Photo theft hit new low on ebayso sad

Its a shame when we, as growers and hobbyist feel like we have to protect the photos that we share. I guess I will now have to plaster large watermarks across my photos. I have this beautifu photo of double peach that had been posted and all of a sudden it showed up on ebay. I politely asked the person to remove the photo. the auction ended and I forgot about it. I looked today and there it is again. I once again asked this person to remove the photo. I was told that they would be glad to show ebay authorities the photo on their camera...Have they sunk so low as to photograph my photograph so it is on their camera? It's crazy...here is my original....you be the judge
this is the auction
http://cgi.ebay.com/BRUGMANSIA-Angel-Trumpet-NATIVE-HABITAT-Plant_W0QQitemZ220335731516QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220335731516&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

This is the reply I received when I politely asked them to remove the picture

Dear xeriscape8321,

As soon a Ebay contacts me I will show them the picture still on my camera.

- greenleafgardens

So,call their bluff Gary.Send Ebay your picture.Picture thieves should not get away with it.

I did report it...waiting for some response.

It's funny because if you look closely at the upper left hand side of the photo in the auction (the picture is really kinda small) you can still see the Daves Garden copyright that they didn't even bother to photoshop out!



This message was edited Dec 30, 2008 8:10 PM

Looks like the same pic to me.

You can change your preferences and copyright on the pics on DG.


http://davesgarden.com/tools/prefs/showallcopyrights.php

http://davesgarden.com/tools/prefs/copyright.php

My info
Manage your preferences
Copyright (on the right) 10 down under My tools, Preferences

I am about ready to put a nice fat watermark on my pics also. Just seems prudent. As a Realtor, we had agents that would steal the expired listings photos so they would not have to go take new photos. Can we say, "lazy"??? Thankfully, the MLS cured that. All photos except the main one disappear when a listing is expired.

I'd call their bluff if it is worth it to you.

Quite a shame but that is the world we live in. Red lights make good neighbors, as do fences and 10 commandments.

April

Thanks Aunt _A, I'll look into that....It's just the principal of the matter. The first time I contacted them I was very nice...I was also very ignored. So i decided to take the steps to report it to ebay.
When he sent me back the response that I can find the photo on his camera, I was really taken a back....how low....and he states that he is a licensed nursery in the state of florida!!

GET THIS SHIRLEY JUST POINTED OUT TO ME THAT THIS IS ONE OF MY PHOTOS THAT ACTUALLY HAS MY NAME ON IT!! THE LOWER RIGHT HAND CORNER SAYS GARY MORALES IN SCRIPT!! LOL!!!

This message was edited Dec 30, 2008 8:32 PM

Wow...she has good eyes. I'd need a magnifer to see your name. Now that you mentioned it, I can just barely make it out.

So, their camera puts your name on the pics, too. LOL.

The LOVE of $$$$ is the root of all evil.

Hope everything turns out good for you. Licensed doesn't mean anything about a good person to do business with.

April

I looked at the pic and sure enough there is the DG logo and your name in the corner. I am lmao at this idiot while at the same time being thoroughly annoyed at them for stealing the pic. Is there any way to leave feedback on this person without purchasing something?

They don't realize just how small the Brug world really is. The name of their nursery is now "Mud" in the eyes of people on the different brug forums. Pretty dumb to use one copyrighted and signed. Maybe we'll see them in the dumbest criminals list that is published every year.

No but you can send him a message by going into the ad and clicking on "ask the seller a question".

I think I will do exactly that!

I was hoping you would!! LOL!!

that is so messed up . your hand is in the pic . if it was just a pic of a flower it would be hard to prove but your hand is there . they have some nerve saying that to the person whos pic they stole . instead of oh im sorry i didnt know .
edit: there was a thread about ebay picture thieves on the iris forum . they were stealing pics from different vendors and daves garden.

This message was edited Dec 30, 2008 9:14 PM

That person is on CRACK! I'm going to ask the seller a question too!!

"Is this picture stolen? Because you have the same name and picture as a brug friend of mine!"

I want this person to squirm! Grrrrrrrrr!!!

OK, done!

This seller is one person to stay away from.

I agree with JT. Call their bluff.

PS. I sent him a question as well.

This message was edited Dec 30, 2008 9:29 PM

What an idiot! This is what I asked him ☺
"I'm curious, are your plants stolen too? Or just the photo's?"

I complimented him on his amazing camera. Then I made the comment that it would be difficult to take him seriously as a seller.

LOL Good one Fish_knees!

Amazing camera, indeed, bettydee!

It's great your or someone's hand is in the photo. No two hands look exactly alike.

It's pretty bogus to steal the picture, and I hope E-Bay does something about it.

While its not the same thing, I found it interesting to see that people wanting/having Stigmaphyllon ciliatum on DG are all using a picture I took. There are 7 of them, plus me, all using the same picture. If the Stigmaphyllon ciliatum were as popular as brugs are I guess I'd see it on E-Bay too.

Geez louise

Thanks for the support guys!! I'm having a real laugh over this!!!

Having a photo on your camera does not mean the photo is yours. He could just download it to his camera's internal memory via computer or put it on his SD card from the computer and stick it in his camera. You can also transfer stuff from your SD card onto your camera's internal memory as well.
Obviously this is your photo due to the dave's garden copyright . But if he had edited it out and changed it, you might not have proof. I think this is happening more and more and it is a big problem. There are ways to prove such things but may be expensive and the crooks know it.

I think it is good if you have a good pic that you want to post, is to take several shots of the photo (diff angles) with something reconognizable in the background and only post one of those photos. The other photos (with diff angles and the same object in the background right behind the flower) will be your proof that it is yours. Of course they can still try to edit it out but it will be more obvious. We all may just have to watermark everything from now on which I hate to do because it destroys the beauty of the photo.

P.S. I am embarrassed that this person even lives near me LOL!!

i send them an ASQ also.

i am wondering about their supposed nursery license. the number they are posting shows as belonging to someone near orlando and expired in 2007.

might consider to sick the AG Dept on them.

P.S. that's a lovely brug!

This message was edited Dec 31, 2008 1:49 PM

Conatact EBay through their VeRO Program-- thisinformation is on the EBay site. You will be required to fax in a letter with your complaint as well as give the auction numbers and the seller name.

I did this last year when a seller in Singapore was using about 6 of mine-he had even altered them with some bad software, but they were still obviously mine. Anyway, within hours of receving my FAX, Ebay removed every single one of the listings--they were multiples--anout 20 in all-----with no arguement. I didn't even have to show my original photos. I guess they figure if you are ticked off enough to fill out the paperwork and jump through the hoops you are serious.

By the way, if the sellers gets caught doing it more than once they risk losing their selling priveleges.

Good Luck!

Brad

oh sheesh this is so sad... your picture and brug is beautiful.. Ebay shouold fine the seller.. I am going to ASQ myself.. this is just not right and this is how I bought a Peach Versi that was not a Peach Versi last year!

That a real low. I woudl report to ebay and also make note of what they said to you and that the photo's not onyl have yoru name but DSg watermarks on them and if they are not remove d immediately you wil take legal action not only against the vendor but Ebay and you will they wil disappear real quick off the site.

To protect brug folks like yoruself I woudl also contact a lawyer and see how much he woudl charge to go after this person for not only just not coping to pc yoru photo but to takign pics of it, on his camera and holdign them. Which how he coudl do I can't figure out.

tell him you have more than oen way to legally prove thos eyoru pics and that if he dont remove the immediately your lawyer will be drawign lawsuit papers up not ony for theft of pic but for lawyer fees.

Anyone gotten an answer from this bogus seller yet? What do you bet the idjit won't even bother.

This is not the only infringement. http://answercenter.ebay.com/search.jspa?q=photo++copyright&defOp=1&rankBy=10001&dateRange=all&userID=&numResults=15 shows other postings about copyright infringement. It will be interesting to see how long e-bay takes to respond and what their action is to correct it.
I see the photo has been cropped at http://cgi.ebay.com/BRUGMANSIA-Angel-Trumpet-DOUBLE-PEACH-Plant_W0QQitemZ220335733255QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220335733255&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318 to remove the copyright notice.
Just for fun I search for more of this fool's listing. http://www.toptropicals.com/pics/toptropicals/contest/2004/secret_garden/8/flower/Iochroma-Fuchsioides.jpg is the photo for http://cgi.ebay.com/Iochroma-RED-Brugmansia-Cousin-PLANT_W0QQitemZ220335735475QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220335735475&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318#ebayphotohosting My bet is that they have no photos on their camera. They may not even have a camera!!!

Looks like a different pic has been put up.

PotEmUp, that second Brug up for auction has a different item number:
http://cgi.ebay.com/BRUGMANSIA-Angel-Trumpet-DOUBLE-PEACH-Plant_W0QQitemZ220335733255QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item220335733255&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:1205|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318
and the photo comes from here:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://valentinac.com/brugmansia/pictures/Double%2520Peach13.jpg&imgrefurl=http://valentinac.com/brugmansia/brugmansia_thumbs.html&h=665&w=700&sz=199&tbnid=R-WhF56wbU0UDM::&tbnh=133&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBrugmansia%2BDouble%2BPeach%2Bphotos&hl=en&usg=__JiRkSk0CnZbw0sphcg6b-KA2dIk=&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=3&ct=image&cd=1
It's the third photo under Double Peach.

I sent the owner of the photo an e-mail a while ago. I'll see what happens there.

Thing is, onlyt takes a few minute s to type an emai or dmail or whatever mail to anybody to ask fo rpermission to use a photo.

Yikes, that person is a habitual thief! Good sleuthing!

I just received a reply to my e-mail to the owner of the other photo. She confirmed it is her photo and no, she didn't give the seller on e-Bay permission to use her photo.

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

I wondered abotu that other photo Betty. Thought it looked awful familar btu couldn't place who I had seen posting it.

Any image you have submitted anywhere on DG means we can help you defend its copyright. If you find it used elsewhere, and we have a pretty good success rate when we go to bat for our members.

Within eBay we have a VeRO agreement on file. If the seller won't take it down immediately based on our request, we can email eBay and they will remove the entire auction, usually within a day or less.

When that happens, the seller loses their fees on that auction, and it puts them on eBay's radar screen as a "problem child" -- longtime sellers do not want to be in that position, so they tend to scramble when we send them our standard take-down demand notice.

Terry I have contacted ebay and the seller and still the photo remains on ebay. What is my next step with DG to get an email sent out on my behalf?

We should all go to there pages and ask them how they got you to agree to let them use your picture!! Leave the feedback in the marketplace a thief is a thief no matter how you look at it . Karma happens quick. When sales drop maybe he will remember why!!