Another Day, Another Site Ripping Off Your Flickr Images, This Time It’s Wapfever.com
Wapfever.com, seems to be an image downloading site similiar to imagelogr that was shut down yesterday. This time they are hosting your images without attribution or links back and allowing people to download your images directly from the site under their wallpaper section.
Check your flickr name here to see which images of yours they are ripping off.
Thanks to Burnt Umber again for the heads up.
There’s a thread on this in the Flickr Help Forum (where I’ve been permanently banned it would appear) here.
it seems that there are quite a few websites that are stealing material — so many of mine… the list is in the original post.
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
A response in the help thread you’re banned from, that a FLickr member got from WapFever was:
“the. image search im using is a google script, so go talk to google if you don’t want your images to be downloaded freely. thanks”
This appears to be true. If you do a search on Google for:
site:flickr.com “your_username_here”
It seems to return almost exactly the same images as those that appear on WapFever. So this might be a problem with how Google is crawling your Flickr stream and exposing the URLs.
lol. did they just move?
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
what a bunch of assholes, they also have a stack of my photos…..
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
Well they got one of my photos. What do you guys think would be the appropriate course of action?
Well, the interesting thing is that they do offer a "Download Original" option, but it isn't actually the Original size, it's the 500×333 preview at 96 dpi. I do not allow the "All Sizes" option to public viewers, so perhaps that's why they aren't able to get to my originals. For quite some time now I have only been uploading images that are around 1200px on the longest side and with reduced dpi. Do any of you allow public downloads? And if so, are they providing your original sizes? But there is still no link back to my Flickr pages. I only include a small signature on most of my pics. I don't really want to go back and add huge watermarks that detract from my photos, but it looks like I might not have a choice.
While my photos aren't as desirable and therefore less likely to be stolen than those created by many of you, this is still pretty effed up!
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
[...] Thomas Hawk Digital Connection » Blog Archive » Another Day, Another Site Ripping Off Yo… [...]
I copyleft everything I contribute to the internet (and elsewhere). But I don't do it so people can build spammy douchebag sites atop my freely distributed content.
Meh, it doesn't matter.
There is a massive amount of sleaze on the internet today. It all seems to revolve around Marketing lists, ripped content, multiple link-throughs, and SEO assholes. Granted, there are a handful of people that use some of the above for good… but it's a mighty small hand.
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
“the. image search im using is a google script, so go talk to google if you don’t want your images to be downloaded freely. thanks”
Yeah, did the Google image search but in every case clicking on the image sends me back to the original Flickr page. To me that isn’t a violation. What this site is doing is.
According to whois he’s in the US and is hosted by GoDaddy. I emailed GoDaddy and asked them what they were going to do.
Anyone in the US with a copyright office registered image being ripped off by wapfever? They might like to send him a bill for a substantial fee, and he might get the message.
Without the linkback it’s definitely not acceptable, but is only easily chased up by those in the same country. Print Screen for reference, and $200 per image would be a low end starting point.
One of my copyright registered images is on there. I’ll talk to my Copyright professor on Monday to see what she recommends I do.
I tried contacting them using the form they have on-site, requesting they remove my images immediately. I also included an invoice for $600US per image for their use up to date.
An autoreply came back saying: “Do NOT try that! ! “
i upload only 1200px and don't allow the 'all sizes' button either — i see the max resolution they can use from my images is 660px — that must be a blown-up version of the 500px on my flickr page.
i have 'all rights reserved' but i normally don't mind if people link back to my flickr page — unless i find the related content around which it's posted to be objectionable.
and what @trench said about the massive am't of sleaze..
This comment was originally posted on Google Buzz.
“An autoreply came back saying: “Do NOT try that! !”"
I got that too but it was because I put a URL in the message I was sending them. Once I removed the URL the message went through.
So frustrating. For the little guys like me, its tough to deal with. I don’t have the know-how or resources to deal with all this stuff. I am hoping as a whole, we can take care of this like imagelogr.
Its not that I am so important that I am losing money left and right by them ripping off my images, but its the principle and it really pisses me off!
Chad
They have 7 of my images which is probably small potatoes in comparison to everyone else. Oy! Somehow I was hoping that it wouldn’t happen to me. Let’s see what happens.
Interesting. A few of my shots are on there, and they didn’t even have the courtesy to pick my best ones. I share mine under a non-commercial, share-alike Creative Commons license, so I don’t know if that agreement works for something like this or not.
What makes it so annoying is how bloody convoluted it is to get your stuff taken off these types of websites.. All the links to get your stuff taken off wapfever are in my latest blog post for quick access if you want them.. ( http://gtvone.com/2010/05/24/who-stole-your-photographs-what-can-you-do/ ) Thomas, you can bin the link if you want..)
Best,
Sime
Just out of interest I’ve sent them two takedown notices so far and heard nothing
Hi Thomas
Thanks for the heads up. I was suprised to find my work there too – taken from Flickr, istockphoto.com (yes it’s watermarked), and my Blogger blog.
I have reported them to both Godaddy (their host) and istockphoto who should have a claim too.
[...] Thomas Hawk Digital Connection » Blog Archive » Another Day … [...]
They were shut down last night… all hail the takedown notice..
S
I have to say Thomas that you have a reach in the photographic community that can get stuff done
Two sites mentioned on your blog as copyrights infringers and within a few days both have been shut down
Very Well Done
Now if only I can get you to give me a boost in traffic and blog about my site!!! LOL
I’d be happy to be involved in shutting down an infringing site any day!
As you find em let us know and we will do our thing
Cheers Richard Keech
Yeah, thanks for the heads up. Got word via twitter and submitted takedown notices to Godaddy and the Registrar Proxy “domains by proxy”
Very happy to see godaddy took them down. It’d be nice if I could get that half hour of my life back.
They’re now re-directing to wapstack.mobi.
So far I can’t find any evidence of them running the same scam from that domain.
But interested folks might want to do a whois. Because it reveals full contact details for the .mobi domain.
Not that I’m suggesting it’s the same person behind both sites of course….
[...] Thomas Hawk Digital Connection » Blog Archive » Another Day, Another Site Ripping Off Yo… [...]
[...] Thomas Hawk Digital Connection » Blog Archive » Another Day, Another Site Ripping Off Yo… [...]
[...] Thomas Hawk Digital Connection » Blog Archive » Another Day … [...]