jamesdak 

Yeah but these places are trying to scam people. I could care less about the odd CL seller borrowing a pic. But the scum that put these type sites up need not be ignored when they are there solely to prey on people.


I reported about 16 of these bogus sites.

clubman 

Your goals are solid but to me it's just more tilting at windmills. Scammers have an unlimited supply of pictures of everything to sell, and vintage bikes part of it. These crimes need to be fought at a high level. I know you're doing your part and it's commendable but there's other battles more pressing?

madpogue 

As an analogy, bike theft is endemic as well. Locking my bike won't put even the slightest dent in the wave of bike theft. But it'll keep them from stealing MY bike. Likewise, I'll do what I can to keep the scammers from using ME as their mule.

mountaindave 

Neither of which require Herculean efforts.

I, for one, am interested to see what actually happens rather than simply assume an outcome. We will learn something no matter the outcome.

jamesdak 

This!

It's different but even at work there are a few times I've brought up organizational problems that have been elevated to the highest level. These were issues "obvious" to me and that I assumed many had brought up with upper management yet that has not been the case. I just don't get it. Most just seem unwilling to act or say anything when something is wrong and maybe this is why so many problems continue? So, I'll do my part while fulling realizing it may ultimately not matter.

mountaindave 

And as you stated above, you have to live with yourself, not us. (Although we do like to hang out digitally.)

iab

I don't disagree. Few, if any would defend their IP from the likes of us. The juice is not worth the squeeze.

But to the OP's point, it is their IP. And the way we use it, by law, is stealing. If you Google Cino Cinelli, the digital image you see first on their list, is one I took. It is everywhere on the internet, used without my permission. But I don't draw the line like the OP. The picture is in the wild and there is nothing worth my time to do about it.

Oldairhead 

Wow! how old are you?

embankmentlb

I think this tread started as a whole lot about nothing. The trickster or fraudulent seller has an unlimited supply of photos accessible from the net. Just because he happened to choose chose the OP’s bike photos does not make him an accessory to the crime.

iab

Not interestingly, the photo itself (the piece of paper in my basement) is public domain, the digital image is not.

clubman 

I like to pick battles I can win as my time is severely limited as a senior who will likely never retire. I also choose issues I see as more important to my immediate family and world...like municipal tax increases, zoning issues, access to family doctors, community services, etc. I can influence local issues more easily than taking on IP rights. I've a long list of other things which attract my interest. We can't assume others aren't doing things to make the world better.

jamesdak 

Good points but honestly not what I meant at all with my comments. Although, as I type this, how many do you think really do take actions to make the world better outside of what affects them directly? Heck, I'll be the first to raise my hand as guilty about this most of the time.

billytwosheds 

Can't help but ask if this is a case of copyright being claimed on the scanning of the image, which is to some a creative act.

clubman 

After the scanning, colour correction is pure craft, a valued fine-art skill set for photography, film, print, broadcast and cable networks. It sounds easy, it's not. That work should be IP

gugie 

I see where this is going.

I'm going to start making NFT's out of everything I own, see, type...just gotta figure out what the hell those things are...

easyupbug 

When searching to date a CIOCC I found a "social media photo site - Pinterest" that had one of my custom's photos that I have only posted here. Clearly this is done by an algorithm, no human copied from here and posted over there, I am afraid this is the future. This is why parents have stopped posting photos of their kids, it is creepy at best.

billytwosheds 

I'm going to push back on this a little. Having worked around archivists in libraries for years, a lot of scanning of (important!) images and documents is done with default settings and with limited creativity. Most scanning jobs do not meet the threshold of derivative work, or something significantly original. Most people who have interest in old images simply appreciate a basic scan job. For other work (damaged docs/images, sentimental content, etc) then of course you could pour hours of work into modifying a scan. It's just that most of the time that doesn't happen, and those doing the scanning are doing it to make the content available, not to add 70+ years of copyright to something that would otherwise be in the public domain.

SurferRosa

Finally! A reason to take those awful, out of focus, nds pics!

clubman 

I get you...I think we're on the same page. I'm referring to is a proper post-production process where Public domain materials are subjected to a treatment and then licensed. This is both good and bad. As a a documentary editor, I've spent way to much time sourcing picture files from stock libraries like Alamy and Shutterstock and paying for pictures, only to later find the same files exist for free in the Library of Congress (you pay a fee for gathering and delivering the files). These aftermarket stock libraries make big dough doing this and they usually do very little to really enhance the files.

I've also spent a lot of time taking old-timey film footage that's scratched and damaged after running through film projectors and cleaned the footage up, using softwear tools to remove dirt and scatches, frame by frame. It's immensely time consuming and expensive so protecting that value-added footage is important, even if the original is public domain.

Drillium Dude 

Anyone who spent time in any form of public service will understand this line of thinking; others, not so much. Such is life

DD

gugie 

And we appreciate your service!

I also appreciate the great photos you take, many of which have probably been ripped off for commercial use, I'd bet.

steelbikeguy

on a slight tangent.. I've had a case where I found that one of my photos of a P-51 Mustang aircraft was being used by a place in Spain. They were selling prints of it (and a lot of other photos), and were charging to frame the print, etc. I emailed them, asked them to stop using it, etc. I was shocked to get a pleasant response apologizing for the unauthorized use and said they would stop.

Heck, I was just flattered that someone would actually think my photos were nice enough to be able to sell.
I've certainly never tried to make any money with any of them.

I'll attach the photo below...

Steve in Peoria (I've taken far too many photos of airplanes!)