Author Topic: www.heroturko.com/photostock/ Check to make sure your images weren't stolen (Read 38393 times)

garycookson · « **Reply #25 on:** February 18, 2009, 18:18 »

Hi guys

Site is still up and running for me 19 Feb. Running very slowly which might mean he is running out of bandwidth.

I tried to work out who was taking the money for him by clicking on the donate link and you just get a thankyou message. Maybe it is a disguised link from an advertising program so i just gave him some money!

You'd wonder how he makes any money from it though. There aren't that many ads on there and a high traffic site would need an expensive hosting package just to maintain the actual content. I realise the downloads are not via this site. Doesn't seem to be any google based advertising on there. They would have probably pulled any ads as soon as they reviewed the site and saw its content.

I can't imagine there would be too many legit commercial advertising or design businesses sending 20 bucks via any means to some dodgy hero of illegality so maybe there isn't much to worry about. Just keep contacting rapidshare or whoever the links are supplied by if you see your stuff.

Actually in the time it took me to compose this the site seems to have gone down. Hooray

Keep looking

Phil · « **Reply #26 on:** February 18, 2009, 18:52 »

Quote from: garycookson on February 18, 2009, 18:18

Hi guys

Site is still up and running for me 19 Feb. Running very slowly which might mean he is running out of bandwidth.

I tried to work out who was taking the money for him by clicking on the donate link and you just get a thankyou message. Maybe it is a disguised link from an advertising program so i just gave him some money!

You'd wonder how he makes any money from it though. There aren't that many ads on there and a high traffic site would need an expensive hosting package just to maintain the actual content. I realise the downloads are not via this site. Doesn't seem to be any google based advertising on there. They would have probably pulled any ads as soon as they reviewed the site and saw its content.

I can't imagine there would be too many legit commercial advertising or design businesses sending 20 bucks via any means to some dodgy hero of illegality so maybe there isn't much to worry about. Just keep contacting rapidshare or whoever the links are supplied by if you see your stuff.

Actually in the time it took me to compose this the site seems to have gone down. Hooray

Keep looking

is there a way to get a pc to sit loading his pages, I have a number of idle pcs at work at the moment, the university at which I work probably wouldn't notice the bandwidth difference, but he may

Microbius · « **Reply #27 on:** February 19, 2009, 06:21 »

looks like he uses adbrite.com I think he used to have paypal links on the site but maybe someones already hit him that way so he's removed them.
It now says:
TO ALL MEMBERS:
MAKE A $20 DONATION TO HEROTURKO & BE A VIP MEMBER NOW!

SEND A PM MESSAGE TO heroturko AND GET PAYMENT DETAILS!

So I think someone would have to set up a hotmail account and email him to get the payment details.

tubed · « **Reply #28 on:** February 19, 2009, 12:22 »

I have sent emails to contacts at both Getty and Veer to bring it to their attention.. Where is Brian (Veer)? They have Veer images as well..

tubed · « **Reply #29 on:** February 19, 2009, 13:21 »

Quote from: tubed on February 19, 2009, 12:22

I have sent emails to contacts at both Getty and Veer to bring it to their attention.. Where is Brian (Veer)? They have Veer images as well..

Here are the responses..

From Veer:

Hi Robert,

Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention! I have asked our global channel sales team to look into it to make sure they are not re-sellers before we take action.

Take care,

Lindsay

From Getty:

Hello Robert,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I'll have our legal team
look into it.

Mary Velasco
Sales Executive Gettyimages.com and Punchstock.com
Getty Images

helix7 · « **Reply #30 on:** February 19, 2009, 14:14 »

The plot thickens...

I was just looking at one of the images of mine that appeared on Hero Turko, and noticed that it indicated it was from someone going by the name DragonArt. So I google that name, and sure enough, this DragonArt character has his own blog where he's trying to be the next Hero Turko. My images were on that blog as well. Here's the site: http://dragonartz.wordpress.com

That one should be easier to shut down, since it's a hosted Wordpress blog. I already contacted WP, as well as RapidShare and DepositFiles who were hosting my images from this thief's blog.

So it looks like Hero Turko gets some of his material from other thieves. And who knows where those thieves get it from... maybe other thieves, maybe they are the source. It's like a network of image thieves all helping each other out.

garycookson · « **Reply #31 on:** February 19, 2009, 17:56 »

I think all we can do is continue to spend a small amount of time each week looking out for sites like this and either posting about it here/agency forum or make contact with istock/getty/veer with a polite email asking them to look into it. (Note, no Shutterstock in that list as they don't seem to care!).

Heroturkey changes his content a lot which must amount to a lot of work, he'd need a lot of subcribers to make it worth his while. It looks like he also fakes up cd covers for the collections that supposedly come from photodisc etc. He's probably a 12yr old nerd.

I buy a lot of images via micro and macro on behalf of clients. There is no way I'd ever consider buying stuff from a shady place like this and none of the agencies i've worked for over the years would either.

It was difficult enough convincing them to use Istock 3-4 years ago. That all seemed a bit dubious then!

[email protected] · « **Reply #32 on:** February 19, 2009, 22:26 »

My sentiments exactly garycookso!!! if we all keep an eye out for sites like heroturko and others like it and expose them on this forum as John has done this time, we may be able to keep them in check, so that they can't operate for long periods of time...you can count on me to do my part...we all should!!!

Best regards.

null · « **Reply #33 on:** February 20, 2009, 01:00 »

When Tineye.com will cover more of the net, it will be very easy to spot all uses of any photo. This technology does a visual search all over the net, like Google does a text search. It's fun to try out, even now...

When I did a quick search of this image of me (just fill the link in in tineye), I found several instance of my picture on the net, also of course on a Russian template selling site (webgraf.ru) that sold it as template, and I never had an extended sale on that shot.

Turkey, Russia and all places East of Berlin just laugh at us. They don't care for copyright. It's the same for software. The Russian hackers moreover have the vicious habit of attaching Trojans and viruses to pirated software, something that the Chinese pirates don't even do.

Not that the evil is only East. Heroturko was till last week hosted on a Dutch hoster www.leaseweb.com - should be an easy takedown.

Danicek · « **Reply #34 on:** February 20, 2009, 01:12 »

Quote from: FlemishDreams on February 20, 2009, 01:00

Turkey, Russia and all places East of Berlin just laugh at us. They don't care for copyright. It's the same for software. The Russian hackers moreover have the vicious habit of attaching Trojans and viruses to pirated software, something that the Chinese pirates don't even do.

Untrue. I'm east of Berlin (Czech Republic) and we do care about copyrights here the same way Germany, France or which ever more western European country does. This is just prejudice...

null · « **Reply #35 on:** February 20, 2009, 01:16 »

Quote from: Danicek on February 20, 2009, 01:12

This is just prejudice...

Make it east of Prague then, or east of Bucarest

The web hoster of heroturko is/was in the Netherlands...

I got a lot of trouble last year with my sites being attacked all the time by Russians and by Turks. The Russians did it for posting cracks and hacks, the Turks did it to post their political crap. I had to clean the server totally a couple of times and reinstall everything. I still don't know how they managed it... I had to shut one site permanently down, losing money - edabella.com/.

johngriffin · « **Reply #36 on:** February 20, 2009, 14:19 »

@ helix i wonder if DragonArt and hero are the same person and he just has multiple websites and branding it different ways. that is another thing

tan510jomast · « **Reply #37 on:** February 20, 2009, 14:29 »

Flemish, why does a crook has to be a 12 year old? adult scams all all over the net.
also, the chinese were selling cds of madonna and other top sellers from way back, and the govt did nothing. so Danick is right to correct your statement. not all of russia,etc.. are crooked. USA, EU , Aust, SEAsia, etc have our own fair share.
did you forget where the first Christmas viruses came from?
not pointing a finger, just being objective that crooks do not come from a specific nationality.

garycookson · « **Reply #38 on:** February 23, 2009, 20:17 »

I think it was me who accused him of being a 12 year old, it was just a joke. It may be a whole group of people who knows?

I don't really think we can ever stop this sort of thing just try and look out for each other and let people know if you spot their images on illegal sites.

It could be worse, the world of stock imagery is at least a business purchase mainly so legit buyers who use images are more likely to pay for them through proper channels because it isn't cost effective or worth the risk to do otherwise. Imagine if you are a small music producer and people just share your files through peer to peer networks. Even the big players can't stop that.

I see heroturkey is still up and running with a bunch of new stuff by the look of it.

graficallyminded · « **Reply #39 on:** March 10, 2009, 09:27 »

I see some of Yuri's on there right now, just recently posted. This site makes me sick.

Noodles · « **Reply #40 on:** March 10, 2009, 10:08 »

Quote from: helix7 on February 19, 2009, 14:14

So it looks like Hero Turko gets some of his material from other thieves. And who knows where those thieves get it from... maybe other thieves, maybe they are the source. It's like a network of image thieves all helping each other out.

I was reading some of the comments and one guy is accusing Hero Turko of stealing from another pirate site - duh, how cheeky is that! I bet its like a competition to them, whoever has the most is the winner.

null · « **Reply #41 on:** March 10, 2009, 11:37 »

Quote from: Noodles on March 10, 2009, 10:08

I was reading some of the comments and one guy is accusing Hero Turko of stealing from another pirate site - duh, how cheeky is that!

It's as funny as the mentioning of Chinese copyright on the pirated home-copied Philippines versions of the "genuine" Chinese pirated DVDs.

graficallyminded · « **Reply #42 on:** September 11, 2009, 11:48 »

Add this site to the list of stock photo thieves:

http://www.rapidsharegfx.com/stock

I found some images of friends, and just notified them. I'm sure some of mine are floating around in there somewhere. I need to spend some time and do some further investigating.

graficallyminded · « **Reply #43 on:** September 11, 2009, 12:07 »

RapidShareGFX.com DMCA Policy:

RapidShareGFX.com is in compliance with 17 U.S.C. § 512 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). It is our policy to respond to any infringement notices and take appropriate actions under the Digital Millennium copyright Act ("DMCA") and other applicable intellectual property laws.

If your copyrighted material has been posted on RapidShareGFX.com or if links to your copyrighted material are returned through our search engine and you want this material removed, you must provide a written communication that details the information listed in the following section. Please be aware that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you misrepresent information listed on our site that is infringing on your copyrights. We suggest that you first contact an attorney for legal assistance on this matter.

The following elements must be included in your copyright infringement claim:

* Provide evidence of the authorized person to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
* Provide sufficient contact information so that we may contact you. You must also include a valid email address.
* You must identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed and including at least one search term under which the material appears in RapidShareGFX.com search results.
* A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
* A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
* Must be signed by the authorized person to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly being infringed.

Send the written infringement notice to the following address and an email notifcation to [email protected]

Please allow 1-2 business days for an email response. Note that emailing your complaint to other parties such as our Internet Service Provider will not expedite your request and may result in a delayed response due the complaint not properly being filed.

Red Dove · « **Reply #44 on:** September 11, 2009, 15:03 »

These chancers also have advertisers/sponsors on their sites. I noticed hero turdo (sic) has Warehouse Express on there, probably the biggest photography wholesaler in the UK. I'm sure if they knew they were being linked to these ragamuffins they would pull the plug.

I agree with earlier posts - it's up to legitimate stock sites to give them a good going over with legal sanction. There must be blood on the canvas. It's your money too.

zymmetricaldotcom · « **Reply #45 on:** September 11, 2009, 16:26 »

The intent of the DMCA is not to let blatant copyright infringers have a party behind a wall of bureaucratic paperwork. Go for these suckers at the webhost level, I can assure you it is not worth being in the webhosting business if you turn a blind eye to bad neighbourhoods.

elvinstar · « **Reply #46 on:** September 11, 2009, 16:31 »

Quote

is there a way to get a pc to sit loading his pages, I have a number of idle pcs at work at the moment, the university at which I work probably wouldn't notice the bandwidth difference, but he may

Sure there is. It's called a "Denial of Service" attack. Ask your local hacker, they can probably help out!

ShadySue · « **Reply #47 on:** May 21, 2015, 18:15 »

^^ spam, and the site is just ad bait.

heartsnatcher · « **Reply #48 on:** February 22, 2016, 01:23 »

Hello H r u?

is good website and also newbielink:http://www.heroturko2.com [nonactive]

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Author Topic: www.heroturko.com/photostock/ Check to make sure your images weren't stolen (Read 38393 times)

garycookson

Phil

Microbius

tubed

tubed

helix7

garycookson

[email protected]

null

Danicek

null

johngriffin

tan510jomast

garycookson

graficallyminded

Noodles

null

graficallyminded

graficallyminded

Red Dove

zymmetricaldotcom

elvinstar

ShadySue

heartsnatcher

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