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


 * @Leviathan_89: I am very aware of that. I was referring more to creativity accreditation/recognition rather than actual rights. The best example would be Bungie's relationship with its community (i.e. screenshot edits).— subtank  ( 7alk ) 14:14, August 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * Attention to all Wikians: Pictures from Associated Press, Getty Images, Corbis or other press or photo agencies are not permitted on any Wikia wiki because they didn't constitute fair use. 112.202.64.232 04:43, August 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * Logging in to give us this message would lend it more credence. — Spike Toronto  10:33, August 9, 2011 (UTC)
 * It's also a lie, fair use is a legal defence in copyright law, you can't flat out say that they all don't constitute fair use. --  Random Time  02:06, August 11, 2011 (UTC)


 * Attention to all Wikians: Anonymous cowards are not to be trusted. ;-) -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 10 Aug 2011 8:51 PM 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)

This is funny. It's a facebook game! You seem to think that people "disable the right click", that's just the normal way HTML/CSS pages work, there's no disabling going on. If you want to get/steal that art work you still can and it can be done in a trivial way. At this point I'm not sure you can even claim that the art work the other guy has came from the wiki you edit, he could have gotten it from the game (even the same way you did). I don't mean to bash on you or be rude, it's just that in this case there are a few things that you don't understand and are jumping to accusations.


 * One way to steal it anyway would be to print screen the page, with the picture in full view, then crop it down so only the picture shows. Save it, and there you have it: a copy of the picture.


 * The new editor is a solution in search of a problem. 14:31, August 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * I personally do not feel it is funny, but hey to each their own. I was not stating the photos were mine but I didnt appreciate the hard work i put into making them presentable being jacked out from under me then someone else getting credit for it. I all ready talked to the developers and even they stated my wiki was better than the one they promoted and are going to promote mine also (in fact first before the other one). And i highly doubt the person who took the images just so happened to screen capture it from the game, then go in and edit it in the EXACT same way i did. "oh well it cant be the same" trust me, there are little differences in things that i notice since i did do them and all. I never claimed the work was mine, im talking about the work done on it to present it to a whole was mine. @ Spike the developers had known i existed since i had sent them links to the wiki before i realized the photos were nabbed from my wiki. Besides u all dont know the whole story of how things went down and the actual timeline of how things happened so case and point, its done and over with. Have ur laughs and whatever, i dont care *rolls eyes*, when u work hard on something and someone comes up and claims it as theirs, dont come crying to me.Moranna Valdis 08:31, August 6, 2011 (UTC)

And, by the way, you did say, they are promoting the theft of other people's work, suggesting that you felt you had created an intellectual property right in what he “stole” from you. This is why some of our responses were trying to point out that that was not the case. The other fellow’s behaviour was little different than your own when you captured the images on-screen. Kind of reminds one of the old adage about people who live in glass houses … still, it’s great that they’re going to promote your wiki! — Spike Toronto  09:03, August 6, 2011 (UTC)
 * Moranna, I don’t think that anyone is laughing at you. What some of us were saying, essentially, is that despite all your hard work, there’s not much you can do about the other chap copying it. As for the developers, you kind of prove the point regarding their willful blindness: They know you exist, they know you are using their intellectual property without a licence to do so (i.e., without their express written permission), and yet they don’t raise a stink about it. Why? Because you’re helping promote their product. And, when they add your wiki’s address to their game, they’ll be returning the favour by promoting yours. In a nutshell: Mutual benefit.

Have you tried just leaving a polite message on the other person's user talk page telling them to stop? It's possible they're just going on Google images and your editted versions are the nicest they see every time. Politely asking someone not to do something is surprisingly effective. Manga (talk &bull; contribs) 18:44, August 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * well i know the guy took them from my wikia because he had messaged me originally on my talk page on it and then thats how i found out he was doing a wiki too (just under a different wiki program thingy). i was really just upset at the fact that i did all this work and it was cast off as someone else's work. i all ready had a talk with a developer and have things straightened out. My wikia comes first on the application before the other one and thats fine. it hasnt stopped me from continuing to work on the wikia and getting it out there for others to use. i knew i didnt own the images that i took from the game, because i personally do not work for the company but again it was just about hurt feelings on my part, so sue me im human lol. Moranna Valdis 02:03, August 11, 2011 (UTC)
 * Just to clear things up, your original suggestion of using Javascript to disable right click would be against Wikia's Terms of Use (it's also trivial to disable, and then people can copy anyway, and is against the spirit of wikis) - I hope the conclusion you came to with your talk with the dev was satisfactory. --  Random Time  02:09, August 11, 2011 (UTC)