Copyright issue

[Timoripatti]

I am a member of a Finnish photo agency, Leuku.

Just a few weeks ago we found out that a site named Pixdaus is using our photographs without consent.
Not just ours, there are thousands and thousands of photos uploaded from various sources, and less than 1% are from the legal copyright holders.
If you hold nature photographs anywhere in Iternet, the odds are that some of your photographs may end to this site.

Our CEO informed FICORA (The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority) about the situation, hoping that our worries would be over, but the response was somewhat disturbing: cannot help, lack of jurisdiction.
They have no authority outside of Finland. We were sending a one-legged man to a butt-kicking contest.

This Pixdaus can be anywhere in the world, and if caught, they can move their operations to another country in the next day.
Uploaders can and do hold false identities, even multiple ones, and the person who is legally responsible for the contents is nameless.
What a smokescreen.

One of our Leuku photographers was fortunate to contact this person by phone, and after talking with him, a message appeared to the webpage:
"Important! Please do not upload copyrighted images. You run the risk of being banned permanently from Pixdaus and photographers taking legal action against you. If you wish to upload an image whose copyrights do not belong to you, it is vital you contact the photographer first. Should the photographer not grant you permission, you are forbidden to post the image(s) to the site."

That was all.
As you can guess, nothing changed in their manners or activity. The photographer in most cases gets no credit, and I've never seen a link or byline to the original source.
Our photographs in Leuku are marked as copyrighted, and the EXIF data contains the contact info of each photographer. Annoyingly, all this information is being ripped off from the images in Pixdaus.

The site gets money from advertisers. Turn off your Adblock and see for yourself. Naturally, the more visits there are, the bigger their profit.


What can we do, besides ruining our photographs with highly visible watermarks?


regards,

Timo

[wolfnowl]

Sad fact of life Timo:  If you don't want it copied, don't put it on the web.

Mike.

[RSL]

I second Mike's statement, Timo. Watermarks are about the only solution. Even Magnum has figured that out. Unless you have a way to prove that you've lost a lot of money because someone stole your photographs chasing copyright violations usually is a losing business.

[Rob C]

I wonder if this is really as bleak as it sounds, that nothing can be done? Would Getty roll over on its back? Would Corbis? I don't know, I only ask.

Rob C

[fredjeang]

Hi,

It all depends on juridiction status. Magnum do not just add watermarks, but the picture size is also drastically reduced.
We are all concerned by the fact that displaying our pictures in big size give us more credit and it is not true.
A good picture will handle small size.
The ideal "rule" is from 600px to smaller.

Then, photo agency all depends in the power (and desire), lawyers involved etc... in other words, it all depends on the agency's size. More it is important, more it can and will do for legal copyrights. But the best way is an oficial state organism, independant of agency and that has a "country power".
In Spain for example, one organism is called VEGAP. Not everybody have access to these, only if you can justify: professional incomes, extensive existing work and...friends (contacts). VEGAP does not just cover photography but painting etc...

Many photographers do not put any more watermarks but small size images.
And as Mike said, if you put your pics in the web, you expose yourself to this. No 100% guarantee.

Fred.

[Thomas Krüger]

The hosting company is www.fdcserver.net, you could knock at this door: http://fdcservers.net/abuse_info.php
http://www.ip-adress.com/whois/www.pixdaus.com

[Timoripatti]

Thanks for your responses!

The hosting company of Pixdaus website seems to be easier to deal with than the site itself, or any agencies I know of.
I'll forward the good word, maybe we have a handle here.

Looking at the estimates of its advertising revenues, it is easy to understand why Pixdaus is very slow to correct its behaviour:

http://www.peekstats.com/www.pixdaus.com


thanks again,

Timo

[bdkphoto]

I am a member of a Finnish photo agency, Leuku.

Just a few weeks ago we found out that a site named Pixdaus is using our photographs without consent.
Not just ours, there are thousands and thousands of photos uploaded from various sources, and less than 1% are from the legal copyright holders.
If you hold nature photographs anywhere in Iternet, the odds are that some of your photographs may end to this site.

Our CEO informed FICORA (The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority) about the situation, hoping that our worries would be over, but the response was somewhat disturbing: cannot help, lack of jurisdiction.
They have no authority outside of Finland. We were sending a one-legged man to a butt-kicking contest.

This Pixdaus can be anywhere in the world, and if caught, they can move their operations to another country in the next day.
Uploaders can and do hold false identities, even multiple ones, and the person who is legally responsible for the contents is nameless.
What a smokescreen.

One of our Leuku photographers was fortunate to contact this person by phone, and after talking with him, a message appeared to the webpage:
"Important! Please do not upload copyrighted images. You run the risk of being banned permanently from Pixdaus and photographers taking legal action against you. If you wish to upload an image whose copyrights do not belong to you, it is vital you contact the photographer first. Should the photographer not grant you permission, you are forbidden to post the image(s) to the site."

That was all.
As you can guess, nothing changed in their manners or activity. The photographer in most cases gets no credit, and I've never seen a link or byline to the original source.
Our photographs in Leuku are marked as copyrighted, and the EXIF data contains the contact info of each photographer. Annoyingly, all this information is being ripped off from the images in Pixdaus.

The site gets money from advertisers. Turn off your Adblock and see for yourself. Naturally, the more visits there are, the bigger their profit.


What can we do, besides ruining our photographs with highly visible watermarks?


regards,

Timo

One of the things that you can do is get the European photo associations involved- (whatever the equals of ASMP APA NPPA are there).  They can sen out notices to their members to check the site to see if member work is there, and take down notices can be issued.  If you think there is a large group of US photographers ripped off on the site, you should have your CEO contact ASMP, APA etc with details and they will do this as well.  While there are no easy solutions, the pressure from the agencies can work.  Recently PILFERED was using unlicensed work from all over the world in their online magazine, and this type of pressure from the agencies worked to stop them.  Good Luck.