Open letter on theft of materials

[DavidS]

Originally Posted by paulbear

DIG deeper there are many more links on the sight find the home button.

Also Mike here is a sight called the COLLECTOR'S GUILD . It is totally copyrighted. TRY LIFTING A PIC OFF THIS SIGHT

http://www.germanmilitaria.com/

paul

Ummm. Took me all of 2 seconds to lift a pic. off that site, Paul. I won't bother attaching the pic, but I got all the Japenese helmets off that site with no problem. 5-10 minutes in PhotoShop and I'd have all their copyright notices out of 'em too. There are sneak-arounds to just about any 'lock-out' you might try, short of making access to the photos login/password protected, and even then, who do you exclude? If a person joins this forum with the express purpose of enhancing his/her forgery skills, stays under the radar by keeping that a secret, who in Admin is going to prevent them from viewing pix?

I think the best tool for fighting against unauthorized use is to complain to the perpetrator's hosting service, as most respectable ISPs take a dim view of folks posting unauthorized copyright material to their sites, as there are certain liabilities to the host service provider as well. Proven unauthorized use can, in extremes, lead to cancellation of service, account suspension, etc. You need pretty darn good proof of ownership, though, if you follow this route, and probably need an 'e-paper' trail of notification to the offender as well.

[DavidS]

Originally Posted by boots and saddles

Would anyone have the right to copywrite a picture of a badge made by some one else or some other company? copywrite's are expensive. The right click would be a stumbling block though a small one. Ray

The copyright does not apply to the fact that it is a badge, it applies to the fact that you produced the actual photo. As the photographer, you own the rights to any image you produce, hence the copyright notice in things like Charlton catalogues. Copyright in Canada at least is assumed from the point of production of photos, artwork, written work, etc.

[guest_000]

David I am very concerned now about how easy it is to highjack from this sight also have learned the propriertor is using a stolen photo in the luftwaffe
helmet section swipped off another forum never ends it seems

[dragonz18]

Guys,
I understand what Paul is trying to prevent here,the use of good pics to sell bad badges.
Can I say that I would be just a little (or even less) miffed if I could not use 'right click' here ,to save some interesting pics for my files. These are my references of many badge details , usually for my own personal interests only.
Say, a Gaunt made 'Hawke' badge came up for sale, that I was unable to recall the exact right details for( unlikely, but this is an example only situation)....then I know that I have a reference base of some 30+ pictures( from many & varied sources ), labled as both good & bad examples, etc , that I can refer to, for this badge alone !!
Do'nt we all have these types of pics 'saved' ???
Much easier than looking for old threads ?

Cheers !
Steve

[guest_000]

That is fine Steve as long as you are lifting the pictures off the albums with the owners permission on this site. I like the idea of the personal overwrite that is what I use if they lift the picture they get my name with it. The right click obviously is to easy to defeat

[Unknownsoldier]

BTW, if you use firefox, it disables anti-copying and I could copy any photo I wanted (not one photo on the site above that I couldn't copy...........).

BTW, I copy photo's from sites and forums all the time, I do however ask permission if I intend to use it for any papers or theses, and credit accordingly.

Tom

Many things in life are frustrating. Others taking images of YOUR badges for commercial use is frustrating - it's downright annoying. However, stopping folk from doing so is another matter. If you want to protect the images of your collection, the only way to achieve copyright protection within the EU is to publish those images in book or pamphlet form. Publish on the internet and copyright protection goes out of the window - even in the EU as the law stands today. Outside the UK - including Pakistan (we don't do 'Paki') - then no hope whatsoever. Ask any lawyer with a basic knowledge of intellectual property law and they will tell you the same thing. You may as well try to hold back the tide of an oncoming sea - prevention is a non-starter. That is not being defeatist - it is being real - in a real world. So, if nothing else, maybe some Forum members will decide to publish their collections or theme interest as a book or a pamphlet - then you can claim protection under the law. Regards. David

[Jibba Jabba]

Sadly on the internet there are those people who will abuse the generosity of others and use their knowledge for ill gotten gains. It is for members here to decide what knowledge or photographs they are willing to share. However there is another option to solve this crisis and continue as normal......

Adopt the same policy as the British Medal Forum.

- Reduce search engine visability. Have you tried accessing posts to the BMF from search engines? You'll find it isnt possible. I`m sure many dont even sign up for the forum, they just drop in from search engines find the information they want then leave.
- In forum sign up make submission of a contact address a required field.
- Ban all suspect fakers on forum so they do not have access to the data.

[Saddle tree maker]

Paulbear,
I haven't removed your watermark to show how clever I can be, so please don't take offence, but watermark's can be 'removed' and someone with more artistic skills than I could do a much better job.
There is no solution for the theft of online pics IMO, other than not posting them in the first place.
I will add that I think photographing the back of badges is a mistake, as we all know it is the back of a badge that show up the errors - Lug/slider type and placement etc.
STM.

Well Chaps, I've been following this thread with a great deal of interest. As a person who has written books & worked on over 200 books, as well as having a photograph library of First & Second World War interest, I feel I must comment on copywrite. First, the copywrite laws on photographs are some of the most difficult to prove; there are so many twists & turns in the actual law. For example, if a photograph is used in a newspaper, there is no copywrite because it is only in the public domain for one day; if I have an original badge photo & I take a photo of that photograph, most people would say it was a copy but under the copywrite law, I have got an original negative so I now have copywrite of the negative.
In this country nobody in the last 25 yrs has successfully won a copywrite case on photos, so all this argument of stopping the 'right click' or overprinting your name on the photograph, is academic. We are a badge forum, we put the information with our photos on the forum so other like-minded collectors can get the knowledge to continue collecting. As for the repro-ers, in Pakistahn, England, Canada & Australia ( sorry if I've left anybody out), they do not use photos; they get original badges & make dies from them; in the case of cloth, yes, photos do help but even so, they still 'cock-up'. So, as a junior member of this forum, I think it is time we, as a forum, helped our members understand all about reproductions & how to spot them, with photographs & our personal experiences.
Peter

[Jibba Jabba]

Paul, there are better ways to watermark your images. Try some freeware watermark software from the internet. You can literally cover your image top to bottom in ghosted text that would take anyone a very very long time to remove.

Well Chaps, I've been following this thread with a great deal of interest. As a person who has written books & worked on over 200 books, as well as having a photograph library of First & Second World War interest, I feel I must comment on copywrite. First, the copywrite laws on photographs are some of the most difficult to prove; there are so many twists & turns in the actual law. For example, if a photograph is used in a newspaper, there is no copywrite because it is only in the public domain for one day; if I have an original badge photo & I take a photo of that photograph, most people would say it was a copy but under the copywrite law, I have got an original negative so I now have copywrite of the negative.
In this country nobody in the last 25 yrs has successfully won a copywrite case on photos, so all this argument of stopping the 'right click' or overprinting your name on the photograph, is academic. We are a badge forum, we put the information with our photos on the forum so other like-minded collectors can get the knowledge to continue collecting. As for the repro-ers, in Pakistahn, England, Canada & Australia ( sorry if I've left anybody out), they do not use photos; they get original badges & make dies from them; in the case of cloth, yes, photos do help but even so, they still 'cock-up'. So, as a junior member of this forum, I think it is time we, as a forum, helped our members understand all about reproductions & how to spot them, with photographs & our personal experiences.
Peter

[Unknownsoldier]

Exactly, plus original photo's had many copies made and were printed everywhere, so who holds the true copyright after 50-60-70-80-90+++++ years?

Tom

Thank you Peter - I was beginning to wonder if I was alone on a desert island ! Regards. David

[guest_000]

Originally Posted by Jibba Jabba

Paul, there are better ways to watermark your images. Try some freeware watermark software from the internet. You can literally cover your image top to bottom in ghosted text that would take anyone a very very long time to remove.

suggestions please

PAUL

And SADDLE TREE MAKER your post was un necessary and better by PM my words for you can not be posted here