On the prowl

[pecunium]

People steal things.

Some people steal photos. I know it. I could get all upset about it. I could make it harder for people to make copies of things I post on the web. What I do, instead, is post them at a low resolution (rarely more than 125 dpi, which is usually enough to get me to a screen size of 800 pixels in the long axis).

If someone wants to take a photo, and make a print... so what. It won't be as good as I can do it. If they aren't going to buy a print, then they aren't going to buy a print. It might work to convince them to buy one later (sharing is good for you). I don't really think of that as stealing. If they hang it on the wall, and someone asks them where they got it, I might get a word of mouth sale from it. It's small potatoes.

But there are different sorts of thieves. There are thieves who will take your work and pass it off as their own.

Now that, I care about.

So, travelling to and fro on the web (as ya' do), I saw a piece about a search engine: Tiny Eye.

It's in beta right now, and invite/request only. It's a really interesting piece of stuff. One doesn't enter a search string, one enters an image; and they crawl the web looking for that image elsewhere. They can find crops, collages, and I don't know what all.

You enter the url for the imag, and it searches, or you can upload it.

If you are using Firefox, you can get an extension which allows a context menu item when you right click.

Right now I have three invitations, so if some of you are interested, drop me a line.

Comments

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

I am very interested in this and would like an invite please.

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

Oh... and that would be schwa242@yahoo.com

[feonixrift.livejournal.com]

This could also be useful perhaps, if one finds an image of dubious or unknown origin, for tracking it down to properly attribute / ask permission / etc.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

I'd like to try it; some stuff is out there with permission (a GPS guide to NYC for example, or stock sites) but you never know. However, if pros and people even more serious ask for an invite, I can wait. But if you have one now, that would be nice.

ann.hughes@mchsi.com if you have a spare.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I suspect I'm too late, but I'd really like one if you get some more.

[wetdryvac.livejournal.com]

Definitely interested - I make part of my living as an artist, and the ability to track down folks claiming my stuff to be their own would be lovely.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Just what I've been looking for these past ten years. If it works it's an app I will gladly pay to use.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

This is one of those "How the heck do they do that?" moments.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

My images are posted on my website, and I get the logs, so I can tell when someone has linked to one of mine on their own site.

K. [this has happened at least once. I don't keep a close watch on it]

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

But that doesn't tell you when someone downloads it, and then hosts it elsewhere; as their own work.

This helps. So far it's small, for certain values of small, with only 700 million images being searched (I don't pretend to know just how they do it).

I can however, say that you Dr. Plotka and JBru are all using that icon in some way. :)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

The "some way" is our icon showing up in their journals because one of us commented there.

K.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I emailed and asked to join the beta, and got an invite directly. And the very first photo I tried came up with six hits. To be fair, it's not exactly an ordinary picture -- I have a photo of a red squirrel on my blog that appears as one of the images at the top of every google hit for the word 'squirrel'. But I found a big news site using it; a site that is selling t-shirts with the image on, and so on.

This website is a fabulous find.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they got to you more quickly than I did.

Good luck with the t-shirt people. And pray the, "Orphan Works" bills don't pass.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I thought orphan works was about old abandoned work, not something that says 'go ahead, steal copyright photos from around the internet'.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The change they are trying to make is this.

If a person/entity makes a "reasonable" effort to find the holder of a copyright, and fails... the work is orphaned.

In effect (according to the guy who runs the copyright office), once the laws being proposed are passed; and in effect, there will be registries, not paying these private companies = having an orphan work.

And you can reclaim your copyright, but because they searched a registry, they are off the hook for damages, or even payment.

Futher, if I take your image, and register it... I own it, unless you, in a timely manner, prove it's yours.

So imagine having to pay... $5 per image on your flickrstream, to avoid it becoming public domain.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

That sounds very, very cool. I hope it scales - that would be a great thing.

Photos

[xenolee.livejournal.com]

Hi, Terry

Did you ever take any photos of the LASFS (buildings, people at meetings, whatever) that you'd be willing to let us put up on the LASFS website (http://www.lasfsinc.info)? We would, of course, credit you, give a link to your LJ or any other website you prefer, and put an appropriate copyright notice on each photo as you wish.

--Lee Gold, webstaffer (write me by clicking "webmaster" on the LASFS website)

Re: Photos

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes, but no.

I have some slides, somewhere, from 10-15 years ago. When I run across them I'll scan some, and forward jpgs to you.