Just a head's up

I recently went to one of my favorite websites on the web. Yep, cat related and in their photo contest, imagine my surprise to see one of MY ferals displayed, yet I never submitted him! I wrote to the website owner and asked him to withdraw the cat telling him that I own this cat and had never sent his picture in. I did however post the photo in the forum, several of them and someone decided to take him and put him into the contest.

This has happened a couple of times now on different websites, and also to other members here. So just wanted to give you a head's up because it might just happen to you.

oh thats terrible, will the owner be able to find out who it was? and if so will they be punished?

The photo has been withdrawn from the contest, and no one will get punished. Sadly this type of stuff happens a lot on the Internet.

Oh Mary Anne- Sorry it happened to you. I would be sad to find one of my cats on a website without my permission. Thanks for the warning.

Man some people have'em the size of Texas don't they? Thanks for the heads up MA

Thanks for the warning MA. It always makes me cross when people do that! There are several members here who just take the most awesome pics and I'd hate to see them stop showing us the pics because of this theft. Grrrrrrrr.

Just when I think I have heard it all It's really sad that it seems like nothing is safe from thieves. To think that even pics of our fur babes are at risk of being stolen from under us

I'm sorry MA that this happened now to you! It's just too easy for someone to steal a photo and make it their own. It's unfortunate, but I won't be sharing too many pics in the future because of this same reason.

it was Cyclone, and the person had changed his name (sort of) to Clycl isn't that clever? The saddest thing is they took the photo of him when he was really ill- right after I had trapped him, with gooky eyes and everything- but he did get 468 votes before they yanked him at my request!

People can be soooo dishonest! That is terrible for someone to claim him as their own. I had someone steal a picture of myself and post it on a profile once..I was tipped off by a friend who ran across it. It almost makes you feel as though you have been robbed.

One good thing about it is he DID get 468 votes...too bad someone else was taking credit for it.

This is one reason why I've thought twice about posting these days...it's ridiculous what some people will do. Because some of my images get published, one stolen photo can kill all future commercial sales for that image.

For people who make their living off of licensing and copyright, it's kind of like being a store owner and having someone steal your products.

Thanks for telling us, MA. Wow, I never imagined that could happen!

You know.... the other day I went to a cat graphics site and there was a desktop theme with a picture that looked like one of mine that I have of Peaches. It had been cropped but the face was unmistakeable to me. I need to see if I can find it and look again.

Please post the site -- just the name -- like CatGraphics.com -- you don't have to link to it. I'd like to do some searches just to make sure nothing of mine is getting stolen.