Unto the boundless ether, HeatherWind says:

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To my surprise, the Photobucket.com staff answered my email and told me that my image had been taken down from the gallery of the member that posted it. I had fully expected to have to go through the write-in process to defend my property, but they did resolve it quickly.

Later the woman that had posted it answered me and apologized for the snafu - as I suspected, she honestly didn't know they were potentially selling prints and she meant no harm. As a matter of fact, she was so surprised at Photobucket's policy of selling people's art as merchandise with NO compensation to the original artist that she quickly took all her own items out of there too.

That's right boys and girls, Photobucket has essentially claimed royalty-free merchandising rights to any and all images uploaded to their servers, whether it be artwork of the member or no. Prints, calendars and more, and unless your artwork is heavily watermarked they won't trace the source and you won't see a dime.

I asked their service department what the policy was on this, and was referred to the FAQ of their 3rd-party print company, which also said nothing about compensation to the artist / party that uploaded the image. To which I say, bite me.

Anyroad, the situation has been dealt with, and it's proven an eye-opener for many folks that have images uploaded there. Yet one more reason to juice up those watermarks...

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"Wait, we can not break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, and you will play golf. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They said do not trust the pilgrims. And especially do not trust Sarah Miller. For all these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground." -- Wednesday Addams, Addams Family Values