posted on January 12, 2002 11:50:11 AM new
Perusing my images and found some that should not have been viewed in the past several days. Sure enough, somebody tacked 5 of my images onto their auctions. I deleted them and will have to re-take them. I looked at all their auctions and EVERY SINGLE photo is stolen from somebody else. They have a zero feedback and are selling pricey WDCC (Disney) items. Few bids but this seller really makes me wonder.....Do I say anything?
posted on January 12, 2002 11:58:56 AM new
Since this is a supposed new seller (new ID anyway) you could email them and let them know that most seller's do not take kindly to other's using their photo's espicially if linking since many picture hosting sites now charge for each linking.
Maybe they do not know this.
If you get a reply and a "thank you" for helping educate them maybe you could let it slide this time.
If you get a nasty "mind your own business" then safeharbor would be a good next stop.
posted on January 12, 2002 01:23:22 PM new
If they are linking to your URL then they are foolish indeed. All you need to do is to upload another pic, of anything, porn if you want to be *really* mean hehe, just name it the same as the previous pic, the new file will overwrite the old and if that seller has a bid he/she'll be stuck with it until auctions end.
Or you can create an image in your graphix program that says "THIS SELLER STEALS IMAGES FROM OTHERS!!" then upload it and call it the same thing.
*Great fun*!
posted on January 12, 2002 03:29:47 PM new
even if they are a newbie seller, if they are smart enough to link to your picture, they know what they are doing.
when i first started selling i asked permission of a seller to use her pic because i did not have a camera yet. she was very nice and told me how to copy and save her picture to my hard drive.
i say email and if you do not get an apology, turn them in.
posted on January 12, 2002 03:35:00 PM new
what if they are stealing photos of pricey disney items from others is that they dont have the items????????
if they dont have the items on hand,how can you take photos of them?????
can these disney items be ordered easily by any reseller??
posted on January 12, 2002 06:07:00 PM new
OK. I can't stand it anymore. How can someone link to your AW pics? How do they know the address. If anybody did this to me I'd have a sadistic ball with it, that's for sure!
posted on January 12, 2002 06:42:32 PM new
It really is simple.
Find an image, right click on it, select Properties. On the tab that is displayed, the address (URL) of the image is clearly shown.
All you have to do then is highlight the address, copy it, and paste it (as a reference) in another auction.
Some folks attempt to run a JavaScript that "kills" the right-click. Unfortunately, this same code will >not< work on the enlarged image (e.g., click image to view larger image). AW says they won't consider implementing it.
Needless to say, if you have the URL of the image, you can just as easily save a version to your hard drive and then upload it to another image hosting site.
Only way to discourage "stealing" is to put your eBay ID on the image before you upload it. But this sometimes ruins the display...
posted on January 12, 2002 07:10:41 PM new
Had to go out immediately after posting message....If they just copied and pasted I wouldn't have a problem, but they are linking directly to hosting sites - which means an additional .10 charge to me per pic. My first thought is that they don't really have the stuff. Maybe I'm too suspicious...I was thinking of asking a question that you would need the item to answer. These are all retired pieces, available on secondary market only - and the cheapest prices are on ebay. I've seen the suggestions of uploading a different pic but I would not want that to appear on MY completed auctions. I do mark my photos with my seller I.D. - but they used them anyway!
posted on January 12, 2002 11:05:14 PM new
The bottom line is if somebody *really* wants to steal your pic they will, and there's not a heck of a lot you can do about it. I can get around the "no right click" java scripts in about .5 seconds, and I can remove any "copyright" or watermark from a pic using the "clone" feature of most graphics programs in no time at all.
The beef I have with pic thieves is this:-- I set up the item, the lights, adjust the camera, then mess with the lights again, get it just right, then I take the pic, upload it, crop it, resize it, optimize it so it's under 40kb, color correct it, all those things. In other words I spend a lot of time to get a quality pic of my item.
Now you come along, see my auction, like the fruits of my hard work, right click on pic, click "save as", upload to your own site, and use the pic in your own auction.
I spent over half an hour making the pic.
You stole it and used it in under a minute.
I've "stolen" pics myself occasionally in very rare instances where I had the *exact same item*, and for whatever reason my own pic turned out crappy, or my camera was broken, etc., but I go to great pains to make sure that the person who took the pic would never know it, because I spend as much or more time making it look *not* like the original as the person did taking the pic in the first place.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about, I used my modified pic around 2 years ago:
posted on January 13, 2002 05:55:43 AM new
Wow!!! That was nice work! I can also tell that someone is using my pictures on occasion. The reason I know is because I use AW, and when I buy an Item that I know I've had in my inventory from way back when the picture is still there, yet when I get an item that I know I had just a few months ago the picture is gone (AW deletes photos that aren't clicked on after a certain period of time - so many of these should have been deleted a long time ago unlesss someone else is using them). I don't necessarily mind since I don't get charged per image on the standard plan, but once that contract is up I'm going to have to move to a company that doesn't charge for image hosting because it happens ALL the time. I can go and look at my pictures and see when they've been viewed (AW dates the pictures) and there will be ones in my file that I haven't used in months that will have a "last viewed date" of today or a week ago. I do a lot of videos and I scan the front and the back - very easy to steal.
posted on January 13, 2002 06:37:22 AM new
These stolen pics would still have to have been used within the last 30 days on eBay, then are unlocateable because they scroll off the board, right?
I look at completed auctions all the time, which would register as the last view date in the morgue here.
I lose relist opportunities and other opportunities ever since eBay when from 60 to 30 days reference.
posted on January 13, 2002 08:55:52 AM new
The reson I suspected that one or more of my pics were bieng used was I was going to delete a couple of pics. There were some others that were from ended auctions but I would be using them again, as I had more of the item. When I saw that they had been viewed that day, I Searched for a couple of the items on ebay....came up with a seller with my pic and checked all their auctions that I had pics for the item. Found four more of mine being used. Then I lookked at the items I DIDN'T have and found (by right clicking) others they were using. I emailed two of the sellers they had stolen pics from.
posted on January 14, 2002 09:22:41 AM new
Actually, I have a great picture to use if anyone steals a picture from me. Nice close up of the Business end of my cat walking away from me...
posted on January 15, 2002 03:50:11 PM new
Curious question...if someone steals a pic hosted by AW from an ebay seller by right clicking and saving the pic to their hard drive , AT THE SAME TIME changing the name of the photo, (which also changes the url), does the person the pic was stolen from still get charged the 10 cents by AW when that photo, with the new name is then uploaded to another OR the same AW server & then used on an auction?...OR is it now, for all intent & purposes "my" photo and not AW's anymore, or the person's that hosted it through AW? Bottom line, does that end the AW fees to the unsuspecting original owner of the pic when someone else uses it..? I know that if the url is simply cut & pasted or if it is saved to a hard drive using the original name, it definately would cause unfair fees to the victim of the theft...but does CHANGING the name of the stolen pic prevent that from happening?
Hope I did not sound too confusing...LOL
kiddo2
maybe you could let it slide this time.
