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Most outrageous photo thefts
Not my shots but I found a model's profile on purestorm who's entire profile were shots of a big name Australian model, she even used ad campaign shots with logos and things edited out. I smelt a rat because some of the shots looked like campaigns and a reverse image search revealed the extent of the stealing. Jun 20 12 05:15 am Link only socail media, where images were used in photo collages and the like. Nothing yet i have found where images were being used for commercial gain. Jun 20 12 05:23 am Link Dan K Photography wrote: Hey, this is my quote! Jun 20 12 05:27 am Link I received a message on Model Mayhem from a New York photographer who told me to check out this photographer from North Carolina. He thought that he might have taken and was using a couple of my images as his own in his port. Sure enough as soon as I opened his port there were 2 of mine in there. Worse yet he had the audacity to write a comment that She was one of his favorite models. In fact this jerk stole almost every image in his port. With the help of this NY photographer and Model Mayhem mods this guy was exposed as the creep he is and they banned him from the site. Jun 20 12 06:35 am Link Sita Mae wrote: I was asked to contribute writing for a well known style mag. The editor, who later married Dean Johnson, took my writing, slapped his name on it, kept my books and research material also. Jun 20 12 08:32 am Link I have an image that was snapped back in 2007. Some douche-bag decided that it was Brittany Snow and now it's all over the web as her but no one other than myself seems to care. Jun 20 12 08:18 pm Link There's a scam artist from El paso, that we all know about that likes to use images in his fake magazines and model portfolio development services, and then when we called him out on it get was balsy enough to tell us he got them from Getty images and places like that. Of course we called his bluff and did some research and they were taken from places like Vogue Italy, photos that had already been published and couldn't of been purchased from some image stock place. Hilarious... Another persona locally took an image and placed his name on the photo like he took it, when that skill level and quality didn't even match his in the slightest. Funny ass shit, if you can guess we called him out on it. All in a days work I say  I hate theives. Jun 20 12 11:40 pm Link 
Photographer Posts: 106 Sarajevo, Federacija Bosna i Hercegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina few years ago, I bought some papers just to kill time and reading it I found one of my photos published in it - it was a photo of a crossroad under a rain. the photo was taken from my web page. At first I wanted to send a complaint to the newspapers recalling copyrights law but I did nothing. for no particular reason, I beleived that it will not change anything and I'll just waste time and nerves. however, the photo wasn't one of my best so simply I didn't care. I still have that papers somewhere. Jun 21 12 07:32 am Link I photographed (on film) Sinbad, the Comedians birthday party at a bar in valley ranch one night. A bunch of Dallas Cowboys were there too. There was also this supposed sports agent there. So the next day when I got the proofs done the sports agent, met me at my lab, and ordered a bunch of 8x10s right then and there. I gave him a discount for quantity, and he paid me in cash. So, two days later I'm showing the proofs to the manager of the bar, and a Dallas Cowboy, walks over, and mentions he already has an 8x10 of one of my shots, that the "Sports Agent," claimed to have taken. It took a while to figure it all out, but it turned out the "Sports Agent," had taken my prints, and gone out to the Cowboys training facility, claiming he had shot them, and charged everybody double what he paid me. It turned out for the best though, because, what he did made people aware of the pics, being for sale, and naturally, they all remembered me, as being the guy with a camera, not him, so I sold a bunch more prints, to other people who wanted them. And, thanks to him, I raised my prices, LOL. Sadly, the sports agent was never seen again. It seems he wasn't an agent either. Jun 21 12 07:21 pm Link A strip club hired me to shoot their lead dancer with the possibility of more work if they liked what I could do. I shot her, edited 3 photos, and gave them to the club. The club said they were horrible and refused to pay me, then told me never to contact them again. A few months later I noticed the dancer had a link to her club, and posted all over the site were MY pics, with the bottoms cropped off so my logo couldn't be seen. I tried to call them and complain, but the club changed its number. Jun 22 12 12:15 am Link SayCheeZ! wrote: Herman Surkis wrote: Well, I almost let 'em in because they were pretty good photos. Jun 22 12 12:24 am Link I used to do allot of aerial photography and I'd go up in a helicopter at least 2 or 3 times per week so I got to be one of the top clients of a local helicopter service. My regular job at the time was TV post production. One day the helicopter company came in and had me create a quick 30 second spot that was only going to be used once. It ended up they liked it so much that they added voiceovers in English and Japanese and used it for advertisements and commercials. I only charged 'em standard dubbing fees and no editing fees, so they got the thing for a real bargain! OK, so here's the point of the story. I was one of their main clients, and they knew me as a good vendor, too! Then, they changed the color of their aircraft and now needed all new pictures for their advertising. I submitted a bid, and never heard back from them. It turns out they did a tradeout with a Los Angeles based photographer... a TFP if you will. A few months later, I saw brochures and posters in their offices THAT I SHOT! I found out that the "TFP" photographer did a horrible job and none of the photos were usable. In the meantime, I was working at the Robbie Knievel Grand Canyon Death Jump. I would lead media tours on helicopters going down to the river, and then a quick boat ride. I also took a bunch of pictures for our own company's promotions. The Helicopter people saw the photos and asked to use 'em for their promotions, and the owner of our company agreed! So, while the photos technically weren't stolen, the helicopter company got my photos without paying me. (I don't use that company anymore) Jun 22 12 12:40 am Link I did set of images for this model on tfp and then i saw all of her images on SG. I sued them and got crap. Jun 22 12 12:44 am Link I was once tipped off that a local "photographer" was using one of my images on his Facebook page. I reported it, send a DMCA takedown notice, and left it at that. Months later I started hearing about a local photographer gaining some popularity, mostly because of his recent "interviews" signing as an official photographer for National Geographic. A friend of mine told me about him, and that she going to go to his house for a photography lesson and photoshoot. I decided to check this person out and found out it was the same "photographer" that used my image months before. Me and some friends decided to do more research on him, and found out that he does not even own a camera, and that all the images in his port were stolen. We found images stolen from a handful of local photographers (which made no sense, people would eventually find them), Getty Images, MM, and more. This guy was creepy for sure. The model images he had up, he made up names for them and how their personalities were in the picture descriptions. He claimed to have exotic pets and faked check-ins from his travels around the world. I even contacted the local news stations and managed to get featured in a tv interview about this. This guy is still going today too. He has public records of domestic violence against women. No one knows what his motives are. There is my story... Jun 22 12 05:09 am Link I'm also a Realtor. I listed a home once where the Master bedroom was very nice, one of the nicest features of the home. When I went to photograph the home, I had a helluva time getting a good shot of that room with the lenses I had with me. The widest lens I had was a 24mm and it wasn't enough since my camera doesn't have a full-frame sensor. So, I traveled about 45 minutes and rented a 10-22, which produced a great image of the room. Unfortunately, the sellers were focused on what they paid for the home and also on what they owed despite the fact that market conditions indicated a much lower price. Eventually my listing contract expired and they listed the property with another realty company. That Realtor, apparently, had difficulty getting a good image of the master bedroom and decided that she'd use mine. Eventually, the situation was solved with a nice check. Jun 22 12 09:12 am Link I once took some photos of a Porsche Carrera for a client who was selling his mid-life crisis vehicle. http://www.aestheticdesign.com/blog/potm-2000-10/ At the time I first posted it on the web it was coming up on the first page in Google images for Porsche. From looking at logs from my web site I saw that a bunch of people were hotlinking to the image using it on their sites, bragging that it was there car. So I changed the link on my website so their hotlinks went to a picture of an crappy economy car that had been wrapped around a telephone pole. Jun 22 12 10:15 am Link Gah, I just found a band using one of my images that they BADLY photoshopped some "add ons" into. I sent them the whole formal cease using this or license it message, lets see how this plays out. So annoying. Jun 22 12 11:40 am Link 95536 wrote: Good one! Jun 22 12 11:56 am Link I guess the thing that really gets me is that, as already stated I do place up images to be used under Creative Commons NC. When I do it’s the best of my best and never second hand photos or left over files that just didn’t cut the grade. Just nothing that has never been published so I can get first rights incentives. Like everyone else I have some photos that were snapped with intent and were well planned out. Anyway I have one shot I wanted based on a happy near miss the year before. I planned how it should look. How I would get the shot, everything about it and waited for a full year for the time and place to present itself again. When the day came to get the shot it was snapped with one goal in mind, money for my family because I know it would license well and often. In the case of this one photo there are 102 known cases of infringement. The sad thing is that here it’s not just kids. There is one group in Romania that has gone so far to sale prints of it (post cards) and has slapped their own copyright logo all over the web copy used for display to insure that no one infringes on “their photo”. The way I see it litigating copyright infringement has to be worth while. Copyright or no copyright, registration or no registration how effective and or costly would it be to pursue and ligate a case of infringement in Romania of all places? Not very! It sucks and that is just one isolated case. I can list more. Plenty more. As they say, "Never place anything on the web that you don’t want people to take." At the same time in the world we live in we must place our files on the web to generate business. I guess the files I upload to the web are just big enough to print postcards! Jun 22 12 12:04 pm Link Not long after I joined, I noticed a photographer's port with a couple of not very interesting portraits, and the rest all looked suspiciously like they were from a gallery exhibition and book on a collection of early 20th century mug shots I had seen. I sent him a message to that effect, and got a response to the effect of, "well, I really like those photos". I contacted the mods with links to the book and exhibit. The port was taken down the next day. I guess it's easier for some people to just post others work as their own, than to actually try to do great work. I've had my photos stolen to be used on club flyers, and when I was a painter, my studio assistant started making exact copies of my paintings and selling them as his own. I suspected this, but had no proof till I saw one on a collector's wall in a shelter magazine. I contacted them curious how the painting ended up in Australia, as my records showed it had sold in Germany (I sent press material and a catalog). They were very surprised, and a little annoyed that they had bought a forgery. Jun 22 12 12:20 pm Link happens all the time in college. I've had and know some other people that have had work taken from the drying racks and submitted as someone elses or just plain stolen. I had an entire semester drawing portfolio stolen from the finals "pile" I draw out in bars and music venues and parks etc... I've literally had artwork taken off of tables when I went to the bathroom or just grabbed up and handed out because they thought it was cool. Well, at least they thought it was cool..... Jun 22 12 12:29 pm Link Looknsee Photography wrote: That's really disappointing. Why would they allow this person to keep the profile? Jun 22 12 12:38 pm Link ESP NY wrote: From the start of this thread, I was thinking of the website design company that kept selling templates with your images as placeholders... Jun 22 12 12:40 pm Link ESP NY wrote: That's pretty cool. Jun 22 12 12:48 pm Link Barry Kidd Photography wrote: Just been playing with tineye Jun 22 12 01:23 pm Link TA Craft Photography wrote: That'd be a good thing. It sucks when people start taking your stuff. Jun 22 12 01:44 pm Link Tiny eye found no instances of an image. Google found only 3 of 7. 1- Myself on MM 2x on lists with credit. Missed my website, my flicker site, and the models posting on 2 different locations, including MM and FB. Checked my Avi. Jun 22 12 03:35 pm Link Vampman Studios wrote: Was this club in Chicago? If it is local, I'd like to know who to avoid. Jun 22 12 04:18 pm Link Dan K Photography wrote: same with me!! Jun 22 12 04:28 pm Link Sita Mae wrote: I am mostly flattered that I got this image stolen. Jun 22 12 04:46 pm Link Brian Diaz wrote: ugh, That infuriated me. They ended up using my same images AGAIN after 7 months. Jul 03 12 04:12 am Link Some random on facebook friended me (I get a fair amount of unknowns but usually accept), 5 mins after accepting my shit is all over his wall, his profile pic and banner are my pictures. WTF. I spoke to quite abruptly about it and he took them down, he genuinely thought he'd done no wrong and looking back on it it was quite flattering really. Jul 03 12 04:27 am Link I've had two funny ones happen recently. The first was about a month ago when I caught a LOCAL photographer use one of my images in some online photography forums and on craigslist to promote...get this, a PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP SHE WAS TEACHING! When I saw this I went into orbit. I filed complaints with all the forums she frequented and every single one of them closed her accounts. I then sent her a rather expensive bill and told her that she's been busted. If she didn't pay within 10 business days I'd be sicking my attorneys on her for damages. I got the payment 2 days later in my PayPal account with an apology letter. The other one happened just two days ago. I found some VIP service out of the Czech Republic steal one of my images and use it on their website banner. I figured it would be hard to collect damages from them but I filed a complaint with their hosting company and the image was removed promptly. I then got an email from them not long after telling me how much of a jerk I was and how stupid it was for me to have them take the image down because it would have given me a lot of notoriety for being on their illustrious website banner. LOL Jul 03 12 04:33 am Link I was shooting the Tour of Missouri (bicycle racing, purely for my own enjoyment) several years ago and I found one of the big name domestic teams (Jelly Belly) had used one of my photos in their blog (no credit, didn't ask, was linked to my Flickr stream which is how I found it). I emailed them and said I was flattered by I'd liked to have been asked and I'd like a credit. They took it down and said "Oops, sorry". I was at the ToMO the next year, near the Jelly Belly truck talking to one of the young ladies with the team, turns out she was the one what swiped the image and she sheepishly said she had been told by her boss to email me for permission and she "forgot". Shooting another bike race in MO recently, I got an email from the director of one of the non-profits here asking permission to use some photos (which were already up on their website by then). I didn't raise a stink because I was credited and my smugmug site was linked, and they asked, even if after the fact. Jul 03 12 05:22 am Link Michael Scot wrote: This is true on so many levels. My female colleague has an MM account that had like 5 messages on her first login and usually gets 2 each time she logs in. Jul 03 12 07:46 am Link -The Dave- wrote: Now that's pretty awesome of them sending you a check for using your work even if they took it without your permission, and quite lucky on you. Did they ever ask for your services the more appropriate way afterwards? Jul 03 12 11:38 am Link Jeff Fiore wrote: This is why I stopped using my da account years and years ago because the rampant use of people stealing others work as their own pissed me off so much and da doesn't even do anything about it! I refuse to ever set up an account there, though I am cool with photographers and others having one and putting photos up on there. Jul 03 12 11:42 am Link This is why I always give credit to the photographers/MUA/stylists/reflector holder dude on every photo I upload, whether it's here on MM, on my flickr, and I think the few I put on FB (which I really need to start using again) have all the credits, too. Thievery is not close to flattery! Jul 03 12 11:49 am Link JBerman Photography wrote: That is crazy! Jul 03 12 11:58 am Link Dan K Photography wrote: Sita Mae wrote: +1 Jul 03 12 12:07 pm Link |
found eveywhere I had my picturea except on MM!
Really dude? Really? At the time I was enraged. Now I mostly think it's funny. 
