Photo Stealers, a website that has investigated and identified people who steal photos for over a decade, has become embroiled in increasingly expensive legal battles and was even brought offline by an alleged photo thief earlier this week.
If you've read a tabloid recently—or simply haven't been hiding beneath a rock—you've probably heard about the 'wedding photographer from hell' who showed up late, delivered bad pictures, and spent time taking selfies in the photo booth. But the drama doesn't end there.
It was bound to happen eventually, but it still caught us by surprise when it did. Found last night and published earlier today, Photo Stealers' Corey Ann discovered that one of her images had been used by another 'photographer' who is passing off a whole bunch of other photographers' images as her own.
It's a shame that the digital age brought with it such widespread copyright infringement and, sometimes, downright theft, but it's a reality we have to live with. Fortunately, there's a new website up on Tumblr that is looking to help expose the people who are taking credit for other's work, and in the process help to cut down on some of the blatant infringement many photographers deal with week in and week out.
The founder of PhotoStealers, Corey Balazowich, has started a GoFundMe in order to pay for mounting legal fees that she has accumulated defending herself against a photographer she accused of stealing images in January. She also claims multiple instances of harassment against her.
Many of you are familiar with the website PhotoStealers, which acts as "a wall of shame... dedicated to photographers that feel that it's okay to steal others work and post it as their own." Photo theft is expertly weeded out and exposed by the site's creator, who has taken on some big names including Jasmine Star and Doug Gordon.
The most recent PhotoStealers post, however, might reach even more epic proportions than the Star/Gordon shame-fest. It involves one Christopher Jones of CJ Photography and, before long, might involve a defamation lawsuit as well.
Some artificially intelligent (AI) photo editing apps that claim to generate selfies were found to be hiding malware that infects a user's smartphone device.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) has captured a massive and stunningly detailed photo of the Pillars of Creation, a celestial region that gives birth to new stars.
A pet photographer is in hot water this week after other photographers noticed that many of his photos were actually composites in which animals were digitally inserted into gorgeous landscapes captured by other photographers.
“American Chopper” star Paul Teutul has lost a copyright infringement lawsuit and is being ordered by a judge to pay the photographer over a quarter of a million dollars for using photos without permission.
Controversy erupted back in February after it was discovered that award-winning Australian photographer Lisa Saad had won numerous prestigious photo contests with images that may have been created using other photographers' photos. A number of major organizations have now decided to strip Saad of her prizes and memberships.
Lisa Saad is considered one of Australia's top photographers and has won numerous prestigious photo contests both in her country and internationally. But Saad has now come under fire with serious accusations of stealing other people's photos without credit for her prize-winning photos.
A few months ago, a girl came in to apply for a social media position at my last job. I was one of three photographers at the company and we had an opening for another photographer position. She mentioned to the HR recruiter that she also does photography.
When photographer Steve Arklay discovered his photo on someone else's Instagram account, posted without credit or permission, he didn't send a takedown request. Instead, he started a dialogue with the photo thief, trying to buy a print of his own photograph.
I had a wonderful opportunity today in that I got to enjoy the company of Pulitzer Prize-winner photojournalist David Turnley in the setting of my very own classroom. He was very personable, very intelligent, and even made us all stand up and touch each other's faces to make the point of what photojournalists, street photographers, and portrait photographers do: we create a more intimate viewpoint into someones life that we typically (and this especially true for us mid-westerners) don't experience on a day-to-day basis.
In light of recent reports of repeat plagiarism and other less-than-savory business practices, Nikon has officially removed wedding photographer and educator Doug Gordon from its ambassador program.
Dear Photography Thieves,
I’ve always known you were out there, even in the days of film. In a photography world filled with negatives and prints, you crept quietly in the shadows and, let’s face it, it was harder then, wasn’t it? But now, with the digital age and that glorious thing called social media, it’s so much easier. It’s really a boom time for you. It’s like you hit pay dirt. And, after reading a month’s worth of Photo Stealer’s entries, all I can say is: You. Must. Be. Exhausted.
Purloining somebody else's photos to promote your photography business has become depressingly common lately, but occasionally a new cretin comes forward to push the practice to a new level of sadness.
Thou shalt not steal.
It's one of the first things we learn as kids: don't take something that doesn't belong to you. And it's a hard lesson to learn, for as children, we feel the entire world belongs to us. I learned this lesson the hard way. No, I didn't shoplift...I stole little metal ashtrays from a Burger King in Panama City, Florida. I did it. I admit it.
Getting your work copied, ripped off and/or stolen is a sad reality in the digital age. In fact, earlier this year we shared a website dedicated to ousting copycats and were shocked at how much copyright infringement was really out there. But where finding your work on another "photographer's" website would be startling enough, how would you feel if you found it while browsing a major art show?
Watermarks are a controversial topic. Many believe they ruin your images, and are so easily removed that there's no point in adding one. Others see it as a necessary hurdle they would like to place in a potential photo stealer's way.
If you happen to fall in the latter camp, Phlearn's Aaron Nace would like to show you a simple way to create a custom brush that will take care of your watermarking needs for good, and offer a few tips on how to apply that watermark so that it doesn't outright ruin your images.
(Private Video -- Use password "stolen")
Often there's a fine line between inspiration and theft. But watching side-by-side comparisons of wedding workshops conducted by videographers Adam Forgione and Rob Adams, it's hard not to conclude there's wholesale plagiarism going on.
The OnePlus 10 Pro has finally launched outside China, and the camera array is the centerpiece to illustrate how much it wants to be among the best you can get your hands on.
Photographer, photography teacher and Nikon Ambassador Doug Gordon -- the same Doug Gordon who only just began truly recovering from the plagiarism scandal he was caught up in last year -- is being accused of plagiarism yet again by photography wall-of-shame site PhotoStealers.