Hi there,

looks that this is a non-stop. Probably some of you have also seen this auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...7753646#ht_721wt_981

but the seller it's not me... Be careful with him; he is using my photo, texts from Walkman-Central, and telling almost anything about the actual condition of the item.

I'll report to ebay ASAP.

Update: after searching at eBay's page, I finally found the proper department to report it:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/vero-rights-owner.html

Hi Hugo,

Have you reported this? I expect you're sick of doing it but hopefully it'll do some good. I actually did report it but the eBay page said "The listing has pictures or text taken from your eBay listing without your permission. If the pictures or text belong to someone else, please contact the owner so they can report it to us directly". Shame we can't report stuff we see, because I wonder how often copywrite holders aren't aware? If I share photos here I don't automatically think better check the 'bay in case they've been illegally copied! One of the more annoying aspects of the net. Some people...

"In the 1987 Sony introduced a solar Walkman, you can get solar panels to recharge the new Walkmans (also known as iPods)"

Yup. He knows where he's talking about.

Yes Hugo...the price you pay for being a great photographer. I hate to bring this up again (it was mentioned last year) but maybe watermarking the images with S2Go might prevent these Ebay scam artists...

It is happening more lately.  I had same situation 2 months ago seller eBay copy pasted directly from my S2G posting on BBS-10 and directly from my sold eBay listing on my DD100.  He did make corrections but still bad situations when this happens.  Sorry to hear its happening to you my friend.  Probably we all have had information here we shared used on eBay and most of time to misrepresent the item to be better than it is.   sigh.....

I have had similar experience in the past. A few lazy sellers copied my detailed listing description regularly with no serious consequences from ebay. What's interesting is that they came in variety. Some modified it just enough so that it was hard to convince ebay that the text was copied. Others modified the font and played around with paragraphs. Yet some didn't even bother and pasted the whole description as is. Very annoying. What's more annoying is ebay's lack of serious action in such cases. Most of the cases I reported (and I reported more than a dozen), it took ebay well over a week to get back to me saying that they "took action". By that time the listing was already sold and the seller had unethically benefited from my hard work. Ebay wouldn't even mention what action they took citing "privacy". It was usually no more than taking the listing down. I noticed some sellers had the listing right back up the next day with little to no modification of the copied text. For half of the listings ebay refused to take action saying that the text was not copied when anyone with a  little bit of intelligence could tell that it was. Oh I hate ebay , but can't avoid it. It's becoming more and more hostile for honest sellers. We need good competition from an online auction site. I heard of boocoo auction site about a year ago. Not sure what their status is. Thanks for letting me rant. 

Thank you guys,

I'm happy to hear you are honest people (I already knew, of course) and understand this common problem.

I contacted the seller and reported to eBay.

The seller replied today to say:

"Sorry, They all look the same to me. I didn't realize it was hurting you or your business. I'll change it all tonight.

Thank you

- marshtrooper"

That's the problem: 99% of people in the Internet doesn't realize that being viewable for free at the internet does NOT mean that anyone can use for his own matter for free, specially if it’s a commercial matter.
So I decided to add a special small javascript to my website so if anyone would download any photo to their HDD using the right button of the mouse, a message will pop-up, like in this site. I had used this code in other websites and gave me very good results.

Hi Hugo have you thought of adding a watermark to your images? At least this way if they use your images, you will at least get some credit and maybe bring some more people to your site?

Yeah, almost all my images have the signature of the site, so anyone embedding them could bring visitors to the site, but however I don't like people using them for their economic profit.

I don't mind if anyone wants to download to his HDD just to save, enjoy or even print (though they are small for that), but another thing is using for auctions.

Just a few of the images have no watermark yet. some are here, some in the web; but I'll fix soon.

i couldn't sympatize more, Walkman Archive, and you have all my moral support - for what it's worth. unfortunately, there exist unsurmountable problems to solve before you get justice. first and foremost, however, there is the fact that your pics are not really copyrighted. sure enough, you'd run into the same kind of abuse even if they were. in that case, however, it would be easier for you to take legal action and have your photos removed from improper use and even get a refund.

the problem of intellectual property is complex and i don't want to enter it here -- copyright is not always necessarily "right" - in fact, in most cases it is utterly wrong. but the case in point is clear and no further explanation is needed besides the ones you give in your posts. as a result, nobody will support your cause until their money is involved. certainly not ebay. ebay just want their affiliates to trade, no matter how, so they don't give a damn for your artistic photos. they promise to take action, but that's all folks. in fact, they only take aUctions -in your and everybody else's face.

There we have another guy that has gone far:

http://inspiringscentofrain.bl...t-was-good-year.html

He took one of my photos (a wallpaper) and he deleted the watermark,then retouched the photo as he wished without permission at all. Then he published it as if it was his photo. Obviously, he didn't credit me at all.

Seeing is believing...
I wrote him an email, but as I expected, he is a coward and he doesn't delete the photo or even reply and apologize.

Not great. Have you tried being really sneaky with your watermarks? Try making additional ones that are very small and appear in the middle, or in the same direction as one of the edges of the items in your photos etc. In truth you shouldn't have to go to this effort, but it could help to prove your work really is yours.

Ha, the Aiwa CS-J1 pic is one of mine, the cheeky git

i HATE such $§!""&=! ....

any possibility to sew him ? ...

/edit : check the blog providers terms of use ... if possible, inform them about copyright violation ... if he still doesn`t react, blog might be shot down ...

Oh, the CS-J1 is yours, Agent? Hate this guys...

IF you go and see his site now, he removed the photo and says:

"I had the image of Back To The Future poster (the Universal Studios Productions movie) removed due to an unsubstantiated email from an individual claiming IP rights over it.

"unsubstantiated"???? 

After a few of these happened, I decided to add an aidtional protection.

I know that adding many watermarks to the image makes them unusable, but also very ugly. I don't like that.

In my 'world' of phoography the only ones that uses that solution are image stock agencies. No photographer uses it in their web gallery (well, some does, but they are really very few ones), because it's very disturbing.

I found another solution many time ago: adding a code to almost every photo of my site which pops up a message when you try to download any image using the right-click. It's a solution similar to the one used in www.vintagecassette.com.

I find it much less offensive (like many watermarks)... but so much effective.

What do you think? 

Oh, the CS-J1 is yours, Agent? Hate this guys...

 

IF you go and see his site now, he removed the photo and says:

 

"I had the image of Back To The Future poster (the Universal Studios Productions movie) removed due to an unsubstantiated email from an individual claiming IP rights over it.

It was kind of funny, but sure thing, no problem."

 

"unsubstantiated"???? 

 

Funny that he asks for help to wild life WWF in top of his page... but then fu*** human at bottom of it.
Excuse me to say, but this guy is an ******* (moderators, delete this if it's inapropiate) 

How did you contact him?  I can't find a link.  I might as well ask him to remove mine too.

Yes, it appears at the bottom. It's: c032c032@aol.com

Got it, ta

It's a shame really. I'm sure if prior confirmation of use and credit for photo pplied, he could have used these photos and probably more.

Now like a fool he's on the defensive for images he's altered for his own benefit........smart

Can anyone access this blog?  It appears that access has now been 'restricted'

No I can't either...seems like he found an easier solution....control access to the site  

 

Yes, it look so.

Hugo, you aren't going to like these...

http://www.leboncoin.fr/image_...413251660.htm?ca=2_s

http://www.leboncoin.fr/image_...412957720.htm?ca=2_s

You're right: I don't like them...

I'll try to write him using translator, as I have absolutely nothing about french.

Thanks, AO!

Hmmm, this time it's the well known Armitag1311:

http://cgi.ebay.es/ws/eBayISAP...01755#ht_1922wt_1155

I've contacted him but no reply.

But wait... he will be surprised in a few minutes...

Check the auction now... 

 brilliant!...that'll show them!  How did you manage that?

Nice one.

That's made my day, you're a clever man Hugo

Hugo that is the most spectacular fitting response to a unethical seller I have ever and probably will ever see.   I hope it stays up like that long enough for many of the world who think that seller is so good to see that he is not totally honest.   Bravo for protecting your photo's and rights !!!

Thanks to all!

northerner: i prefer to keep the trick not public, because i'm sure they are also here...

whats the deal with armitage shanks?

why is he unethical?

fill me in

priceless! please keep the trick secret, and i strongly recommend that you experiment with NEW tricks out of your bag --you know, some people prefer to work hard in order to steal than work honestly.

(and yes, you're right: they are among us!)

oh yeah, good point!...  Genius tho

Looking through the listing pictures - ( seen 2 pictures different )  than all the rest of them  

Then I read the listing and seen this

webmaster 390582301755 listing sony wm dd30 series 04

Nice Hugo, nice.

I guess that this image can make many people that thinks that they can simply pick a photo (which has been made with a lot of effort) and use it for their bussiness without caring at all, to stop and think what are they doing. And to realize that they cannot pick something that doesn't pertain and use it freely for bussiness.

In real life it will be similar than to see a novel, make a copy and include in your own stories and novels...

Or to hear a song, record it and play in your own concert.

Or to see a painting from any reputed artist, make a good color copy and show it in your own exhibition... where you are actually selling your own drawings.

The main point is that you (not you guys, of course; it's an unpersonal way of saying) cannot make a copy of any piece of art of another artist and use as if were yours. The fact that you can easily copy or download an image from the Internet doesn't mean that you can do that copy. To record a song from the radio or a movie from the TV is also easy and many people already realized that it's not legal to copy and use for their bussiness.

Another thing, completely different is to download a media and use just for personal use or enjoy. There's no problem with that at all. The problem appears when using for making money, directly or indirectly.

when is it NOT about $ Money $ ?

Another "smart" ebay seller using copyrighted photos...

Pure genius Hugo! I LOL'd

When will they learn

ha ha. Well said ;-)