Stealing model pictures.

Hans von Hammer

 

I tried everything to deter them, from overwriting the files with adult pictures and having their accounts closed, to java scripts to prevent the right-click feature.

 

Just so you know, the Right-Click Feature can be defeated simply by taking a screenshot and then cropping the browser screen out...

Yup, with the script it worked on the more naive visitors. They were driving me nuts. Some folks got they accounts deleted when I switched to adult pixes. Then I've got warm emails from them like if I was the one at fault (they were warned before hand it could happen).

Cheers!

dirkpitt77

Ha!  If someone wants to copy pics of my crappy builds and claim them as his own, I say have at it, bro!  LOL

Hehe, I was thinking the same thing about my own builds, it's not a problem for me

To the orginal poster's point, if this is in SE Asia, good luck, it's a completely different cultural view on intellectual property. especially in the PRC and Thailand.  Go to e2046's forum sometime and look for mentions of pirated figures.  There, the question isn't whether something is a copy, but whether it's a good or bad copy.  Different way of looking at things.

I tried everything to deter them, from overwriting the files with adult pictures and having their accounts closed, to java scripts to prevent the right-click feature.

Just so you know, the Right-Click Feature can be defeated simply by taking a screenshot and then cropping the browser screen out...

Having the EXIF data stripped out of any picture is as easy as pasting the picture on a new document in Photoshop, save for web and viola! there goes your ''proof'' of ownership. When My Space and Mi Gente were household names, many users were using pictures from my website to adorn their pages. They were draining my monthly data transfer and anything over it was coming from my pocket. I almost had to shut down the site. I tried everything to deter them, from overwriting the files with adult pictures and having their accounts closed, to java scripts to prevent the right-click feature. They were relentless and eventually won. By the time I was about to pull the plug on the site, my host brought a new unlimited data transfer hosting package and I did learned to live with the fact.

Use a small size picture size like 1024 wide @ 72 dpi, add a small transparent watermark to it and be aware that anyone on the web even thru a screen grab might get the picture(s).

In case you didn't know, you own the rights to those photos as long as you live, plus about 15
more years after you die. If he tries to make a profit with your photos in some way, hes in serious
trouble. Right now you can ask him to remove them since he didn't ask and get your permission
to use them. Or better yet the Forum owner, who would most likely do it right away to avoid
trouble.

Heh.. It'd take me a month to upload everything I got on my computer, picture-wise...  Can't tell ya how many pics I've lost over the years, before I uploaded them...

 But, knowing how frugal some modelers are, I guess they DO have to swipe some bandwidth because they bought that 35.00 AM set for an 80.00 kit last week...

Hans von Hammer

 

 

The only way to keep from using your bandwidth, is for that person to save the image to their computer and then upload it to their album.

 

 I know that... That's what I said I wanted folks to do if they use my pictures on a forum that I don't belong to...

Why would they want to do that when they can steal your bandwidth and preserve their own? Think of how many GB of storage space you'd fill on your computer if you save pictures to your computer...modelers are a frugal bunch you know.

The only way to keep from using your bandwidth, is for that person to save the image to their computer and then upload it to their album.

 I know that... That's what I said I wanted folks to do if they use my pictures on a forum that I don't belong to...

The problem with visible watermarks is that for them to be useful they have to be on whatever it is that you're showing. If you don't put them right on the model then someone can edit them out if they really want to use the image. But if someone wants them bad enough even that wouldn't stop them. The clone and patch tools in Photoshop make that relatively easy. If you can host your images somewhere that doesn't remove the EXIF data then you can use that to identify your images. Software like Adobe Lightroom isn't too difficult to learn and will allow you to add tags or other info to the EXIF data.

There were some pics of a very detailed build posted here recently. I know I've seen those exact pictures before but, the build was done by someone else. I didn't say anything because I couldn't prove it. Couldn't find the previous pictures. They were from a year or two ago. I searched and searched but couldn't find them.

Tony

i admit when build my models i search and steal photos from various sites        Only if the pics are high res.  so i can use them for detail ref.  but  no one ever sees the photos i usaully dump them with the  instructions and the ret of the waste when done

Windows 7 can use another alternative:

With Snipping Tool, you can capture a screen shot, or simply a Snip, of any object on your screen, and then annotate, save, or share the image. You can capture different types of snips like Free-form snip (draw a free-form shape around an object), Rectangular Snip (drag the cursor around an object to form a rectangle), Window Snip (select a window such as browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture), and Full-screen Snip (enable you to capture the entire screen).

Thanks to MicroSquish, if it’s not nailed down, steal it!

Anytime anyone links your photo from your hosted album that does count against your bandwidth. It doesn't matter if you posted the image there or not...the website where the link to the image was added to a thread post goes to your album to include the image in the post.

The only way to keep from using your bandwidth, is for that person to save the image to their computer and then upload it to their album.

Considering what it costs to upgrade accounts to unlimited bandwidth, which is the price of a decal sheet or two, it might be worthwhile if you like to share or include images in your posts and are frustrated by exceeding your bandwidth each month.

There is nothing short of making your images nonpublic or password protected to keep others from viewing them or linking to them without your permission. But then you lose the ability to share them on forums all together. I can't see you posting a statement like "If you want to see images of my <BLANK> email me for access information."

Once you have posted an image on a thread, you in essence have opened the door to let everyone view and link to the image.

I was referring to those that hot-link my photos to other forums by copying and pasting the url of my photo into that site, Hawk...  Not what's used here, that I post...

So, if I surf Photobucket (or another one of those sites), and find someone else's picture, I can create a hot link to it and "steal" their bandwidth?

Yupper... If you just copy and paste the PB photo url into another forum, you're using that person's bandwidth, not your own...

I've visited other forums and on more than one occasion, saw a photo of mine posted there, and with my PB url in the "Properties" box, not the person who posted the photo... That means they're stealing my bandwidth...

If they want to post a photo of mine, it's ok... I just want them to upload it to their account first...

I knew about "losing" pictures in a thread when you delete or move your pictures on the host (or close your account).  That doesn't bother me too much and I'm willing to accept it.  I don't want to have to maintain a slew of pictures just as they were for years and years to accommodate an old thread that someone may look at sometime.

So, if I surf Photobucket (or another one of those sites), and find someone else's picture, I can create a hot link to it and "steal" their bandwidth?

Paul

Also when folks that have posted to share photos that reach their bandwidth allocation, they often remove the images to keep from going over their storage amount. When they do this, this deletes the photograph not only from their album but every post it was included or shared. A great thread suddenly and forever loses a huge part of what made it so good...images.

Again, many don't know this and it has cause frustration for many who return to a thread to glean more information from the post only to find what they were returning for is gone for good.

Ahhh, I did not know that.  Thanks.

I don't have enough photos (or links) to have that problem.  I just checked and three weeks into this "month", I'm only at 1%.

Paul

When you host a photo on a website such as Flicker or any of the others, each time it is being viewed when someone opens a thread which you included it, it taxes your bandwidth. If the site is very popular such as FSM and a lot of people are viewing the post, then in turn sharing it with others on other forums, the amount of bandwidth use increases.

When you reach your monthly limit, the images are no longer allowed to link to the post. FREE hosting has its limits. If you don't want to see your bandwidth "stolen" don't include pictures to threads such as those here. Everytime someone looks at your images whether viewing your pictures in your album or as they are included in a thread on a forum...it counts against your bandwidth.

If you post a lot, its worth the nominal fee to have premium service and unlimited bandwidth.

Hans von Hammer

Wish I knew how to do it so that if someone steals my bandwidth by hot-linking to my account, they see the photo on their screen, but EVERYONE else in the wolrd that reads it sees a box with "This Person is Stealing Bandwidth" or something similar (but far less "G"-rated)...

Hans,

What do you mean by someone stealing your bandwidth by linking to your photo?

Paul

Personally, I don't care about the pictures.. It's the ones that steal my bandwidth I wanna choke...

I don't post anything I want kept to myself, which is what folks should do in the first place...  Also, if you use a picture of mine, upload it to your own photo-account, don't hot-link it to mine...   I don't want to have all my past build-posts with a bunch of "Photo has been moved or no longer exists" windows in their place either...

Wish I knew how to do it so that if someone steals my bandwidth by hot-linking to my account, they see the photo on their screen, but EVERYONE else in the wolrd that reads it sees a box with "This Person is Stealing Bandwidth" or something similar (but far less "G"-rated)...

But as far as copyrights and watermarks and all that, nah... I don't care enough about that to bother....  Too easy to photoshop that stuff out anyway... 

Years ago, I did some research on early sci-fi tv shows, and posted them on a private web site to share with my friends, along with some documentary text.

A few years later, I found some clown selling my work on EBay on cd's , with the credits removed, of course.  I had never intended to sell and profit from it.  It was just intended to be some fun to share with friends.

I don't post much of anything anymore, and I definitely avoid the "social sites" like facebook and twitter.

If your really worried about it, i recomend a program called GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ Theres plenty of tutorials around on how to use it and i find it a bit more user friendly than Photoshop...once you get the hang of it that is lol. Still a PITA to get the hang of. But its free.

Take a photo of you, yourself, holding the model, and then post it to this guy's post, his website, his account--anywhere you can, and write a little blurb about how you are the rightful builder of that model and ask him to please credit you in the future.

Even if he doesn't, it will at least make you feel better about getting recognition for your work.

Ha!  If someone wants to copy pics of my crappy builds and claim them as his own, I say have at it, bro!  LOL

Depending on the end result you want, you could use google translator to send him a message asking him to credit you specifically or to remove the posts all together.  You never know his response until you ask.

I am starting to add my watermarks to my images that I post for scale modeling, especially if the images are of a project build or tip I want to share. In the past I didn't care, but now with plagiarism on the rise one has to protect what one can if they ever hope to make something from their efforts.

There is a program that one can use to track where and how others are using the images they have posted and hosted online. It alerts you when one of your images is posted elsewhere on line.

Some of the image hosting sites do have a way to place watermarks on the images you host there. I nice feature if you don't have software on your own computer that will allow you to do so. If you are concerned, add the text line to the image Copyright <year> <Name of Photographer> to the image.

I will often add clearly obvious watermark as well as one or more other less noticeable ones hidden in the image. This prevents someone just cropping out the obvious watermark...sorta like those little hard to see engravers marks on currency...such as the spider on the US Dollar bill.

Even MSPaint has the ability to resize.  And there are both inexpensive and freeware image editors that can do quite impressive operations on a photo, so I would recommend getting something like that.  GIMP is one of the better free ones.

I personally do not watermark photos I post on the internet. I merely resize them for the place I am posting them.  Here in the forums the picture displays about 600 pixels wide, so I resize for something like 600 or 1000 pixels.  Good enough to see here, but not enough pixels to make a really good picture, or print with good quality. So I don't worry about folks stealing them.  I know I have the high res originals.

Well, according to the translation, he does not claim the build as his own. I know that I have seen links to other modelers work by a non involded member on here before. I know I have done image web searches for various things and on occasion seen my own builds or the work of others here turn up. That is the nature of the iternet. Once something is posted for general viewing, anybody can see it, get ahold of the image, and potentially do all sorts of things we never intended. But also I have seen folks online take images that were taken by combat photographers of various services and are thus not subject to copyright (they are US Government public domain) and put them on their Flikr or other such photosharing site and claim them as their own. If I were you, I would feel complimented that someone saw my work, copied it to share with others, who in all actuality you can not communicate with in their language. I would not get upset or lose any sleep over this.

Those are all your photos and it's your build?

Wow...

I don't add any watermarks to the pics I post online - truth be told I can't be bothered. Then again, so far as I know I've never had any of my pics lifter like this.

As far as what to do.... that is a good question. In the translation of the thread, he seems to give passing credit when he said that the model was build by 'a modeler from overseas' or something along those lines. Of course, he does not mention you by name, so take that for what it is worth.

Could you get an account in that forum and add a message to that thread that those photos are yours and you do not appreciate him using them?

I don't really know what else you can do. I guess it depends upon how fired up you are about it.