Hi everyone
Recently I came across a site selling cameras and offering a range of related services including photo restoration. On their photo restoration page they had 12 before and after images....but one of the images looked familiar, so familiar that I realised it was the work of another photo restoration artist! I checked that persons site and sure enough there was the image. So I was curious, and did some more hunting. I found that all 12 images were taken from other sites. 3 of the images were from other artists, one from Wikipedia, one from a YouTube before and after and another from a photographers help site. So I emailed the 3 artists as I didn't know whether they were working on contract for this business or not.....
Two of the three got back to me within hours thanking me as they did not realise their images had been stolen. Interestingly the next morning the images on the site had gone (which is why I am not naming the site) but I notice they are still claiming they will undertake photo restoration.....I will be monitoring the site regularly to see if they try and use anyone else's images illegally.....
The sad part of this story is that this business misrepresented what they could do - by stealing someone else's images they were implying they were capable to doing that level of work. The good news is the power of the internet and that by letting the owners of the images know they were able to get that business to remove the images....they have good grounds for legal action too...
Its a small world. I hope in future if anyone finds my images on a site not belonging to me they will do the same.
Recently I came across a site selling cameras and offering a range of related services including photo restoration. On their photo restoration page they had 12 before and after images....but one of the images looked familiar, so familiar that I realised it was the work of another photo restoration artist! I checked that persons site and sure enough there was the image. So I was curious, and did some more hunting. I found that all 12 images were taken from other sites. 3 of the images were from other artists, one from Wikipedia, one from a YouTube before and after and another from a photographers help site. So I emailed the 3 artists as I didn't know whether they were working on contract for this business or not.....
Two of the three got back to me within hours thanking me as they did not realise their images had been stolen. Interestingly the next morning the images on the site had gone (which is why I am not naming the site) but I notice they are still claiming they will undertake photo restoration.....I will be monitoring the site regularly to see if they try and use anyone else's images illegally.....
The sad part of this story is that this business misrepresented what they could do - by stealing someone else's images they were implying they were capable to doing that level of work. The good news is the power of the internet and that by letting the owners of the images know they were able to get that business to remove the images....they have good grounds for legal action too...
Its a small world. I hope in future if anyone finds my images on a site not belonging to me they will do the same.
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