Congrats on getting some money out of it!

Way to go!

congrats, it must surely be sweet revenge for you. I wonder if you could find someone who knows how to trace the origin of the thief and report them to the IP,etc.
 
An associate of mine used to work as  OSP Consultant and Team Lead and QA Training,  and in casual conversation once told me how they managed to trace out some obsessed pervert stalker who kept preying and harassing some of the top players.
They were able to find the bloke and got him banned from the network.
It would be a more satisfying double revenge if you could get this thief exposed and make it an example to dissuade potential copycats.

Whatever the case, I am happy for you. I think most internet fraud thrive on the assumption that not everyone can retain a lawyer, or know someone who can help. However, these days with fraud getting more prevalent, I notice that there are more recourse , such as  hackers networks sprouting to give the abusers a good run for their money. There are some very brainy hackers out there who would do this for free, as they get tired of other hackers giving them a bad name.
 
A bit OT here, but, I like to say Hooray to you.

It's funny how compassionate we are when we are defrauded by a lady, isn't it?
But having work in sales , I have learn not to be so compassionate, as many professional shoplifters are "female"; "grandmothers", etc. Even had one professional scammer who emailed me for tuition claiming to be a "lady" from Geneva, only to call me sounding like a nigerian male from Toronto.

Lately we have found crooks from police constable growing weed in their basement, to grandmothers running some shady operations. That's why they are so successful, they know the best way to pull the wool over our eyes.

It's funny how compassionate we are when we are defrauded by a lady, isn't it?...

Yes, I think there is truth to your statement.

I must clarify though that there were no "special" procedures applied in the "prosecution" of "her".

I've been contacting so many people about stolen images that I really don't care anymore if they are young, old, Chinese, American, mother, child, sister, neighbor, doctor or whatever else.

If I can shut them down efficiently I will do so or if I see that I can get some compensation out of it.

It was understandable too, as many teenage magazine freelance writers are spreading this misinformation re: music, TV, film,etc.. so naturally stock photos "RF" falls into this dome of free use without pay.

Well, that's where I draw the line. Even as freelance writers you need to accept the fact that you are contributing to the media industry in some way. As in every business it's vital to know the rules AND laws. If you don't care what your business is about you won't be very successful. Especially these people need to be made aware of such misunderstandings.

Furthermore, the image that has been used for Zazzle was used for a reason: it's a good image. People: use common sense. Obviously many, many people still believe that good images are made by photographers for free for everyone. Doesn't it ring a bell to at least make an effort to find out about the usage rights? Of course we all here know that but I totally believe that writers, editor, ad agencies, freelance designers should know how image licensing works (at least to some extent). Probably useless to ask for even that.

Quote from: Perseus on July 10, 2009, 10:01

It's funny how compassionate we are when we are defrauded by a lady, isn't it?

Or by 80 year old pensioners remember these?

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1020752_pensioners_admit_art_fraud

David

exactly David. we keep forgetting that crooks grow up and get older. when they do, they don't reform, they get better and more invisible because "old people and women don't rob banks, or commit industrial espionage, credit card fraud,etc.." lol

that petty thief kid that used a fishing rod to pull my father's rolex from his bedside table is how old nowadays? something like 80 years old today, more or less. i am sure he is still ripping off people
except his grandchildren is running the business, and he is having weekly party on his yacht, lol.

not everything we see is just in the movies. script writers don't just get these revelations in their sleep. good link, David.  thx !

A useful tineye.com tool would be able to take your entire portfolio and find similars on a certain site, like zazzle or whatever, instead of one by one, everywhere online.

Good job on your new cash!

Pure luck.

I used tineye as well to find many abusers.

But as every long (or medium) time shooter will agree, in the end it's barely worth spending time on copyright infringement. Only if you have major corporations abuse your stuff it's worth going after. Everything else is pretty much a waste of ones time.

since IM no longer istock exclusive I'm spreadking my images on other sites...including cafepress zazzle....so that covers more territory ahahaha

Good luck with that. You could have been doing that even while exclusive. As long as they were your images, that is perfectly allowed under their exclusive contract.