Copyright Infringement Reports (Review guidelines in post #1 before posting here)

[Scott Weberpal]

Folks, just a reminder to follow the very specific rules of this thread. This thread is for the identification of copyrighted work only, not for discussion about copyrights, how to deal with them, etc. Numerous posts have been deleted the last few days. Thanks for your cooperation.

Thread Rules

Stormtrack promotes the lawful use of photographs and videos by its members. If a user discoveres copyright infringement of any member's work, we ask that you please PM that user directly. If the pirated work encompasses multiple users, you may either PM every user seperately, or make a copyright infringement report within this thread. In the case that copyright infringement is suspected, but the work is unidentified, a post may also be made. We ask that discussion in this thread be limited to identifying the copyrighted work.

Reports of copyright infringement should be limited to this thread. These type of discussions should not appear on the rest of ST.

The Stormtrack Mods

 

[stephanieschweitzer]

I have just come across a page on Facebook where a guy is illegally taking and modifying storm photos and then posting them with his logo stamp- some of which look very familiar. I want to give everyone a heads up, as I have already found works that this person has stolen from Montana photographer Sean Heavey. Please look through the images on the following link to ensure your rights have not been violated as well: LINK

 

[Dan Robinson]

Check this Facebook page for your work. The page is going viral using others' images.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Destructive-Nature/365398036899485

 

[Skip Talbot]

Please fill out this form or forward it to the copyright holder. Facebook claims it will remove offending content and repeat offending users. It has to be your own work to use the form, however:
https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/208282075858952

 

[Bob Schafer]

http://www.mrboffo.com/daily.html (July 18 comic)

 

[Dan Robinson]

These pages are *still* stealing hundreds of chaser images. I report when mine are stolen, but it puzzles me why these pages are still up. It's irritating to have to keep up with these. If more of us report, the more likely these will be taken down. These have been up for months. Does it make anyone else mad that these pages build more followers using your images in a month than yours has in years? They do it on the backs of our work. It's not free advertising. "Free advertising" is the line that we're always fed about other businesses using our images for free, this isn't any different! You get NOTHING from your images being used on one of these pages. The only one who benefits is the page owner. Most of the time these pages don't give credit anyway.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dest...036899485?id=365398036899485&sk=photos_stream

https://www.facebook.com/SuperCelula

 

[david diehl]

Not sure what to do about this.
I found a guy selling storm chasing bumper stickers on eBay using some of Tim Samaras pictures as well as others in his description pictures. Does anyone think I should contact this seller and ask him to remove them?

 

[Marcus Diaz]

I'm pretty sure contacting eBay about it works. They'll remove the item or even shut down the account.

 

[david diehl]

I was unable to figure out how to report the item. I did send the user a message asking that he remove the photos in 24 hours or I would be contacting ebay support.

 

[Warren Faidley]

Copyright infringement is running rampant on the Internet no doubt. We live in an age where people feel "entitled" to grab anything they want and expect it to be free and without punishment if illegally obtained. Some abusers, including businesses, have some wacky idea they can use any image due to something they call "fair use." There is no such thing. (I've even seen this lame excuse in court cases!). As previously discussed, the decision to actually go after someone is extremely expensive since copyright infringements are handled via Federal Court. If a contract is involved, you have some options in State Courts. The rewards can be substantial, so most major corporations will comply. (Remember to register your copyrights for full protection).

As for Internet infringement, the ISP is legally required to remove "confirmed" infringements:

Here is an excellent reference about ISP copyright issues from the American Society of Media Photographers: http://asmp.org/tutorials/enforcing-your-rights.html#.UnJjfyQjH-k

"Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), you can force the Internet Service Provider (ISP) hosting that site to remove or disable the site, so that it cannot be viewed."

eBay has their own process. It can be found here: http://asmp.org/tutorials/enforcing-your-rights.html#.UnJjfyQjH-k

Warren

 

[Dan Robinson]

On my daily rounds, I came across this channel mass-uploading chasers' tornado videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChHtlWHfQn5ucO8HTyAzPlg/videos

 

[Jeff Duda]

I couldn't even visit said account. It has already been flagged and terminated.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Another tornado video mass-upload channel discovered today:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TornadaChannel

 

[Dan Robinson]

Another mass-uploading channel I came across today:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6WfCHlySQa9ALszKp5RcoA

 

[Dan Robinson]

The spammers, thieves and content scrapers have been rampant as a result of the recent outbreaks. Anyone who has posted footage from these recent events has probably been affected.

Here's one of the more prolific infringing channels:

https://www.youtube.com/user/expert7715/videos

Here's a bookmarked search on Youtube for "tornado" sorted by recent date that should make it easy to find if something of yours has been taken:

https://www.youtube.com/results?sea...query=tornado&search_sort=video_date_uploaded