Forum:Photo Theft!

'''This is going to sound stupid, but is their a way to block someone from stealing pictures off of your wikia? Like how some websites or whatever disable the right click? '''The wikia i am working on, i took the pictures from screen captures and edited them myself (so they looked nice) and someone came up, made another wiki (not wikia) and totally ripped off some of my pictures that i worked hard on! What's even worse is the wiki this other person is working on (who i have talked to and is just some other random person who does wikis for games for fun and not business) got the developers of the game to promote it on their game, so in essense they are promoting the theft of other people's work!

ok sorry for that ranting, it was mainly for informational purposes... sorry if it came across as whining. >.< Moranna Valdis 07:10, August 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * No, you dont own those pictures, the game developers do. If someone is taking your images they are allowed to so long as they are doing so in a way that qualifies as fair use.--


 * lame! ok ty >.< Moranna Valdis 07:29, August 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * You could, however, inform the developers of the game that you are the author of the edited pictures/photos. If they like your work, you should be credited/given some recognition at best.— subtank  ( 7alk ) 09:05, August 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * You can't to that because, as well as a technical problem, is a matter of copyright license: first, if you edit screen shots, then most probably you are using those images on fair use, because even if you edited the pics, you still don't own the copyrights of them, second if you create the image yourself, then you can choose the license of it, but usually one choose a free license like the CC-BY-SA, but with this license, for example, whoever took your picture must provide the author (you) and the source. So just make some license templates and pretend that the others provide the right license informations. I made a little guide on my wiki or you can read more on wikipedia.


 * Any way we can get some links to images? I sense alot of guessing going on. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 4 Aug 2011 8:42 AM Pacific

So let me make sure I’ve got this right. You violated copyright by stealing images off your screen, then made some minor manipulations of them in an image editing application, and think that somehow that produced a new and unique copyright for you?! What you’re upset about is that the other fellow is a more efficient thief than you, and he’s the thief the copyright-holding developers decided to give a get-out-of-jail-free card as well as promotional support. Perhaps you should contact the developers and let them know that they’ve backed the wrong guy. The guy they backed was merely the receiver of stolen merchandise while you were the actual “burglar” of first instance. Look: scanning, screen capturing, etc., does not create in your effort a copyright. The creators remain the copyright holder, or anyone else to whom they may have sold their copyrights. You may think that somehow it’s a collaborative effort that somehow gains you a legal interest in the result. It ain’t. For such “collaboration” to have that effect, the other party — the creator — has to not only know that you exist (which they most likely don’t), but to have also agreed formally to the collaborative exercise, and agreed that you will receive some degree of copyright in the process, rather than compensation or merely the pleasure of having done the work. They haven’t. If you don’t believe me, just ask any number of rappers who’ve been successfully sued for sampling the work of other artists. In this case, because your work on your wiki serves to promote their product, they choose to be willfully blind to the appropriation of their property. Doing so is of mutual benefit. However, if you start putting © Moranna Valdis on their product, that could change. Bottom line: You have no recourse against the individual that “stole” your work. — Spike Toronto  08:18, August 5, 2011 (UTC)