BAD KARMA TO PEOPLE WHO STEAL BLOGGERS' CONTENT

Well, it seems like everyone's chosen a picture from my food blog and has not given proper attribution where it is due.  It is so prevalent that it's scary.  People have no issue with stealing a picture from the web and posting it next to their recipe or a different recipe.  

The original picture comes from my blog post for Coconut Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding Brûlée (which happens to be awesome).

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THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED AND UPDATED.  Oct.16, 2013.

I have been having a bad Thanksgiving weekend.  I was worrying about all the possible images that I've taken over the last decade on my food blog and other sites and social media that might have been hijacked and used on others' sites. 

I am afraid right now to actually look further into what other images have been stolen or misappropriated without proper attribution (what of my Castle Cake? my Chocolate Rose? my SmallBatchBaking Cookies? my Quinoa Chocolate Cupcakes? my Best Chocolate Cupcakes?)   I do not believe that wilful ignorance is much of an excuse.  Simply "googling" an image and snagging it for use on your site and misrepresenting the image to be yours or an image that reflects a recipe on your post is not only wrong, it's plagiarism.  

I think this is a teachable moment and yet I am not feeling pangs of regret for posting screenshots of offending sites nor commenting on potential untrustworthiness of their other posts.   Perhaps this will be tempered with time. Currently, I'm still seething and have a huge throbbing in my skull from the lack of sleep this has caused me.  Everyone makes mistakes; but it is my hope that foodies come together to better police our own community and remind one another of due diligence when taking images from "googling".  For Pete's sake, people should be creating their own content; both images and text content.  If you can't do it, don't post it.  If you post it, link back to the source.

How can I trust a blogger that doesn't properly attribute images by creating a link back to the original site and owner of a picture?  Can we say it's merely carelessness?  Or perhaps it's the fact that the images are so easily available, copied and pasted? I call it laziness.  Some people don't have the skills to take good pictures nor do they have the inclination.  So go and learn how to create a hyperlink dearies.  It takes 10 seconds to create a linkback to the originating post.

So, here I am deleting part of my previous rant on this post.  I accept Patti's apology.  My husband is saying not to be too harsh on people and to not waste my time following up; yet if I let it go completely I'm just allowing the behaviour to continue and I'm essentially saying that it's okay and it's not important.  We all make mistakes. This I know.  Heck, I tell my students that I make mistakes all the time.  The thing is when you're called on the floor to account for your errors, you have to suck it up and apologize and/or remedy the situation and this takes guts.  It's a helluva lot harder to have to do this publicly after the fact than it is to just take 10 seconds in the first place to follow through with finding the original source of an image, a recipe or a post that you want to use.  I am awaiting followup from KeyIngredient, Pinterest and other sites that I've contacted.  There are so many sites that have now misappropriated my one rice pudding image (which I don't think is even a very good picture...not my best work!)  It's mind-boggling.  

surely this newer image is better than the one circulating?

We food bloggers spend hours setting up for shots and we also care about our content and originality and we don't deserve to be disrespected like this.  It's highly offensive.  Our community frowns on such lazy, careless behaviour online.  There is proper etiquette.  There are laws, for gawdsake!

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WALL OF SHAME.  

THESE ARE SCREENSHOTS OF SITES THAT HAVE MY IMAGE ON IT.  

Some have ignored me or directly refused to delete my image.  I will delete the screenshots of their sites if they satisfy my request of deleting my image from their sites.  Until this happens, they will remain on my Wall of Shame.  A big thank you to people who are immediately deleting it from posts when I request it.  It makes me thankful that there are people out there who know Copyright laws.

WHERE TO START?

GOOGLE IT! People who say they took it from social media are wrong to not follow up if they're going to use an image.  Google it and follow through to see where the originating source is.  If you're not going to take the time to take your own pics, at least follow through for the originating source.   Facebook and Pinterest are not considered originating sources people.  

KEY INGREDIENT.  This site is not easy.  It was the source of most of my stolen images.  They make it much more difficult with all this legal mumbo jumbo that you have to go through in order to actually remove the post whereas JustAPinch, Tastebook, MyDish just did it with me sending through email my link and the offending link.  Also, KeyIngredient had more than one post that had my image on it (from different members).  KeyIngredient has a support email that you can report to.  The problem is I have to scour their site for my images (that are wrongly attributed).  I want to ban Key Ingredient because it is painful and source of many of my woes.  On top of this, even after deleting the image after I have proven it is mine, Key Ingredient let me know that the Key Ingredient member can still contest this.  Wha? omg.  what a load of legal poppycock.  I continue to worry about the thousands of images I have on my blog and who on Key Ingredient has snatched it and put it on another recipe without a proper linkback to my site.

PINTEREST.  This is ongoing.  When I see there is no direct linkback to my site for my image, I report  with the "abuse" button.  So far, so good.  However, people still are continuously pinning the image so it'll be ongoing.  I wish Pinterest could just do this on their own without me having to check all the time.

Pinners everywhere do it.

And since when was Coconut Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding Brûlée an "Old Fashioned Rice Pudding"?  Aiya.  Get me a paper bag.  I'm hyperventilating.

I knew it was bad.  However, I didn't realize the extent of this snagging of pics and attributing it to different content.  This is really bad.  BAD folks.  Stop it.  

JustAPinch: took down my picture in good time.  They replied to my email pretty quickly.  You have to contact them through their copyright section.  help@justapinch.com

FELLOW BLOGGERS:

So grandmothers do it, mothers do it, guys do it, and you never know who will do it in the future to your images because people are starting new blogs all the time and there's this steep learning curve initially where newbie bloggers want to prettify their posts with images yet don't yet know how to linkback/attribute to the original source.  Facebook and Pinterest continue to plague me with worry because I have no control over what people will do.

Devon/"thisisme": from the UK.  I have deleted the screenshot, but know full well that all your posts are now going to be scrutinized by other bloggers looking to see if their images are theirs as well.   I wish you well in your journey to learning how to properly attribute original sources and be a good Digital Citizen.

DEPLICQUE.NET.  Still waiting...

INDULGY.  I have found the tiny itty bitty "i" symbol in the top right corner has the information you need to report copyright infringement.  Still waiting...

here is the offending post!

click on the tiny "i" and you will need to then click on DMCA and fill in the form

WALLPOPER.  I hate this site.  It steals people's images and sells it as wallpaper.  All there is for contact is a Facebook page.  Go there and see.  It is pitiful.  

another photographer commented that her work was stolen too and the watermark cropped off.  

What to do? 

1.  Well, I emailed the sites if they had a "contact" email.   I will let you know what happens for all these sites.  I am hoping people had a momentary lapse that led to their ineptitude.

HERE IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY IN YOUR EMAIL. This is straight from copyright policy that is in their terms of agreement that everyone doesn't read but clicks and agrees to anyway.

For Key Ingredient:

Key Ingredient does not knowingly violate or permit others to violate the copyrights of
others. It is our member’s responsibility to make sure that they do not post content that
violates the copyrights of others.

As outlined in the Safe Harbor clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), it
is required for you to submit any claims of copyright infringement to our registered agent
via email at copyright@keyingredient.com. You will find the copyright information on our
terms of service at http://www.keyingredient.com/terms/

If you are the copyright owner, or are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner,
please notify our Copyright Agent immediately of any claim of copyright infringement.
As soon as we receive your notice of claimed infringement, in the form described below,
we will promptly remove or disable access to materials that are claimed to be infringing
(or the subject of infringing activity) within 3 business days of receiving the copyright
infringement notice. Your notice must be in writing and must include the following:

 • a description of the copyrighted work you believe has been infringed (or if you               
   believe multiple copyrighted works have been infringed, a representative list);
 • a description of the material you believe is infringing or the subject of infringing 
   activity, together with enough information to permit us to locate the material;
 • enough information to permit us to contact you such as your name, address, 
   telephone number and, if available, e-mail address;
 • a statement that you have a good faith belief that the allegedly infringing use of 
   the material was not authorized by the owner of the exclusive right that is     
   allegedly infringed (the "copyright owner"), an agent for the copyright owner, or 
   by law;
 • a statement that all of the information you have provided is accurate; and
 • a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or 
   are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Your notice must be signed (physically or electronically) and must be addressed via email
to copyright@keyingredient.com.
Even though I am an English teacher, the above boxed information really didn't help me.  However, after I sent a request to delete another image from a post, I got a response that required me to frame my request in legal mumbo jumbo.  What a pain.  Just do it.  Here is their form letter that you can just fill in:

To whom it may concern:

The following information is presented for the purposes of removing web
content that infringes on our copyright per the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act. We appreciate your enforcement of copyright law and support
of our rights in this matter

The URLs of the infringing content is as follows (with the URL for the
copyrighted original post below each infringing URL)

Link to infringing content here
Link to Copyrighted content here

Copyright owner contact information:

Name
Address
phone number

I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described
above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorized by the
copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification
is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on
behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Signed on this day, Todays date

Your Name

For JustAPinch:

email: copyright@justapinch.com  or help@justapinch.com

All I had to do was copy and paste two hyperlinks.  The first one is my post with the original image; saying it was mine.  The other link is the one with the stolen image.  Then sign your name (typed is okay) and send it.

Here is an example of what I did:

Please look at this post and image on your site.
http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/moms-old-fashioned-rice-pudding.html

This is my image. Please delete from your site.

http://cakeonthebrain.blogspot.ca/2013/10/bad-karma-to-people-who-steal-bloggers.html

For Tastebook:  I emailed their support...  support@tastebook.com
and did the same as above.  Also got a quick delete and reply from their end.

MyDish is UK.    They deleted the image straight away from the post but there is still a ghostly thumbnail with my image. I have no idea how to get rid of that.  Unfortunately, I had to become a member in order to access their support.

FOR ALL OTHER BLOGS/SITES you have to contact the blog administrator (owner) directly, in which case you will encounter all kinds of people.  Some don't respond. Some will feign ignorance.  Some will be nice bloggers and quickly apologize and delete.  It takes all kinds of people, folks.  

2.  I am sad to say that I may have to watermark my images in the future.  I was dreading doing this because it simply doesn't look good; however, I am starting to lose my faith in some foodies.  I thought we were better than this.  

3.  No Satisfaction?  People ignoring you or outright refusing? 

Post to the Wall of Shame, "PhotoStealers".  Or create your own.

4.  What to do when people steal your photos.  Great post.

5.  And/or follow up legally.  

So a call out to all foodies out there.  Thank you to the commenter (Mary, from sweetlittlebluebird.com) on my site who told me about this rice pudding pic getting hijacked all around the 'net.  Now, we need to police ourselves and people who are ignorant about the proper way to attribute images/pics.  CREATE A LINKBACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST/SITE!  I will stop yelling now.  I am more than slightly perturbed.  Excuse me. All decorum is lost.   Foodies, when you see something improperly attributed (wrong post, wrong pic, wrong content) do something about it.   Take action; don't stand by and let this sort of thing happen.  It can happen to you too!

By the way,  if you google "Rice Pudding" and find my image and it doesn't link back to me, let them have it.  And you can leave a comment on this post with a hyperlink letting me know.   The more I dig, the more I find.  I will have to stop or it'll eat me up.  I am quite sad.

Here is how you can find if your content is being stolen without proper attribution.

p.s.

Mary, you rock!  thanks for trying to fix things.  

I am sad about watermarking. It sux.