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      07-07-2017, 12:40 PM   #1
dcstep
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Photo-theft On This Forum

I hope this doesn't shut down this Forum, but wallpart.com is stealing images off this Forum and offering them for sale as Posters.

For myself, as dcstep, and others that use Flickr as host, it'll show our images, but when you click on one to buy, it'll say, "Sorry, At this moment the poster Out of stock."

When I Search for Gary88, for instance, I get pages of listings, offering his work for $5.99 to $7.59. I suspect that the style of hosting determines whether than can produce a print. Test it with your user name that you use here.

Here's an in-depth article about another photographer's run-in with this site:
https://photographylife.com/how-to-d...ft#more-133934

The author of the link says that this is really a phishing site, that's using credit card information for other purposes. It seems to be based in the UK and avoids prosecution, partly by hiding behind privacy curtains.

It seems to me that they have a search engine embedded in their site, so when I type in my user name "dcstep" it's doing a search at that moment and finding images on Flickr and here, where I use that handle. The next step is to try to sell the image. Maybe because I've selected "Prevent Right-click" in Flickr settings, its engine can't grab the image, so it says, Out of stock. I'm just guessing.

There's something called "Deep Linking" where the image is not hosted by the site you're viewing, but, instead, what you see is a display of the image on the link. In my case, it's showing my Flickr image and not hosting it locally. My attorney tells me that Deep Linking is a grey area and the court cases between the thieves and the good guys is mixed. Right now, he doesn't want to pursue on deep linking cases on a contingency basis.

I think that Deep Linking is what's happening to me with wallpart.com. I don't like it, but if they can't actually sell my image, then it might be looked at as free advertising. If someone actually sees my stuff and wants it, then they might track me down.

In the case that your stuff is being offered for sale, I thought that you'd like to know.
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