Stealing bandwidth

kimward34

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 5, 2002
Messages
2,308
Purraise
12
Location
Florida, USA
Originally posted by Princess Purr
right but if a site tells you to do it, they are GIVING you permission. You shouldn't take things off peoples sites unless they say you can.
Did someone recently steal from you Val?
 

hissy

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2001
Messages
34,872
Purraise
76
Right Sammie, or just simply put the link out so people can go to the website directly. Some of the websites that take others materials is justforfun.com

I also know of a bogus "rescue shelter" back east that used to routinely steal cat photos from legitimate cattery websites and post them on their board as "rescued and in need of serious financial help" It took awhile, but the perpetrator of that fraud was finally shut down.

Yes Sicy, it does happen, it is a risk when you take good photographs, but people should have values and morals and know that stealing someone else's work no matter what that work might be, is just unethical. I know one gal who takes photos of cats that would make you cry they are so beautiful. She refuses to put her work on the Internet, because as she was building her first website, someone came in and stole one of her photos and submitted it to a Cat Magazine as their own! Thankfully, the photographer knew the editor, and the editor knew the work and the thief didn't get away with it, but it happens all the time, and it is running a lot of the photographers and the artists out of business. Many have just folded up shop and said it isn't worth it anymore.
It happens to writers too, even with copyrighted material.
 

kimward34

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 5, 2002
Messages
2,308
Purraise
12
Location
Florida, USA
The photographs I post are optimized so low res they can't be used on a press or a printer for that matter.... They only look decent on a monitor ..



 

mzjazz2u

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
10,133
Purraise
4
Location
The Beehave State!
Originally posted by Sicycat
This is the risk I take by having her on the internet. If that happened I'd deal with it when the time came.


If I stated on my website DO NOT STEAL MY PICTURES.. ya then I'd be pissed off.. but I just dont see how you could compare linking a pic from a website the same as stealing money. THAT PERSON takes the risk by putting their pictures up on the web.
I agree with this. If you put pictures on a public website then you obviously want people to see them. Otherwise, what is the point? And I can't tell you how many times I've looked up the properties on a picture or graphic to see where it came from so I could visit that site and enjoy it. Isn't that the purpose of having web sites? It's not that much different then giving someone the actual address. However, I don't think they should take them and use them for monetary gain. But that is a risk you take and there are things you can do to avoid that.

These are all issues that are just starting to come up in courts. They are difficult to resolve and the www is difficult to police just by nature. After all, it is the world wide web. So who has the jurisdiction over it?
 

hissy

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Feb 19, 2001
Messages
34,872
Purraise
76
Sure you want people to see them- but you DON'T want people to steal them. But the Internet is the new frontier, and I really pity the people who set out to make the laws to keep order. It just can't happen it is to big.
 

dragonlady

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 22, 2002
Messages
3,502
Purraise
2
Location
Citrus Heights, CA
It all comes down to ethics, you are either a person who has no respect for others property or you do. My pics are on my website to be seen by others, I am sharing them. However if you use my photos for something else you are stealing. Do you want someone to put your face on some embarrasing photo and claim they saw you doing whatever? Things on a website are property of the person sharing it not something you can take and use out of context. Give the link to the site or ask permission!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #27

princess purr

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 5, 2003
Messages
4,964
Purraise
2
Location
NJ
Originally posted by kimward34
Did someone recently steal from you Val?
people are always stealing from me. and because of what I use I can't track who is. I would love to put my blinkies back up but they are two tempting for people with sticky fingers.
 

kimward34

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 5, 2002
Messages
2,308
Purraise
12
Location
Florida, USA
Originally posted by Princess Purr
people are always stealing from me. and because of what I use I can't track who is. I would love to put my blinkies back up but they are two tempting for people with sticky fingers.
That really stinks… I know you worked hard on your blinkeys... Can't you password protect them?
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #29

princess purr

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 5, 2003
Messages
4,964
Purraise
2
Location
NJ
nope! i had right click block on them and people where still taking them. I try to make sure that all my pics are watermarked (although I have been slacking on that latly) but even those are kinda easy to remove. It's really sad that people can't respect other peoples things. I don't mind people taking things and linking back to me, but just take them really bugs me.
 

mom of 10 cats

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 6, 2003
Messages
5,643
Purraise
4
Location
Longmont, CO
Does it still "steal" bandwidth if you save the photo as a jpg onto your hard drive, and then post from your hard drive? I thought that was no different than if I was posting a photo I'd taken with my digital camera and saved as a jpg.
 

valanhb

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
Messages
32,530
Purraise
100
Location
Lakewood (Denver suburb), Colorado
Sue, that doesn't steal any bandwidth. Those who want to share their images, such as our feral care banners on Save Samoa, prefer you do it that way so it doesn't eat up any of our paid-for bandwidth.
 

mom of 10 cats

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 6, 2003
Messages
5,643
Purraise
4
Location
Longmont, CO
Ok, whew, I was worried, because I know I've posted pics from the Aby rescue site on here as well as some other sites, I would hate to think I was causing them any problems!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #33

princess purr

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 5, 2003
Messages
4,964
Purraise
2
Location
NJ
no sue you are doing it the right way. And your siggie is actually hosted on my site
but you have permission to use my bandwidth! So you are not stealing
 

mzjazz2u

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
10,133
Purraise
4
Location
The Beehave State!
This came out of Imagestations User agreement/Privleges and obligations. Does this mean you aren't supposed to link from there too? I thought some said it was ok to link from there so maybe I don't understand imagestations statement:

"You may not take the results from your use of the Service and link to them, or mirror pages from the Site on another website, or create links from other websites onto any area of the Site."
 

sammie5

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 3, 2002
Messages
1,690
Purraise
3
If you download a photo from another site onto your hard drive, and then post it here, you are in infringement of the copyright. Unless you are making money from that, nobody would prosecute, in all liklihood, but it is still illegal, or at least against copyright law. The only person "allowed" to use that photo is the person who took that photo, or the person they transferred that right to. Copyright also covers "right of presentation", so if you take that photo and modify it, you are still doing something wrong.

And yes, imagestation does not "allow" you to post photos there and link to them. But at least they are your photos, and again, there would be little incentive for them to do anything about it. I believe they would shut you down if you did significant "mirroring" of their pages, or your pages on their site, for some business reason.

So, for example, on my business web site, I post photos of items for sale. If I posted those photos on Imagestation, and then just linked to them with an img src link, I bet they would get upset.
 

mzjazz2u

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
10,133
Purraise
4
Location
The Beehave State!
Got it! Still illegal but probably ok because you're not making money off it. Maybe it would be a better idea for me to find a site that actually approves linking or hosting!

Thanks for the info.
 

sammie5

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 3, 2002
Messages
1,690
Purraise
3
Ah, linking to your own photos on imagestation is not illegal. Just against their rules, and they reserve the right to shut you down for doing it. But not illegal. I do it all the time. And I am a big stickler for adhering to copyright.
 

mzjazz2u

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
10,133
Purraise
4
Location
The Beehave State!
Ok I'm confused so please bare with me and forgive me! So it's not illegal to do it with your own images via imagestation but against the user agreement. I got that. But earlier it was suggested you download someone elses pictures or graphics on your hard drive and then either upload them to another site or to imagestation and then link them. They're still not your images, right?
 

sammie5

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 3, 2002
Messages
1,690
Purraise
3
Right.

If you take the photo, you have legal right to use it any way you want. Basically. However, if you load it on to imagestation, they can make rules about linking and stuff, but not rules about how you use the image.

You don't have legal right to use a photo that someone else took, unless you have their permission. And that means you are not allowed to download it and post it to your imagestation site.

The thing is, downloading someone's photo and posting it to your site, to show us here does not do any direct harm to the person who "owns" the right to that photo. And stealing bandwidth does direct harm, in that it costs them money. So both are wrong, but downloading is probably the lesser of two evils, as long as you are not benefitting financially.

Now, if you are posting photos from a rescue society, in order to assist their business, I think that copyright is being adhered to. The purpose of those photos is trying to get the cats adopted. And if you also use those photos for that purpose, and you give them credit, then I think that copyright laws will say you are ok. And you are most certainly ethically on the right side.
 
Top