I just noticed a minute ago that an auction on eBay for a silver round is using a photo of mine to sell their product. For certain I posted that photo in this forum and it's possible in one other coin/stacker forum as well. What should I do...if anything? The photo of mine the seller is using....well, they put their own logo on the image. I don't want to embarrass the seller or get the seller in trouble but I'm also concerned that if I don't say something now, I could regret it later for some reason. I also sell on eBay, though I'm not a dealer. Am I making a big fuss over nothing? Should I just let it slide? .
It's just a photo. I don't think it's a big deal unless it's a graded coin or a one of a kind item. I have used other people's photos for common items before, when i was at work with free time to post but didnt have time take a picture. although I have never watertagged them as my own
Could be a copyright violation? I would email the seller and tell them to stop. If it is your photo I would think they would remove it? Just my opinion. Jim
You should sue! Sue the seller, sue eBay, sue the mint! In all seriousness, I've had not just listing titles but entire written descriptions, verbatim, lifted from me. At first I used to get a little pissed.. Now I look at it as a compliment. I suppose it's karma, because I've used other sellers' photos before.. :lol: (Mainly due to a crappy camera at the time.) If the listing is for fairly common stuff? I see it happen all the time. Though I've never put any logo on it (after ripping it off), which is kind of a dick move.. Up to you, but I wouldn't press it too hard. And as mentioned, perhaps next time slap a watermark/logo on, yourself, beforehand, if it bothers you that much.
I'm probably the one that lifted all that info from Gaaaaaatito. Hey, imitation is the best form of flattery. I'm not sure why this gets folks all lathered up. I scratch my head some times.
You can ask the seller to remove it. Otherwise you can report it to eBay and they will remove it. That is what I did a few years back.
Up to a certain point, anyway.. There is a blurred line of where it starts becoming more of a blatant, intentional rip-off, stealing the resources of somebody for one's own personal gain. For somebody who just took a quick photo for informational purposes, then a part-time seller used it for a one-time thing selling a couple pieces? Don't see much harm in that. For somebody who spent a boatload of resources on the photos (yet for some reason didn't protect them when they should have??), then a full-time dealer uses them to sell thousands of pieces? Yeah, gonna start getting a little dicey. And from I understand, even watermarks can oftentimes be removed, if one has the right knowledge/tools. BTW, not sure how many are aware, but when somebody uploads & publicly posts a photo here on SS, and leaves it up for a certain amount of time, it *will* become publicly searchable via Google Images or whatever. In which case, the thief-in-question might not even necessarily be a member of any said forum(s). Don't believe me? Do a Google Image search for "Perth Mint vintage bar"
Send a message demanding 50% of the sales proceeds as he is using your photo without prior permission
Thanks for all the suggestions comrades. Well, a good picture can actually sell a product better than any description or anything else, so you are not too far off in that line of thinking even if you are only joking. I have purchased quite a number of coins, medals, and rounds based solely or primarily on pictures of the coin/medal/round. I think I will just let it slide at this point, though the fact that the seller put their own logo on my picture is, as Gatito stated, a dick move. After reading the seller's profile, the seller isn't a dealer and has been on eBay for 15 years with under 1,000 transactions. The other thought I had is how would I convince someone that the picture is actually my property? Just because I state it is? I could have gotten the same picture off the internet and just claim it's my photo. For those who have contacted someone else for using their photo, how would you have proved it was actually your photo if the person would have demanded proof? .
It is certainly a copyright violation. The person who takes the photo owns it, and nobody else can use that photo without their permission. Also copyright of photos lasts for 70 years after the death of the photo owner, so royalties can continue to collected long after the original copyright owner has died. You should at least let the offender know he has broken the law and give him the opportunity to remove the pics.
Most (all?) digital cameras create 'exif' data as part of the photo capture process. I'm not sure what EBay would consider as proof of ownership but I would guess emailing them the original photo with exif data would suffice. You can search for exif data or use this link http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/exif-photo-data-find-understand/ if you're interested in knowing about exif.
If you don't care then I would not make a big deal of it. If you were selling the same item and it was a competitor I might ask them to stop. Otherwise, as Gatito said just consider it a compliment and move on. There has to be a more fruitful endeavor to invest your time in.
I've found my pictures being used more than a few times, realistically there's very little that can be done after the fact. If you do't want your shots used, watermark them in a way that would be very hard to eliminate.
I dont see a problem really! Its not as if you want the pic as your own property rights to sell as a photographer. The seller has watermarked the pic to stop other ebay sellers using that exact same pic in the same auction page but you can still use the non watermarked pic if you stored it,if not you can just re copy it from your original post on here or google, you can also use it along side the watermarked pic and the seller can do nothing. The biggest problem is a buyer may not be getting a coin of the same quality shown in the pic but this is also the responsibility of the proposed buyer to ask if its the same, its only the sellers responsibility if they state they are selling the coin in the pic. Send the seller a message if its annoyed you and tell them they have violated copy rights by watermarking your property.
Chip sort of does this with all the pics he posts here. even though it would be not so hard to eliminate the "chip"from the pics most people would just move on to a pic they could use without needing to photoshop it.
You automatically get copyright protection as soon as you take the photo. However, if you want to make it easier to prove it's yours you could add the copyright symbol, your name and year, to the photo.
ebay does only care about their profit. i did claim using my pics a few times with no result. only thing you can do is using a watermark in future.
