toadallysoy Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 Ok, I need some advice. About 3 months ago I was contacted via email by a gift shop owner who was interested in purchasing my candles wholesale. Several emails back & forth and then I never heard from her again. Well....yesterday while playing around on Google, I found something about my candles being available in her shop. I checked out her website, and low & behold on the home page is a photo of my candles. I tried emailing her and the emails were returned undeliverable, so I called her this morning. I asked why the photo was on her site & she sounded surprised that it was there. She proceeded to tell me that she had copied photos from my website, and those of others. She claims that she gave her entire photo file to the "man who set up her business website" for her and he must have used my photo in errror. Does this sound like a crock of !&^$ or what? I can't imagine she had someone build her a business website and then she never looked at it to know what was on it. I advised her that I wanted my photo off her site immediately. She says it will be removed tomorrow...guess we'll wait & see. Any suggestions on what to do if she doesn't remove it? Maybe a letter from my attorney? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annie123 Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 I don't know what is wrong with some people...when I first started in this business I had my pictures stolen off my website many times now I put my company's name on all my pictures.The attorney won't be able to do much unless you own registered copyrights. You can always contact the website provider and inform them that these are your pictures and you want them removed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twoscentsworth Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 IMHO everyone should bookmark this website:http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/don't know of ANYONE yet who has admitted they did it, it is ALWAYS "my web designer, my soninlaw, my son, my nephew, my uncle's cousins brothers friend who did it" ALWAYS an excuse for why they STOLE your content AND it IS STEALING no matter the excuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candybee Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 If they are photos of your products don't they have your labels on them?I just use photos of my labeled products on my website. No way can someone claim they are their pics with my company name in plain view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CareBear Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 well, normally it's a nephew or neighbor's kid - but yea total bull cookies - she stole your pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisa Posted April 18, 2010 Share Posted April 18, 2010 Sorry No Advice,Its Just really weird to me as why she would even want/have photos of your product, if its not even at her store?? Arnt people gonna be like "wheres those candles at with the toad on them?":rolleyes2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CandleMama6 Posted April 19, 2010 Share Posted April 19, 2010 IMHO everyone should bookmark this website:http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/don't know of ANYONE yet who has admitted they did it, it is ALWAYS "my web designer, my soninlaw, my son, my nephew, my uncle's cousins brothers friend who did it" ALWAYS an excuse for why they STOLE your content AND it IS STEALING no matter the excuse.Very good information!! If anyone has not read it, you should!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadallysoy Posted April 19, 2010 Author Share Posted April 19, 2010 IMHO everyone should bookmark this website:http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/don't know of ANYONE yet who has admitted they did it, it is ALWAYS "my web designer, my soninlaw, my son, my nephew, my uncle's cousins brothers friend who did it" ALWAYS an excuse for why they STOLE your content AND it IS STEALING no matter the excuse.Great info! Thank you so much for sharing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadallysoy Posted April 19, 2010 Author Share Posted April 19, 2010 If they are photos of your products don't they have your labels on them?I just use photos of my labeled products on my website. No way can someone claim they are their pics with my company name in plain view.Oh yes, the label is in clear view. She's not claiming they are her photos. I guess she liked the candle in the antique canning jar and thought that putting it on her home page would help with her business...even though anyone visiting her shop would not find one of my candles there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadallysoy Posted April 19, 2010 Author Share Posted April 19, 2010 Sorry No Advice,Its Just really weird to me as why she would even want/have photos of your product, if its not even at her store?? Arnt people gonna be like "wheres those candles at with the toad on them?":rolleyes2?No kidding...if it wasn't so far of a drive, I was going to visit her shop & ask about the soy candles that I saw on her website....just to see what her response would be. Not to mention the response I'd get once I told her that I was the owner of Toadally Soy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxie114 Posted April 20, 2010 Share Posted April 20, 2010 This really stinks. Sorry that it happened to you. You can page protect your website. I can't remember how to do it or what the code is. Maybe if you google it. If I can figure out what I did, I will come back and post it. I locked down my pages at one point because I didn't want the pictures or info lifted. When you right click it comes up with an error message. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadallysoy Posted April 20, 2010 Author Share Posted April 20, 2010 Thank you Maxie. I am looking into this now for my page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annie123 Posted April 20, 2010 Share Posted April 20, 2010 Yes, you can disable the right click feature so others can't copy your pictures...ask the people you have your website with they will give you the html code...in the meantime you can always put something on your website saying that "so and so store is not an authorized retailer and that your pictures are being used without your authorization"...my copyright lawyer says that if it is true you can not be sued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitn Posted April 20, 2010 Share Posted April 20, 2010 You could always switch the picture out for something totally inappropriate , and write this picture was stolen on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CareBear Posted April 20, 2010 Share Posted April 20, 2010 that only works if the picture is hot-linked. not if it was just copied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadallysoy Posted April 23, 2010 Author Share Posted April 23, 2010 Issue resolved! I was able to search on-line & identify the website administrator who built the site for this woman. One quick phone call to him and my photo was removed from her site immediately!! Woohooo!And....as suspected, she specifically asked him to use my photo on her site. He wasn't impressed, to say the least, to find out that she'd put the blame on him for using my photo. I have to wonder if she's looked at her site recently & noticed the photo has been changed.....Thanks again to all of you for your suggestions and/or comments. Much appreciated.www.toadallysoy.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxie114 Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 This is classic! Love it. What a way to solve the problem! Congrads!:highfive: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernadette Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Problem may be solved this time, but could rear it's ugly head again in the future. Wait until a picture of yours appears on an auction site somewhere in the future, or on someone else's site, and who has the time to police all that? I had the problem for years, but once I started watermarking my photos, it ended once and for all. And make sure part of the watermark is on the product. I've actually had people cut the watermark out of the picture when I didn't. Might want to think about it for the future. Congrats on this one. My hat's off to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitn Posted April 25, 2010 Share Posted April 25, 2010 Glad you got it figured out and changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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