plagiarism

A photographer has expressed her disgust after a graffiti artist used her photo as the basis of a giant pro-Russia mural in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

TikTok and Instagram users rose up in a furious plagiarism debate and accused artist Gala Knörr of copying the work of Brooklyn-based photographer dayday.

The contest winner who submitted the winning design for Croatia's upcoming Euro coin has withdrawn his entry and returned the prize money after it was revealed that it bore a striking resemblance to a photo taken by a Scottish photographer in 2005.

OpenSea, one of the largest marketplaces for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), recently put a cap on the number of NFTs that could be minted for free. It was removed after an outcry, but OpenSea revealed that it was added due to massive amounts of misuse.

Back in 2015, Norwegian photographer Stig Håvard Dirdal captured a creative Christmas photo that went viral online. He was recently surprised when he came across a poster for a Russian movie that looked a little too familiar.

A French court has ruled that American appropriation artist Jeff Koons infringed the copyright of French photographer Jean-François Bauret in creating one of his celebrated sculptures, Naked (1988).

On Saturday, PetaPixel ran the story of a photographer whose photo had been imitated to a surprisingly thorough degree by a German ad agency. While a poll on that article suggested that a clear majority (~74%) of respondents saw it as unethical plagiarism, I thought I’d dig into the legal aspects a bit.

Wedding photographer Jasmine Star is probably still recovering from the first slew of plagiarism accusations leveled against her in 2013; however, it seems the saga is entering Episode II. The folks at Stop Stealing Photos are accusing Jasmine of another transgression.

A week ago, Nike released a new viral video (shown above) titled "Ousadia Alegria." Promoting new soccer boots made for Barcelona superstar player Neymar Jr., the video uses a "flo-motion" hyperlapse technique that combines time-lapses and a rapidly changing point of view.

Now one of the major pioneer photographers of that technique, Rob Whitworth, is crying foul. He says that Nike ripped of his work and the work of Australian filmmaker Selina Miles in its new video.

Back in July, writer David Sikorski and photographer Kristina Bakrevski gained quite a bit of attention online after publishing engagement photos of Sikorski and his one true love: the burrito.

The idea was so popular and unusual that McDonald's decided to steal it for a new advertising campaign.

Renowned Belgian artist Luc Tuymans has been found guilty in a plagiarism case after basing one of his paintings on a photo by photojournalist Katrijn Van Giel. Tuymans has been ordered to cease exhibiting and reproducing his painting, and will be fined €500,000 (~$580,000) if he does not comply.

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.

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.

Earlier this morning, we received a tip from a reader (who has chosen to remain anonymous) that Doug Gordon -- who was embroiled in a nasty plagiarism scandal along with Jasmine Star late last year -- is still presenting at WPPI, despite having officially withdrawn in October.

You know, it used to be even photography thieves had to put some work in if they wanted to get a bit of dishonest business, but a new project by the name of Pro-folio shows that just a little bit of code can make stealing photos and creating a whole fake portfolio a one-click affair.

(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.

Last Friday, WPPI Director Jason Groupp announced that Jasmine Star and Doug Gordon withdrew from next year’s conference in light of all the controversy surrounding allegations of plagiarism.

I advocated for this move with many others who saw their transgressions as a violation of trust that affected the entire industry. The outcome seemed proportional to the infraction, and I saw no reason to urge further action. I have no vitriol against either Jasmine or Doug, I just think we all have to own up to our mistakes, pay the piper, and move on.

There are few photo conferences where the enthusiasm is palpable – where everyone from the doe-eyed to the veteran clamors for pearls of wisdom from an accomplished speaker roster. That’s the reality at WPPI where 13,000 wedding and portrait photographers descend upon Las Vegas in the early Spring. Unlike the run-of-the-mill photo conference, this one is filled with people looking to be inspired, and ready to carve a path in the business of photography. It is the conference of optimists and exuberance. I thoroughly enjoy it.

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.

In the two photographs above, the bottom image is a photo-manipulation created using the top image. Are they completely separate works of art? What if we told you the second photo was created without the original photographer's permission and submitted to a contest as an original artwork? What if we told you it actually won?

That all actually happened last year, and the images are at the center of a copyright skirmish.

Tim Olsen Gallery, a prestigious art gallery located in Sydney, Australia, has dropped popular Australian photo artist Ben Ali Ong after it was discovered that some of his photo artworks were actually based on uncredited Getty Images. An exhibition featuring Ong's work, which was set to open this week, was canceled, and a number of art buyers will be refunded.

Try imagining a make-believe creature that has absolutely no basis in reality. Can you? Not really. The truth is, everything imaginary is simply a rehash of things that actually exist... just in a combination that doesn't exist. Aliens are simply strange combinations of humans and other creatures that we know. Unicorns are horses with horns. Bigfoot is some guy that accidentally spilled Rogaine all over his body.

This is the basis for writer Kirby Ferguson's big idea: that "everything is a remix." He created a popular four part video series on this topic over the past year, and recently he was invited by TED to give the condensed, sub-10-minute version of it that's shown above.

Last year I received an email from a photographer acquaintance about some images I had recently shot. I had met this photographer a couple times at a few photography functions and was Facebook friends with him, but I didn’t really know this person well... who really knows all their Facebook friends these days?

If you’re a photographer in the UK, you might want to think twice about shooting and selling a photograph …

Singer Bob Dylan is being accused of plagiarism after several paintings in his recent art show were found to have "striking resemblances" to works by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dmitri Kessel and Léon Busy. An example is Dylan's painting titled Opium (above left), which appears to be directly copied from Busy's Vietnam (above right). A Flickr user also found that Dylan had copied six photographs -- one of which an artificial Photoshop edit -- from his Flickr stream.

At what point does inspiration turn into plagiarism? That's the question that popped up last year when Rhianna was sued by David LaChapelle over scenes found in one of her music videos, and it's the same issue with a lawsuit recently filed by photographer Janine Gordon against photographer Ryan McGinley. Gordon claims that 150 of McGinley's images -- including some used for a Levi's ad campaign -- are "substantially based" on her photos. In the three pairs of disputed images shown above, the ones on the left are by Gordon and the ones on the right by McGinley.