Why MySpace sucks

[srwatters]

So I found some of my images on this guys MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/randyrags

He's uploaded them to PhotoBucket here:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n43/Lildwayne21_01/

Of course there is no way to contact him and PhotoBucket has this policy:

Originally Posted by PhotoBucket

5. Copyright Infringement.

Photobucket.com respects the intellectual property rights of others. However, you agree that Photobucket.com is not responsible for any violations of any intellectual property rights in any images or content posted to Photobucket.com. You understand that by using these Services that your images will be publicly available to others and that Photobucket.com has no obligation to prevent the unauthorized copying, dissemination, alternation or other use of your images. If you believe that your intellectual property rights have been infringed by another party please contact Photobucket.com at P.O. Box 559, Broomfield, CO 80038. Please provide:

1. an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
2. a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
3. a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site;
4. your address, telephone number, and email address;
5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information provided by you is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf.

Upon receiving your complaint, Photobucket.com may, in its sole discretion, remove content that you believe infringes your copyright. In addition, Photobucket.com may terminate the account of the user who appears to be infringing your intellectual property rights.

I sent them a nasty gram, but I'm not going to jump through their hoops about it.

Oh well...

[PeteQ]

Scott, I hear you about the image theft, but how is that MySpace's problem? It looks like an individual stole your work, not MySpace. I wish all sites had better security against theft, but they don't. MySpace, Photobucket, Flickr.... They all get ripped off stuff. The worst part is people will steal anything! Watermarks, crappy resolution, etc.... If it's on the web, it will get stolen. Some of the Sportshooter folks complain and the standard answer is, "Did you fill out your copyright paperwork and mail it in to the feds?"

But like you said, for a lot of stuff, is it worth the hassle? Oh the joys of digital... Wasn't quite as much an issue in the days of slides!

One more thing, just out of curiosity, how the heck did you come across his page?!

Sorry you got ripped....but he at least gives you credit as your copyright is on the image! Nice....

[Daniel Bates]

I see my stuff on Facebook fairly often. I've not been getting too worked up about it, because people don't claim they took the pictures, or use them for personal gain... but if anyone tried doing that, I would get Old Testament on them.

[brad]

Looks like he's friends with that model and is bragging about it... that's really all there is to it.. she may have told him it was ok, even.

[Detonate]

It looks like the images are displayed to promote Sarah. Did you give those images to Sarah for self promotion?

[Detonate]

Brad beat me to it...

If you look at Sarah's profile, she is using the same image, also loaded to Photobucket. He may not even have swiped the image at all. Just simply hotlinked it from looking at her profile.

[cyclochip]

I'm no stranger to unauthorized Myspace photo usage...

Almost every member of the Texas Tornado hockey team has one of my pics as either their profile image or one of their uploaded images. The upper body / face shots are particularly popular.

I could get pissed about it... But why? There's not much I can do about it. Like Pete said, they'll take it if it's on the web. I know putting my copyright mark on my images won't deter anyone... I'm just hoping it will drive some traffic to my website!

I choose to look at it as a form of flattery, myself... They think my work is good enough to be their online representative, if you will. That's a compliment to me. I think.

[srwatters]

It's his Photobucket, not hers, and she didn't give him permission. Her images are loaded here:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6.../Sarah020a.jpg

What bites is that via PhotoBucket anyone can order prints of those images. Not that anyone is doing that, but it is clearly possible from his page and not from Sarah's (which is password protected, BTW).

It's not really MySpace's fault, but there needs to be some education as what is and isn't legal. I don't really care if my properly credited images show up elsewhere, but making a profit from them is a no-no.

[PeteQ]

Ahhh... I see. In that case, send him an email requesting your royalties!

[JamesB]

Originally Posted by PeteQ

Ahhh... I see. In that case, send him an email requesting your royalties!

I think he posted there was no way to contact him. Im sure there is always a way, but.....

James

[Daniel Bates]

You could always message him through MySpace...

[srwatters]

Originally Posted by Daniel Bates

You could always message him through MySpace...

Guys, I usually do my homework before whining. His profile is set to away so he can't get messages. I'm not going to request to be his friend to leave him a comment, which I'm sure he won't bother to read. I see no way to contact him via PhotoBucket.

The email he has listed for 'demo tapes' is on hotmail and I'm doubtful he'll care to respond. What I should do is sample some of his music into a crappy rap song and post it as his. I'll bet that would get the 'artists' attention

[Michelle Allmon]

It sucks, but don't stress about it. I used to have a somewhat popular (200-300+ people a day) ecard site that I worked on for years and someone basically swiped the whole site, at least the images, and put it on their crappy site as theirs. The part that really pissed me off was that I had artist pages with notes all over my site saying "used with permission" and links, credits, etc and they totally ignored that. The lady was a bitch, too, kept trying the "oh, I didn't know" routine but I had to pester her, her host, etc., etc.

Anyway, sorry I got all worked up there, don't worry about people putting your pictures on MySpace. If it bothers you that bad, you can do what Lithium Picnic does... of course, I CANNOT find the link now (arggh) but he has a board somewhere where he posts all the offenders, their websites, and his communication with them. It's pretty entertaining. If anybody knows where that is, please let me know!

[charlotte dameron]

Think about it a s free advertising. I can't tell you how many bookings I have recieved off of myspace. I give my clients a cd of web resolution pics sized very small and put my name in the corner. The clients love this because they can post them on myspace and they are getting a "free" gift. I love this becasue my name is on all of them and if they try to print it out the picture is going to be so small they can't do anything with it. All of thier friends see it and get jealous that they are not getting the "oh you look so beautiful" comments on thier page and call me.

It's not stealing that way and it is free advertising for you.

[exposedmedia]

sucks for sure, i often find my imags stolen for local advertising. they do leave my copyright on them which seems to make it easier to deal with.