MicrostockGroup

"I use images from iStockPhoto fpr my websites without paying a dme. It says royalty free, so I thought it was okay to use them, considering the fact they get credit for the use. All the images read (istockphoto) in between. Should I remove them? any advice on this. "

I can't believe some people even have the intelligence to turn their computer on when I read things like this.

They may not know anything about stock images, but based on the forum name "BlackhatWorld" (which references a particular type of hacker, usually well versed in illegal activities), I would assume they understand how to do something as simple as masking their true IP address via a proxy. Anyway, each computer does not have it's own permanent, unique IP address. To put it simply - the IP refers to a specific connection, which usually remains the same for a location, but is independent from the identification of a specific computer. Most people have their computer on the same connection all the time, hence the reason it can sometimes be traced back to them.  On top of that, they could be posting on the forum from a public wifi. Also, their IP address, even if static, is also probably not the same that their website uses. Furthermore, the only way an agency could get the IP address is by requesting a subpoena for the server of the forum and hope that some sort of log has been kept, and good luck with that.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying they should be stealing our images. But tracking them is not as simple as it sounds.

Good idea... would be rather humorous if they went through all the effort of hiding themselves to then just accidentally let their identity slip

The Tineye-method is actually pretty smart and safe for them. But they don't understand the difference between RF and RM so there is some kind of uncertainty between them because of the Getty-cause. But nevertheless it only works if they need websize Images they still have to buy them if they are in need for printsizes.

looks to me like tineye is designed to steal images

pasted a url of one yuri's images

http://www.tineye.com/search/b82a901603c03870844cfe4f767796f432d26c45/?sort=size&order=desc

530 hits,

sort order - biggest size

1700 pixels on the long side, linkdirect to the image so you dont even have to open the webpage.

At least with RM, we know what images sold are being used for and it should be easier to catch a thief.  With microstock RF, it's hard to know who has paid for a license and who is using stolen images.  I hope one day there will be a way to put something invisible on images to track them.

I'm not sure how each agency's agreement reads, but I believe IS updated theirs a while ago to permit up to 1024 pixels on the longest side on a web page, so images that large would be violating IS's agreement anyway. Not saying the theft issue goes away, but the smaller the image, the lower the value the thieves are able to snap up.

What I find pretty ballsy is that they feel quite comfortable discussing theft openly - as if they were discussing where to get coupons or the best deal on a car.

did anyone report this to any of the stock sites?  I'm thinking of sending it in to compliance enforcement at istock.  I know that they work on squashing this sort of thing - it takes them awhile but they have followed through on issues I had when I found my images used illegally.  i would bet that if the Vetta and Agency files were being stolen they would jump on it pretty quick.

Perhaps the best advice to not to think about it. Theft is present in every industry. Retail stores track their "invisible" losses from shoplifting and those numbers go into the thousands per year. Tineye works both ways as it can be used to track theft as well as enable it. I found an image of mine using tineye, probably stolen from flickr, which is why I don't use flickr anymore. (For the record I didn't list commercially available shots on flickr and only posted small sizes)

But who needs tineye when anyone can go to google, search for anything they want, click the images button, sort by largest size and go shopping. The only way to completely stop theft is to remove all of your images from the internet.

In the Chrome, the extension "Search Google with this image" works in the same way as Tineye, so the thiefs cannot be stopped, ever.

old thread alert

Ignore it.

Stealing happens everywhere. You could spend you time trying to catch thieves or use the same amount of time and effort to produce better work. Most people will not work with those thieves anyway, so don't get too busy with them.