Stolen image turning up in several places

[InaGlo]

Need some help and advice here as Ive not knowingly been a victim of this before.

Ive been contacted by a guy in Germany who informed me that an image of mine was being used on a German 'Swingers' site and he was guessing that it was without my knowledge... he was right, I had no idea.

Ive just done a search on the internet and some very interesting things have come up with the same image, including that its available free download on couple of sites, is on several stocksites, and is carrying someone else's signature on another.

Obviously Im pretty miffed at the whole idea that someone is not only passing my image off as their own, but possibly making money out of it.

 

[Brian Sayle]

Did you do a google image search using the "Search by image" option?

I had someone steal unique railway images i had, they were being hosted on photobucket and used on his site, i contacted photobucket direct and told them to remove them, which they did, the places hosting stolen images are also breaching copywrite along with the individual who has uploaded them, i guess that wont help you a lot thou.

 

[Matt]

i think you need to get some legal advice on this one Glo, especially if its widespread

 

[InaGlo]

Thanks for the replies.
I feel my back is against the wall on this one, Ive found the image all over the world, cropping up as free downloads.
Ive had 5 sites pull the image, bounce backs on my mails to others and still waiting on response from some.
Legal advice appears to be that its very difficult and expensive to pursue outside of the UK :-(

 

[Forbiddenbiker]

Bummer Glo, sounds like a bit of an impossible situation outside the uk unfortunately.
Is the free down load the full size image, if its not, perhaps you could cash in somehow by selling the full size. :shrug:

 

[Matt]

name and shame is the other option

 

[Donnie]

This is what I'd be tempted to do personally, I'd set up my own website and showcase all the thieves and their activities

 

[Flash In The Pan]

I've just been looking at the site Pinterest, it seems to basically be a site that encourages people to steal content and repost it, worth a look if your stuff is getting nicked as it'll probably be there too....