Author Topic: Website with free stolen photos (Read 18470 times)

isselee · « **on:** June 18, 2011, 05:03 »

I found a lot of our pictures available free on http://www.freegreatpicture.com [nofollow]!

6 only on this page : http://www.freegreatpicture.com/animal/20 [nofollow]

There are thousands of stolen photos of many mycrostock contritors (iStock, Shutterstock, Fotolia, etc etc....), but also of some photographers such as Andrew Zuckerman.

We will contact today the owner, the hoster and the company where the domain name is registered.

YOU can do the same:

* Owner: Trong, Bang

Phone number : +84.974725779
E-mail adress : [email protected] [nofollow]

404/22 duong Tan Chanh Hiep 10, phuong T
Ho Chi Minh, 08 84
Vietnam

* The hoster https://www.doteasy.com/ContactUs/ [nofollow]

* domain name is reggister at GoDaddy Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com [nofollow])

Domain Name: FREEGREATPICTURE.COM
Created on: 08-Apr-11
Expires on: 08-Apr-12
Last Updated on: 08-Apr-11

Mantis · « **Reply #1 on:** June 18, 2011, 07:38 »

Please let us know if you hear back from these folks.

cathyslife · « **Reply #2 on:** June 18, 2011, 08:34 »

Thanks for posting. I checked most of the Food category and didn't see any I recognize, but there are lots of coffee photos.

robynmac · « **Reply #3 on:** July 09, 2011, 21:06 »

A fellow photographer spotted one of my food images on this site - I hadn't heard of it before. Thanks for the contact details - I shall email and protest loudly!

ljooc · « **Reply #4 on:** July 09, 2011, 22:58 »

Terms of Service link on their home page (at the very top right)- takes you to a page that includes the following paragraph:

"The images and resources that members and our collaborators published on http://www.freegreatdesign.com/ were was collected from many different sources. In addition to get permission from the copyright holder to post some pictures of them on our website, there are also many pictures that we not contact the copyright holder of the picture, or have the photos are shared for free on the internet that our collaborators has collected over the years.

So we do not assume any liability when people use photos, resources are posted on the website used for private purposes.

If you are the copyright holder of one (or some) images that were posted on our website, you may allow or do not agree. You should contact directly with us to be satisfactorily resolved."

They are blatantly taking and posting images without permission on their site and telling users that they do not have copyright on them (caveat emptor)!! Unbelievable. Somebody needs to write to them to tell them redistributing another person's work without explicit consent is NOT OKAY and it needs to stop immediately.

bittersweet · « **Reply #5 on:** July 10, 2011, 00:05 »

I'd report them to Disney (see the "cartoon illustration" section). Their complaint would carry a lot more weight than ours.

robynmac · « **Reply #6 on:** July 10, 2011, 03:19 »

The site has a lot of advertising - I'm in Australia, and the adverts that appear here are for some major Australian food producers and retailers, banks, TV cooking show, etc. If all else fails, I shall contact the advertisers and point out the copyright infringements.

robynmac · « **Reply #7 on:** July 10, 2011, 03:42 »

Quote from: ljooc on July 09, 2011, 22:58

...They are blatantly taking and posting images without permission on their site and telling users that they do not have copyright on them (caveat emptor)!! Unbelievable. Somebody needs to write to them to tell them redistributing another person's work without explicit consent is NOT OKAY and it needs to stop immediately.

I've done this today. FWIW.

markrhiggins · « **Reply #8 on:** July 10, 2011, 05:21 »

good luck with it. It is Vietnam and I doubt anything will work. I know the area in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) and I think it is near impossible to stop unless you get the site down. It will then reappear elsewhere. Rules mean little there unless the government imposes them. $100 a month is a great wage there but have good internet. They have incentive to pirate.

robynmac · « **Reply #9 on:** July 10, 2011, 06:21 »

Mark, you're probably right. But I will pursue this as a matter of principle. I've written to the web hoster, pointing out where this site appears to be in breach of the hoster's terms of service related to prohibited conduct. ("Content that infringes or violates any copyright, patent, trademark, service mark, trade name, trade secret, or other intellectual property right of any third party.") Got to at least try!

fritz · « **Reply #10 on:** July 10, 2011, 08:10 »

robynmac · « **Reply #11 on:** July 10, 2011, 16:40 »

I received the following response from Le Bang, in response to my complaints about how the website is operated:

"Thanks for your feedback.

You should not feel hostile so.

We are always willing to cooperate to resolve any dispute.

There have been many requests to us, and we resolved very satisfactorily.

There are also some people just like you, they send their requests directly to our advertisers. But then the advertisers we have sent mail about the complaint to us. We have direct contact to the person who sent the request and apology together with resolve their complaints.

you should preferably in direct contact with us..."

The way I read this, they are saying that so far they've got away with their practice of infringing copyright, despite many complaints, and that they've managed to keep their advertisers on-side by convincing them that the complaints are isolated and have been dealt with. Obviously no commitment to stop copyright infringements in the future. My complaint to their advertisers will therefore be just one more that they have to explain away.

ppdd · « **Reply #12 on:** July 10, 2011, 18:08 »

This site is running Google AdSense. None of the advertisers are advertising with this site specifically, probably. They are running ads in Google's network, and Google shows the ads. This basically means that you only have to convince Google that this site is a fraud, and the ads and income go away. Individual advertisers won't know what you're talking about.

robynmac · « **Reply #13 on:** July 10, 2011, 18:56 »

Quote from: ppdd on July 10, 2011, 18:08

This site is running Google AdSense. None of the advertisers are advertising with this site specifically, probably. They are running ads in Google's network, and Google shows the ads. This basically means that you only have to convince Google that this site is a fraud, and the ads and income go away. Individual advertisers won't know what you're talking about.

That's good to know! I'll notify Goodle AdSense of my concerns. Thank you.

click_click · « **Reply #14 on:** July 10, 2011, 20:17 »

Once Google confirmed illegal use on that web site they should drop that guy like a hot potato. Once he loses his Adsense account that's it, he won't ever get into Adsense ever again, unless he gets someone else to register under a different name with a different URL.

markrhiggins · « **Reply #15 on:** July 10, 2011, 22:12 »

he will re-register under a different name. District 10 is where they also print counterfeit travel guides. These are hawked all over Saigon (Ho Chi Minh ). The kids and young women that sell them often live in dodgy accomodation in the warehouses. They sell them everywhere in tourist districts. Lonely planet etc can't close down a real counterfeit op so I guess it is harder re intangible goods like our images.

robynmac · « **Reply #16 on:** July 10, 2011, 22:57 »

I've lodged an online Google AdSense DMCA complaint form (having just found out what that is...). I suppose the more complaints they receive the better the chances of establishing a pattern of abuse.

A search of random images on the website using Google Images shows that a good proportion have links back to microstock sites.

Microbius · « **Reply #17 on:** July 11, 2011, 05:50 »

Google will pull their ads if enough people complain, it worked on Heroturko a while ago.

robynmac · « **Reply #18 on:** July 11, 2011, 06:29 »

The website removed an image of mine that I complained about. They apologised, and gave this explanation of the copyright breach: "Note: You should understand that we do not intentionally violate copyright. We will not steal your. The our bot crawlers collect from other sites, like google search. so there will be unwanted pictures."

I guess by "unwanted pictures" they mean images in offered in breach of copyright, but they figure it's not their fault if they take these images from some other site offering them illegally?? Sheesh!

velossaraptor · « **Reply #19 on:** July 14, 2011, 16:30 »

some friends of mine were telling me stolen stock images which is why i am apprehensive about starting my microstock caree... its kinda scary that sites like these are out there!

Linator · « **Reply #20 on:** September 12, 2011, 09:31 »

Lol.. how that images appeared in the internet??? noone will steal images from your computer, but if you just posted some images and someone then downloaded you from place you let to download from, so WHAT THE PROBLEM? post watermarks to your images, post bad quality images.. make something!! not just post it and then write that it was downloaded.. yes! it will be downloaded and copied! but who cares if you posted it to download???

traveler1116 · « **Reply #21 on:** September 12, 2011, 11:18 »

Has anyone contacted the host yet, they should pull the website down pretty down pretty quickly if you show that they are involved in illegal activities.

cathyslife · « **Reply #22 on:** September 12, 2011, 16:13 »

Quote from: Linator on September 12, 2011, 09:31

Lol.. how that images appeared in the internet??? noone will steal images from your computer, but if you just posted some images and someone then downloaded you from place you let to download from, so WHAT THE PROBLEM? post watermarks to your images, post bad quality images.. make something!! not just post it and then write that it was downloaded.. yes! it will be downloaded and copied! but who cares if you posted it to download???

I care. I posted my images on a legitimate (well, I guess that can sometimes be debated

) microstock agency where YOU HAVE TO PAY TO DOWNLOAD the image. You don't get it for free. If you find a free, hi resolution image on the internet, and you grab it and offer it on your website (say, for instance, at wallpapersbuzz dot com,) and then offer it for download, you are illegally allowing the image to be re-distributed. It is irrelevant that the image is offered in a hundred other different places for free...they are ALL illegally offering it for download.

Just because you find it on the internet doesn't mean it isn't copyrighted. Some people seem to think that everything is FREE and have no problem stealing other people's property.

Microbius · « **Reply #23 on:** September 13, 2011, 01:08 »

Quote from: Linator on September 12, 2011, 09:31

Lol.. how that images appeared in the internet??? noone will steal images from your computer, but if you just posted some images and someone then downloaded you from place you let to download from, so WHAT THE PROBLEM? post watermarks to your images, post bad quality images.. make something!! not just post it and then write that it was downloaded.. yes! it will be downloaded and copied! but who cares if you posted it to download???

I think you perhaps don't understand how these images appear on these sites. They aren't posted by us for free download anywhere. People either purchase a license to use them, then post illegal copies online, or they are purchased using stolen credit cards then given away.

ETA, sorry I wasted my time trying to explain this to you, just read your previous posts.

Microbius · « **Reply #24 on:** September 13, 2011, 01:31 »

Quote from: robynmac on July 10, 2011, 18:56

Quote from: ppdd on July 10, 2011, 18:08
This site is running Google AdSense. None of the advertisers are advertising with this site specifically, probably. They are running ads in Google's network, and Google shows the ads. This basically means that you only have to convince Google that this site is a fraud, and the ads and income go away. Individual advertisers won't know what you're talking about.

That's good to know! I'll notify Goodle AdSense of my concerns. Thank you.

This is the most important thing to do whenever you find stolen work online.
Here's the DMCA notice page for AdSense websites, please everyone who finds their work stolen fill this in for the offending sites:
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=146178

ETA: It is also expressly against Google's AdSense policy to have their ads on a site that violates copyrights, so it is a good idea to also send a "The site violates AdSense program policies in other ways." complaint through the report link so you can let them know that it is a Warez site existing solely to distribute other people's copyright material.

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: Website with free stolen photos (Read 18470 times)

isselee

Mantis

cathyslife

robynmac

ljooc

bittersweet

robynmac

robynmac

markrhiggins

robynmac

fritz

robynmac

ppdd

robynmac

click_click

markrhiggins

robynmac

Microbius

robynmac

velossaraptor

Linator

traveler1116

cathyslife

Microbius

Microbius

Related Topics

Sponsors

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors