the "stopstealingphotos" tumblr site is worth checking out. They name names!

[Ellis Vener]

Just discovered this site today and if you're a photographer who actually works hard for each and every one of your photos and clients, you'll love it too: http://stopstealingphotos.tumblr.com/

[langier]

The thieves are simply pathetic. Expose them for what they are and get them out of here.

[oolic]

Too bad...They seem to reproduce

[leeonmaui]

Aloha,

oh dude so cool!
Of course, I looked through it and did a check on a few of my images; somebody is selling my images lol!
now i have to go and figure all this out....

Just another day! 

[leeonmaui]

Aloha,

figured out a couple of things;
they company that is doing it has a few other photographers the are stealing from, all connected to one lab,
Talked with my  account rep and will start to dig deeper into the theft tomorrow, my best guess at this point is someone who was employed by the lab managed to get this gallery some stolen prints, contacted the other photographers and will be calling the lab to develop a plan Monday...

[Ellis Vener]

Aloha,
Hopes all works out. Keep me and Petapixel.com posted.

[JohnBrew]

Thanks for posting this, Ellis. Just another way of misrepresentation by hiding behind the anonymity of the internet. A thief by any other name...

[leeonmaui]

Aloha,

All's well that ends well.

the person that disposes of damaged prints, thought it was a shame to throw the rejects out, sold them all at his church yard sale to a gallery; the gallery posted these online, that's how I found out.

The lab went ballistic, took care of everything in less than 48 hours!

back to square one, which is a good place to be...

[MoreOrLess]

Too bad...They seem to reproduce

Sadly because those losing out are generally small businesses you'll not see anything close to the reaction against copywrite thieft that effects larger businesses.

[Hulyss]

This is simply unbelievable ... but real. Sad.

[Ellis Vener]

There are two new updates on http://stopstealingphotos.tumblr.com/ including a hysterical reply from one of the photographers who's been caught redhanded.

[riddell]

A site like this is badly needed. But sadly this one is very poorly laid out. All the data needs pulling off of tumblr and putting into a proper website.

[Isaac]

All the data needs pulling off of tumblr and putting into a proper website.

http://stopstealingphotos.com/

[SZRitter]

Does anyone else get bothered that it is pretty much the digital form of putting someone in a stockade? Don't get me wrong, I push very hard for protecting copyrights, I just find the public shaming aspect of this a bit horrendous.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Does anyone else get bothered that it is pretty much the digital form of putting someone in a stockade? Don't get me wrong, I push very hard for protecting copyrights, I just find the public shaming aspect of this a bit horrendous.

Nope, not me. They are thieves, publicly displaying their loots, so shaming them equally publicly makes sense. Also, it seems the most cost and time effective method to rectify the theft.

[buckshot]

Does anyone else get bothered that it is pretty much the digital form of putting someone in a stockade...

I'm not sure what's worse - the unquestioning conviction in the court of public opinion of alleged copyright infringement, or the smug self-righteousness of the guy that's appointed himself as judge, jury and executioner in all cases of copyright law attached to the display of all images on all photography web sites in the known universe.

Shouldn't be too cynical I guess, this appears to be an altruistic endeavor after all - it's not like the guy's looking to make money out of it, is it?

Oh, hang on a second - there's a 'donate' button on the website.

Doh!

[SZRitter]

Better question, is it technically copyright infringement for him to be using screenshots of a website he did not produce? As a web developer/designer by trade, I would say yes, yes it is. Oh the irony...

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Better question, is it technically copyright infringement for him to be using screenshots of a website he did not produce? As a web developer/designer by trade, I would say yes, yes it is. Oh the irony...

No, no it isn't. It is known as fair use, a perfectly legal copyright concept.

[john beardsworth]

The usage is clearly for editorial comment, so using screenshots wouldn't usually infringe copyright.

[SZRitter]

No, no it isn't. It is known as fair use, a perfectly legal copyright concept.

I just fact checked myself and was coming to post the result.

It is grey at best. Due to the nature of this site, if he is not making money off of it, AND the site's in which he is producing the screen grab are more than one page, it is probably covered under fair use. But that isn't a guarantee. The prevailing cases seem to deem it fair use, but it isn't set in stone as fair use.

If it can be demonstrated as for commercial use, and the screen grabs are of one page sites, he could actually fall foul of fair use.