Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Tips for repelling plagiarist bloggers

After 9+ years of repelling plagiarist bloggers and websites I now get straight to the point.  It's the only way to get the message across.

Below you can read the comment I've just written on a review by a very stupid blogger.  I recognised my photograph straight away. No credit, no nothing.

I'm afraid these days I don't just get annoyed with these very lazy people........ I get even.

If there is no action on the part of the blogger within a very tight time limit, I then report the blog to Google and their website host ISP for copyright infringement.

Quite often these days I don't even bother telling them what I'm going to do - I just do it. It saves time and having to deal with ignorant people who invariably whine. (I'm writing as somebody who has had to deal with very many plagiarists and I've learned about the character of those who infringe.)

If it's a blog that a number of people have reported for copyright infringement the result seems to be that it gets deindexed. Otherwise they seem to deindex the post. Depending on who the host is I've known blogs disappear completely. This most often seems to happen when you find the ISP and they pull the plug on the website. A lot of ISPs seems to take a dim view of plagiarists these days - ever since Google got strict about duplicate content. :)
Photograph of Spencer Murphy by Katherine Tyrrell
This is my photograph of Spencer Murphy
taken at the press preview and appearing in
Spencer Murphy wins
Taylor Wessing Photographic Prize 2013
"REMOVE MY PHOTOGRAPH of Spencer Murphy from your review immediately. If you want to review exhibitions, I suggest you get an invite to the press review, take a camera and take your own photos!

My blog clearly indicates all images are copyright protected.
This is the short version
“© Katherine Tyrrell 2005-13 Unauthorised use or duplication of ANY material on this blog without written permission is prohibited. Please respect copyright of all artists featured here. SEE NOTE AT BOTTOM”
I’m very practised in reporting plagiarists to Google. Should this photograph not be removed in the next 48 hours, I shall be reporting this blog to Google as a copyright infringement.

Be aware I’m doing you a kindness leaving this note. I’m so fed up with people who steal images that I normally go direct to Google and your blog host. Google is very keen to have reports of people who DUPLICATE CONTENT in their search engine.

Just to be clear – you stole this image from my blog post
http://makingamark.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/spencer-murphy-wins-taylor-wessing-photographic-portrait-prize-2013.html

I may not leave it as long as 48 hours before reporting you to Google…

A TIP - "Save Page as"!


Once your comment is on the blog (e.g. with the 'comment awaiting moderation' note), save the blog post to file in its entirety

To do this you Go to "File" and then "Save Page As". This creates a complete offline copy of the page as seen on the website.  

It's very useful for those who dispute what was on the website/blog.

MORE TIPS! Information for Artists about Copyright and Tackling Plagiarists


I have three websites which might help those who need to learn more about copyright, copyright infringement, how to find out if their artwork has been copied on to another website and how to tackle those who plagiarise


13 comments:

  1. How does one find out if they are being copied?

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  2. Great post! How did you find the culprit or know it was stolen in the first place? I'm getting so leery these days of posting photos. Recently Ester Roi had an image stolen and claimed to be someone else's art. I can't believe people are so brazen, especially the photo they chose to use of hers. I believe a friend saw her image and reported it to her.

    But how do you know if it's been stolen. I'm on the web some but have tried to limit my presence so I can get some much needed CP work accomplished.

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  3. Good question Roberta - I've now added in my website about "How to do a reverse image search"

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  4. Gloria - I know of very many artists who only find out their work is stolen because it gets reported to them by another artist.

    I like to think that as a community we all look after one another as we never know who it's going to happen to next.

    I've got a very good visual memory so I know one of my own photos as soon as I see it.

    Statistics can also be helpful if you pick up a lot of downloads of one of your images

    The best bet is to use a search engine which does a reverse image search - ie you show it what you want to check and it comes up with the answer (see my comment above plus the new link at the end of the post)

    Interestingly on this one, Tineye was useless and just searched for the portrait photograph in my photograph - whereas Google Images came up with the goods and identified my blog post as being the place where it started out.

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  6. I've seen people online trying to justify this type of plagiarism as "sharing" and flattering the orginal poster. This strikes me as disingenuous. Why plagiarize when there are ethical avenues to show people content? For example a reblog that introduces the original blogger and subject, comments, then takes the reader back to the original blogger's website. The ethical behaviors lead to engagement with the greater community, while plagiarism just brands a site as run by blind "content" monkeys.

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  7. Hi,
    I have a question - did this person save your image and then upload to their blog or did they post the image link in their blog? Are both of these situations plagiarizing? I have probably done the latter but didn't think it was plagiarizing as it was linking to the original picture. I'd love to know for the future.
    Thanks for your advice,
    Katy

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  8. They had saved the image to their computer and then uploaded it again as part of their blog post with no recognition that I had taken it.

    I'm assuming the objective was to make it look as if they'd attended the press view and met Spencer Murphy

    OR they were just too lazy to try contacting me to ask permission.

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  9. Just done another check - and found another one. The "remove this photograph now" gets shorter and shorter......

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  10. LeocadiaSeptember 13, 2014 at 12:18 PM

    Dear Katherine,
    I just found your above comment a few minutes ago today. I had no idea that the photograph in question, "Spencer Murphy with his portrait of jump jockey Katie Walsh" was taken by you and therefore your property. Please accept my apology, I shall remove it. In trying to recall or retrace the events or thought processes that brought Spencer Murphy's photo of Katie to my attention I feel certain that I stumbled upon it in The Guardian and was amazed by Katie's resemblance to my granddaughter Kelsy Rae. They have the same kind of rugged beauty. I also feel certain that your photo was in the Guardian article beneath the portrait of Katie. I assumed, because there was no credit beneath it, that it was taken by someone associated with the Taylor Wessing judging committee or gallery or by someone from the Guardian. I am not a plagiarist. I abhor plagiarism. To state that I have ignored all copyright notices on your blog is frankly, bizarre since I have never known of or been on your blog until a few minutes ago in order to make some sense out of your complaint. And, in checking out your blog for the very first time today, I see that you do not credit yourself as the photographer of Spencer Murphy standing next to his prize winner. Be that as it may, I will remove the photo. You might try being a little kinder and not jumping to conclusions before making a civil inquiry. Leocadia

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  13. Dear Leocardia

    You really need to learn about the scope to search on images. It's possible to search and find precise copies of my photo. See my website http://makingamark.hubpages.com/hub/reverse-search-image

    There is no doubt in my mind but that you copied my photo from my blog.

    There were a lot of press at the press view - however their photos would have been different. More to the point, this is the photo in the Guardian article about the Taylor Wessing Prize http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/12/portrait-jockey-katie-walsh-wins-taylor-wessing-photography-prize

    My blog also has unequivocal copyright notices on the blog - as explained in the original blog post.

    The reason for this is I have permission from some major museums to post images of their exhibitions on my blog. You have no such permission from them and you have no permission from me.

    Next time you try to come up with excuses for your behaviour you might want to try checking the facts of the matter first.

    I also suggest you familiarise with the rules of copyright. I have no need to post a copyright notice to be able to exercise my copyright with respect to my images.

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