Adventures of Photobucket.com*******************************************************
My hubby was surfing around Photobucket.com, when he found one of my images - Spirit of the Season - listed in a member's gallery with favorite images.
That, I didn't mind, and I was actually flattered - until I saw Photobucket's happy little "Order Prints" button down below, which put a whole new spin on the situation. The last thing I need right now is yet another site trying to profit from unauthorized prints of my work.
This is one of the few times when I can honestly say I don't believe the person meant any harm or tried to claim the image for her own and profit from it. I tried to find contact info for her there (I eventually found a link to her at LiveJournal, and I'm hoping to reach her through them), then looked into Photobucket.com's FAQ to see how they resolve this kind of thing, and the more I looked at their site the more concerned I got. Not only does Photobucket basically not care what gets posted or verify the original sources, but if you want to report the infringement of one of your own images you have to jump through a ridiculous set of snail mail hoops to prove it's yours before they even consider removing it, and in the meantime they can happily keep collecting profits from the sale of that image in a variety of formats.
To make matters worse, some other girl on the site has claimed my name - HeatherWind - as her user name. She has no artwork posted on the site, just photos, but now my artwork is being credited to another user that once again I have no way to directly contact yet. If I really wanted to be a bitch about it I can pursue legal channels to have that name changed, as I am the trademarked owner of it, but I would rather not be that extreme yet, especially as she is apparently not an artist nor claiming any affiliation to me or my studio.
So I thought, okay, I'll set up a Photobucket gallery of my own ( as HeatherWind_Art ) as a means of damage control, that way the link will be properly credited, and maybe I can use this as a secondary source of income - you know, silver lining and all that.
But unless they have it buried deep there is no mention in Photobucket's FAQ regarding how you can profit from the sale of your *own* image. So if I'm interpreting this correctly, any image you upload to them becomes their royalty-free property to profit from of as they please.
I contacted Photobucket about this and asked directly if any compensation is given to the artist for sale of merchandise created from their images, and have yet to receive a satisfactory reply. They said ALL of their member galleries have the Order Print button standard, and the printing is handled by an outside company - yet still no mention of any profit to the original artist.
Needless to say, I am NOT a happy bunny about this. I'm not mad at the member that posted my image - I'm mad at Photobucket for what appears to be a great way to rip off artists, as if the internet needs any other new ways to do so.
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Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. - Thomas A. Edison
WARNING
Devious Comments
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It's Nice to be Important but it's more Important to be Nice
I hope you can find some way to make the bad guys stop ripping you off, but I have this nasty suspicion that the only people who could make them stop (the government) really only cares if you are a large corporation that makes campaign contributions. But maybe I'm wrong... I hope I am. Good luck!
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"Leave them a flower, some grass and a hedgerow
A hill and a valley, a view to the sea
These things are not yours to destroy as you want to
A gift given once for eternity"
I can't say I don't feel bad for the lady that posted it - I was hoping she'd be the one to contact me first and could have removed it herself - because as I said I didn't get the impression she was trying to steal or profit from it.
The important thing is it's now been contained, but I'm still not entirely comfortable with someone else using my trade name as a user handle though. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on that one.
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HeatherWind @ DeviantArt
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HeatherWind @ DeviantArt
The same people that wouldn't think of walking into a brick-and-mortar gallery and stealing a painting from the wall don't even think twice about pirating artwork online, believing it's either public domain for being there, or that they'll never be caught, or that it's some kind of "victimless" crime. I've actually had thieves try to tell me that I should be flattered they even bothered to post my work and give me "exposure" (never mind there was no name attached so it's not like the general populace knew the source).
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HeatherWind @ DeviantArt
Must make you long for the simpler days where artists didn't have to worry about someone stealing the ceiling they were painting on or some such! Ah, well, people are basically people, and that means they're capable of amazing grace and venal sin ... often on the same day. I just wish that this particular sin wasn't aided and abetted by people who really should know better, like the government or the people who run various bits of the internet.
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HeatherWind @ DeviantArt
I've seen prototype search engines that search based on color and somewhat on content. Trouble is that it would make for a great way to hunt for stuff to, ah, repurpose.
I think that for the most part, Photobucket has a deal with the service that prints pictures, so that they profit from any printed pictures despite anything that they might say to the contrary.
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Kedamono Mizudori
AKA the Kedamono Dragon
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