TinEye

[Manfred M]

I'm curious how you got it to work.

I tried copying and pasting the smugmug links for images I have posted here. TinEye rejects them, saying it can't read the URL. It suggests the problem is format, but the links are JPEGs. I then downloaded a copy of a JPEG that I posted here to my hard drive and uploaded that to TinEye. Even thought that image is on CiC, TinEye didn't find it.

That suggests that the image is not in any of the data that TinEye has indexed.

I had the same issue with the URL link, so I picked a random image, uploaded it and it just happened to find it. Frankly I was surprised that it did. It's not necessarily a result I expected. I know I have had some of my images used without my permission in the past, but if I were that worried about it, I wouldn't post any images.

[DanK]

I tried again using this old image, which I somehow discovered some years ago was stolen:



TinEye again rejected the URL, and when I uploaded the image, it came up with zero hits. then again, the stolen one may have been taken down. But it didn't find it on my Smugmug site either.

[William W]

John - I think you will find that copyright laws are not dissimilar in most countries whose legal code is based on English "common law". The "rights holders" are probably better looked after in the USA and so far as I understand it, Canada has very broad exemptions for "educational purposes". . . . Regardless, no one contacted me for permission to use the image and I'm not that hard to find.. . . Someone along the production chain allowed this to happen. . . . Anything involving what we loosely term as "intellectual property", whether that be patents, copyright, integrated circuit architecture or industrial designs (I believe these are called design patents in the USA) has to be considered by the team doing the creative work. So far as I understand it, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Additionally, Canada is a signatory of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (aka "TRIPS"), I'd bet a Mars Bar you have a solid case of breach both inside and outside Canada.

Apropos of “The "rights holders" are probably better looked after in the USA” –
I think it is easier to find a Lawyer in the USA who specializes in managing successful suits for copyright breaches and who work - no retainer / percentage of the compensation - as their fee.

Certainly I (located in AUS) have only become antsy a few times and engaged a solicitor, and that was not for the primary purpose of fiscal compensation: yet I know a fellow in the USA who makes more money from suing those who steal his stock images, than he does from the sale of his stock images.

WW

[Manfred M]

Bill - while all that might be true, it is my understanding that one is generally required to demonstrate actual likelihood of financial loss to get a reasonable financial settlement. The only "commercial" work that I do is "pro bono" work for groups and organizations that cannot afford the services of a commercial photographer; something I generally do 3 or 4 times a year.

As I don't make any money through my work, there is no financial impact on me.

P.S. - I see it is past midnight your way, so Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas! Hoping that the fires are not affecting you too much.

[William W]

. . . it is my understanding that one is generally required to demonstrate actual likelihood of financial loss to get a reasonable financial settlement. The only "commercial" work that I do is "pro bono" . . .
As I don't make any money through my work, there is no financial impact on me.

P.S. - I see it is past midnight your way, so Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas! Hoping that the fires are not affecting you too much.

My understanding too, you'd need to be 'a business': in USA Canada and AUS.

I am traveling through NSW: the bushfires are constant and the smoke haze is far reaching. Many (most) of the over one hundred in number fires are "not contained", which means the residents are living a life of "alert" and "no idea what tomorrow will have for me". It is a very serious situation.

Thank you for your New Year and Christmas wishes - and these are returned in and to you, personally, and individually to all my CiC colleagues - a group of most wonderful folk.

Bill

[LePetomane]

I couldn't get it to work either. No great loss for me as I'm still in the learning phase and no one would want to steal my photos anyways.

William, funny that you mentioned a Mars Bar. Our property backs up to one of the Mars family ranches.