Thursday, October 9, 2008

So someone stole my photo...

I was browsing the net tonight, when I stumbled across Melissa Leong's food blog. Browsing through her posts, what did I see but my own photo, posted on her site... without my permission. Don't believe me? Here is her post:

http://fooderati.blogspot.com/2008/05/tsukasa.html

Here is a screenshot of her post:


Here is my post:

http://sormuijai.blogspot.com/2007/03/musashi.html

Here is the photo that I blogged:


Here's the photo I uploaded onto Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sormuijai/437451277/

Look similar? Very similar, except she had edited my photo to blur out some of the background. And she had used the photo for a completely different restaurant. This photo was taken at Musashi, using it for a review for a different restaurant is a bit misleading, no??

Apparently the review was also published in the 3D World magazine, so I have been in contact with the editors to ensure they stop using my image now and in the future.

This is not the first case of one of my photos being stolen, which is the reason why I had to start watermarking all my photos (long story). However, I've literally uploaded hundreds and thousands of photos, do I, or SHOULD I, go back and watermark everything?

Some of my friends have commented that the watermarking actually ruins the photos. Yes, I agree. But that's the least I can do to protect my own work? Yes this a small blog that is a personal project, but it doesn't mean that I don't cherish my own work. Maybe that's why the photo was taken? Because it is a small blog with few reader? And one thing my friend noticed, why are most of her photos watermarked, but not my one??

Honestly, I love taking photos, and I love looking back on all these photos. I hope others can enjoy it as well, but to a certain extent. I have been contacted many times through Flickr and even privately about the use of my photos on websites and other media, which is something that should have been done in this case. You know, I would have even been happy had she linked it back to my blog/flickr page like what a lot of other people do.

I have contacted Melissa to ask her to remove my photo from her site, lets hope there are no other instances of copyright breaching. Incase you haven't noticed, both my blog and flickr is copyrighted?

SoRMuiJAi current mood: Not happy Jan.

5 comments:

petals said...

All fixed?

This is what you get for taking awesome shots of yummy food! =P

Ayako1984 said...

That's just plain dodgey...you would think that she knows better than to do that...tsk tsk.

SoRMuiJAi said...

Seems all fixed. The editor from the magazine got back to me and gave me a PDF copy of what was printed. They didn't use my photo in the print, so all good! And I can't help it that the food looks good, its not my photography, its the food ;)

A: Yeh, I expected better, especially from people who deal with media all the time. Copyright is a huge thing, and "I didn't know" isn't a valid excuse for professionals. Anyway, its all over now. I just need to talk to the other people who took my photo!!

Ashley said...

Yeah it's not the first time she's done it. If you do a Google image search, doesn't Google give you a link to the original image??? You would think someone who deals with the media would know this sorta thing. Not very professional indeed.

SoRMuiJAi said...

I didn't think it was the first time. And yeh, I don't remember ever getting a google image that isn't linked back to the original site. And if it really isn't linked, then doesn't that say "don't use it as you can't get permission to"??.