpacker

B Posts: 170

I have used a couple of photos of other bloggers to illustrate a place i was writing about - when we went there it was a long time in the past so any photos we did actually take have since dissappeared. I'm pretty sure i name checked the source though, and maybe even wrote that they weren't my photos next to them!

Its a different thing though for foreign websites to pass off your content for commercial gain.
i may watermark my photos from now on, but how do you watermark writing, apart from constantly namechecking yourself?
! Reply to this

14 years ago, May 23rd 2009 No: 32 Msg: #73756 Delete Edit

JonathanCampion
Jonathan Campion

B Posts: 972

You could Google the titles of your blogs, or certain phrases that couldn't be found anywhere else. I'm sure that most plagiarists aren't very careful about disguising the forgery, otherwise how would that Chinese magazine have been found out?

J. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 23rd 2009 No: 33 Msg: #73774 Delete Edit

Stephanie and Andras
Stephanie

B Posts: 883

Marco - Quoting books and using photos in Wikipedia to illustrate a blog, in my opinion, is hardly worth getting riled up about (like I said, a lot of things on Wikipedia are in public domain, just not all). But it's not that type of innocent gaff I'm talking about. What I wrote above refers to those who copy work for commercial gains or the work that was published in a commercial way.

I'm talking about those who deliberately and intentionally republish the work of others (in part or in full) that in one way or another infringes on that persons right to promote or profit from their intellectual works. And it's not only about the money. I know of one instance where a writer's integrity was called into question and she almost get penalized because her work was republished online word-for-word, only the name was changed and the offending site had taken lots of pains to make it appear that it had appeared there first. Luckily it turns out the entire website was younger than her original work and she had other evidence to back up that she wrote it.

So I'm not so specifically talking about blogs on this site, or photos here, but more online work in general. The problem is that when the general public isn't aware of what's legal or not, it makes it easier for those who those hard-core culprits to get away with it because everyone except for those affected just look the other way. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 23rd 2009 No: 34 Msg: #73779 Delete Edit

aspiringnomad
Jason

B Posts: 580

Hmmm... I have never even thought about this whole thing Personally I don't really care, even if they make a fortune on my writing... Who ever else does whatever with my blogs is something I can't be bothered about... I have had some requests to use my photo's or sometimes my blogs for use on travel magazines or other such related subjects, I never refuse.

But, in my way of seeing things, the act of stealing this sort of material offends the thief rather than the victim. After all, the material is not going to disappear from the author's page, is it?

I don't think I would ever dream to use sites like this Coyscape, as Claire suggests, not even if it was for free, I mean. It's just pointless. We all know what internet is: it has its advantages and its risks and this is one. And if I was so concerned about others using my shared pictures as their own, I would simply not upload them and, instead, print them and hang them in my living room.

Because weird as blog poaching is I don’t want to spend any time chasing after the blog thieves. It would just be too time consuming.There are plenty of other thieves in my life that I have to chase after already without adding those who might be stealing my blogs to the list. Companies charging for the services even though I cancelled what I used to want from them etc.

The internet is a public domain. There are times I hesitated hitting the publish button knowing that my blog will be available for the whole world to see ... and maybe even subject to abuse. But I still took the risk to share the experience.

But if they win something on my behalf, I'll be happy for them to take the winnings.

I'll be even happier if they share it though:-)

Anyone is more than welcome to disseminate any information I publish on the internet as long as it is used in a positive way or for a good cause.

Jason.

P.S. If anyone would like to use any of my intellectual property on display here, without my permission, and I´ll sue your Ass!

Anyway, as the saying goes “You rob me once and you can spend the rest of your lifetime in fear of being robbed by my legal team!”

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14 years ago, May 24th 2009 No: 35 Msg: #73817 Delete Edit

Marcoelitaliano
Marco Daprile

B Posts: 109

Jason, I sort of feel you copied and pasted one of my previous comments... careful: my copycat hunter's team and my twelve lawyers are closely following your footsteps, dude... soon someone will knock at your door :-) Reply to this

14 years ago, May 26th 2009 No: 36 Msg: #73974 Delete Edit

leokasari12
Mike Compton

B Posts: 36

Wow! I'm right there with his dudeness I never would have thought of such a thing. The folks who do this to somehow make some money are lowlife criminals, those who do this because they aren't self confident enough to feel that they're words or pics are interesting are just pathetic. Those who pass off your friends or family as they're own are creepy. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 26th 2009 No: 37 Msg: #73975 Delete Edit

leokasari12
Mike Compton

B Posts: 36

I like to change the screen saver on my computer at work with a different photo from the travel blogs everyday. I do not claim that any of these photos are mine nor do I attribute the photos to coming from travel blog. Is this wrong? Should I not do this? Your thoughts please. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 26th 2009 No: 38 Msg: #73976 Delete Edit

JonathanCampion
Jonathan Campion

B Posts: 972

I think that probably happens a lot. I wouldn't mind if someone used one of my photos as a screensaver, in fact I'd be flattered if they told me!

J. Reply to this

14 years ago, May 26th 2009 No: 39 Msg: #73997 Delete Edit

Stephanie and Andras
Stephanie

B Posts: 883

You can download practically any photo off the internet for personal use, no problems. I'd be flattered if one of my blog photos ended up as your screen-saver too! 😊

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14 years ago, May 26th 2009 No: 40 Msg: #74019 Delete Edit

Chocolatemonkee
Jason Ball

B Posts: 99

Just so everyone knows, everything you have written in this posting has already been said on another site. I hold all of you in contempt for having the same argument with all the same words in the exact same sentences.

People, get over yourselves. If someone "steals" your words or pictures and wins prizes or accolades for them and on the off chance that you learn of this, why weren't you smart enough to be publishing them to win yourself?

Sounds like a lot of egos talking.There are some really great blogs on TBlog and I'm sure people have taken content to use but really, how many tourism dollars have your thoughts/visions drummed up for a country? How many Pulitzers did you miss out on if you had only published your own words.

If you write well enough for someone to want to use it, become a professional. Otherwise quit posting on public domains where theft may occur.

(let the sh*t storm begin)
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