( This post is to be shared as much as possible)
Dear All,
After a week working with
+Grant Stringer on Copyright Infringement, There is much to say.
+Alex Lapidus +Alexander S. Kunz +Chris Benham +Cynthia Bush +Dave Gen +Sarah Myers +Elizabeth Kearvell +Eric Schaeffer +Exposure +Feli Gil Davila +Igor Schevchenko +Jose Antonio +Kitten KaboodleInc +Nicole H +Marivi Iza +O. Sydney +R.G Kirk +peter ebner +ᴠɪᴅᴇOMᴏᴠɪESʜɪɴᴇ Sᴄʜᴜʟᴢ have stongly been involved and this is also the result of their work.
Here is a guideline to help in the struggle against copyright infringers:
I - Who shall be consider as a Cheater
----------------------------Social Networks ARE about sharing. So fighting against resharing is not the point.
When you see a profile, there are a few tips that allow you to tell if someone could be an Infrinfer.
- Low resolution pictures,
- No Exif datas,
- No watermark - signature,
- Broken language,
- No coherence between the subjects,
- Photos from everywhere around the world whereas the "photographer" has a settled life and/or low revenues.
- Lots of submissions in a short time.
- Huge difference of qualities and processing between several pics.
- Never gives credit to anyone.
- Have no external account for his pics like FlickR, 500px, personal blog or website.
Please note that none of these symptoms is enough by itself to become suspicious. But if there is a bunch of these and some more, you can bet this, at least, needs an inquiry.
A profile who re shares not original work but gives credit (artist, source on the internet) IS NOT a Copyright Infringer.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________II - How to find out
----------This works only with a computer and Firefox/Chrome. Tabs and Smartphones with G+ App won't let you do the inquiry.
1st /
I use firefox with two addons named "Who Stole My Pictures?" and "Search Image Everywhere". I didn't check for them under Chrome they should exist.
Both use more or less the same technics, however it's interesting to have them both installed. They both search on Google, Tineye and Yandex.ru but "Search Image Everywhere" is also looking on Cydral and Baidu (Asian Searches) and "Who Stole My Picture" searches on Bing.
You can untick the Google, Yandex and Tineye under "Who Stole My Picture" so you won't have two times the same search.
Watch out: Tineye is limited so after a number of searches each day, it won't return any result (I think it's about 50).
2nd/
You must have the photo opened. The post of the photo isn't enough (See captures attached)
There are tricks:
1) I search on the different websites the addons give (see capture attached: once the addons are installed, right click on the photo to acces them)
If you find something:
2) Check the upload dates.
3) Check the quality (if you find an equal or higher quality)
4) Check the website on which you find:
- if it's a wallpaper site: no question, there's a copyright but the owner is too hard to find.
- if it's websites like pinterest or tumblr: it's hard as, as on G+, the resharing is easily possible.
- if it's websites like FlickR or 500px, unless the user is himself a cheater, it's pretty easy.
5) The rule is: if you spend more than 5 minutes to find a pic, it's better to consider it "Not found" (meaning it COULD have been stolen but there is no evidence).?
I think that checking the last 10 pics would be enough to have a good idea.
3rd/
Don't waste time:
- with people having a FlickR, 500px or personal website (i.e. "name".
blogspot.com or www."name".com for exemples). Those are up from 90% to 100 % probability real photographers (all those I checked where true).
- on Pinterest, TumblR Wallpaper sites and sites where content is very easily shared (all social networks): it is sometimes very long or impossible to find the original post.
- Focus on profiles with a lot of followers: the more there are follower, the more his power is high and the less people will believe he actually is an infringer.
Watch out for details:
Using the Addons to track cheaters, please take a great care before going public: mistakes are possible and you have to make sure, even in details, that the photo is stolen. An exemple:
Alessandro Foto submitted a pic on the Exposure Community: Monument Valley. No exif data, a common subject, no signature or watermark, an easy-to-rip photo.
So I checked... And I found...
But looking closely, take a look to the clouds. All the results I found were done from the same point but Alessandro's clouds have an UFO shape whereas the other's shapes are different.
So please, BE REALLY CAREFULL.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________III - How To React (if you find an evidence of Copyright Infringement)
------------------------------------------------------------1st/ You are the original author.
Contact the web-masters asking them to remove the content, giving them your original work's URL, the Copyright Infringement's URL and the profile's URL.
Block this profile so he can't any more steal your pic.
Go public with all these informations (See below, the "Sarah Myers Method").
2nd/ You found the original author and you can contact him/her
Leave him/her a message giving him/her all the informations and tell him/her he/she can complain.
Go public with all these informations (See below, the "Sarah Myers Method").
3rd/ You found the original author and you can contact him/her
Ask your contacts, in communities or public, if someone can and give him/her all the informations.
Go public with all these informations (See below, the "Sarah Myers Method").
4th/ Any other case.
You can't do anything else than Go public with all these informations (See below, the "Sarah Myers Method").
The "Sarah Myers Method"
Sarah Myers has been stolen one of her pics by a cheater.
So she posted public this:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+SarahMyers/posts/RZjfMYSTd5JAs you can see, she gave all the informations and this has been successful. The Infringer has removed the pic.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________IV - How To Protect your pics
-------------------First, and most of all, you need to understand that there is no perfect method for, in the same way, diffuse your work and protect it.
As a matter of fact, like everything in the security philosophy, the question is not: "How can I void being stolen?" but more "How long would it take and would it be profitable?"
So, there are a few tips I'm using:
1) I always crop my pics => If I need to proove a pic is mine, I can provide the original uncropped raw/jpg file
2) I submit in 3 sizes only.
- 2560x1600 for colour images (which remains a quite high size but is precisely 16/10 format)
- 2560x1440 for B&W (which remains a quite high size but is precisely 16/9 format)
- 2133x1600 for anything else (which remains a quite high size but is precisely 4/3 format)
=> Submitting in low res is, paradoxically, not so good for protecting as (if you disable the download option on G+ or FlickR) the quality of the uploaded pic and the saved pic (by the cheater) will be too close.
3) My pics are submitted signed => This shows people this is an original work.
4) I ALWAYS upload on FlickR first (under the Creative Commons licence).
5) Both on Google and FlickR (The 2 only websites), I forbid the download possibility.
6) I don't hide the exif datas as the technics I'm using are not technics I created. There's no point hiding the tweakings (at least those one:
- Camera Brand and Model
- Aperture (F number)
- Focal Lenght
- ISO sensibility
- Exposure time.)
Everywhere on the internet you can find free tutorials on nearly everything that can be done in photography (check on Youtube for exemple).
And my next images will be marked in 2 ways.
- A filigrane logo (a manta ray which is my tattoo)
- A serial number, hidden somewhere in the pic.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Conclusion
--I hope this guideline will be helpful. Please comment and add your ideas.
Culture is to be shared, we're smarter together than I am alone.
Useful links:
Best Practices For Sharing Images On Google+ by Karl Louis (
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100209496338129656740/posts ) and ( GPlus Expertise
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+GplusExpertise/posts )
https://plus.google.com/u/0/100209496338129656740/posts/Htju6a3s8eCExemple of Good Practices:
Michel Payet (
https://plus.google.com/100176302640079050430/posts )
Informations about Copyright Infringement:
Over Exposure:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/102199428721966414994Under Exposure:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/110492197723484505197Copyright Violation:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/116284399000926297178/postsGoogle+ Photography Theft:
https://plus.google.com/117095109534678153750/postsGoogle+ Help:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/115758385206378551362German Wikipedia:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/UrheberrechtsverletzungPhoto Sharing | Fighting Picture Theft:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/102056156045283098045What happens when National Geographic steals your art:
http://www.blyon.com/what-happens-when-national-geographic-steals-your-art/?utm_content=buffere5dd4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=bufferPetition for a modification of Google's rules about Copyrights
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+GrantStringer/posts/b7y4DVg5Tk4Letter to Google / Vic Gundrota from Jonas M Luster (
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JonasLuster/posts )
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JonasLuster/posts/9wv3Xbxh4CeAsk for removing content to Google
https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905?hl=en-GB
