OT: Copyright, Image Theft, and Handling It.

It was brought to  my attention first thing this morning that one of my images was being used on a website without my permission,  and after a bit reverse image searching, I came across several  more instances of that image and several more of my images being used without my permission.  One was on a  "free clip  art" site as a low resolution raster image,  which is kind of odd because it's also on a legitimate clip art site as a vector, another was being used as a postcard/greeting card with  my signature intact,  and credited to  me....

...and if you guys know anything about clip  art sales, you know that  you're not going to  get  rich  from it,  so  every little bit helps. 

Anyway,  I spent the better part of the day  hunting down  images,  sending out DMCA take down notices, and generally feeling a bit helpless over the entire situation. 

So I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences and how you handled it? Is there a faster way of doing a reverse image search  than  Google  or Tineye? It would be nice to  be able to  go  through  an entire folder at once rather than doing each image individually. 

Also have you had any  luck  with simply sending out a take down notice? Anything else you'd like to  share would great too.  I'm open  to  any ideas,  solutions, or whatever you guys might have. 

Thanks,

-J

A long time ago when I was about to win my first win here on Design Contest, a certain mad designer (banned for design copies) took my design and put it on Clker.com. Then he reported my design for a clipart, trying to knock me down. Sharie helped me in that case. But even with my various email complaints, I was never able to remove it from that damn site. 

So, it depends how site is serious. 

Yeah,  I'm not meeting with  much  success on most of them,  but I have discovered that  if the site is hosted through Godaddy.com, then  there's an actual form  on the Godaddy site to fill out that makes Godaddy aware of it,  and they  will  supposedly take action.  I'm hoping I will  get  some success in that  direction,  but I'm thinking it will likely be Monday, at the earliest,  before I know anything for sure, if ever. 

-J

Btw, I went today to see mine issue - and guess what! I found it on 3 more sites!

I sent them all an complaint e-mail... so let see. 

That was me yesterday, and the more I searched the more I found. Some newspaper in  Sri  Lanka had been using one of my images on article for over a year. Just the ridiculousness of it all, and they don't think  that there's anything wrong with it.  Just  because you can  Google it doesn't mean it's your.

I saw a guy on here, about a month ago, literally posting in the description of his work that he got all of the images off of Goggle. Like that somehow makes it okay. 

-J

Not long time ago we found a bunch of designers as an agency having on their site all stolen works, from web-design to logo-design, all won projects on 99designs from various designers... including client's reviews. They were reported instantly and soon they removed everything and put their site "under construction".

I can't imagine the agony you've gone through when you found out that someone stole your design, or "borrowed" it. But the question is how can we, as designers, copyright an image, logo, vector, or anything belonging to us, so that others can't use it. I'm asking because I have no experience in this field so can you help out ?

So, that must be why some level 10 designers removed their entire portfolio including their winning entries.

They were trying to avoid world wide art theft.

This would be difficult to avoid in a world where intellectual property is not protected.

Maybe, just send them a bill with full explanation of details. It may not get paid but everyone will know it was theft.

I don't know of any  good solutions myself, harass them with emails and hope that works,  hire a lawyer, or just roll  with it. I can't afford a lawyer myself,  some I'm hoping these DMCA take down letters work.  I've got a template put together that I cobbled from  several  different sites if anyone wants to  use it. 

These are all  the "must  have" terms and phrases to be a legal  notice if and when you do decide to hire a lawyer. I'm  kind of thinking most  will  gamble that  you won't:

_______________________________________________________________________

most of the time a legal "looking" letter is all that is needed  for them to remove the images. sometimes a phone call works then you can always start sending them a bill for each month they have it on their site.

I had a similar issue with a designer that stole one of my logo designs and won a contest with it on another website. I've contacted the contest holder and he kindly removed the design. The designer eventually got banned and the client received his money back.

Unfortunately  this type of issue will never  or completely dissolve. Theft happens in "real" world as well it is just slightly easier online but it is also easier today catch these online thieves than the real world thieves.  We work hard to protect our designers here at designcontest.com. I have opened up communication with  some of the other contest sites so we are all working together to help prevent and catch these thieves 

Well, I'm happy to  report that  at least one site(the postcard company) has removed my image.  They  aren't saying how many postcards they  actually sold,  in fact they  claim  they  didn't sell  any,  but at least they've pulled it. 

That's one down at least 6 more to  go. 

-J

...well,  just  got an  email  from  Shutterstock,  and they're going after several of them. So I guess there's a plus to  selling through  them,  my interests are their interests,  and they  have a lot more pull  than I do,  even if I do  only get  about twenty-five cents per download. 

-J

Only one removed mine.

Only one removed mine.

I'm hoping Shutterstock  will  actually get the majority of the remaining ones removed. Logically if someone is giving away  images that I am selling through them,  then it cuts into  their profits as well.  I can't honestly see it cutting into  them  too  badly, though,  I mean really, I average about $15  a month  through them. So it can't be hurting them too  bad,  but I assume these sites also  have other images that either Shuterstock,  Getty,  or I-stock handle.  Time will  tell.

-J