January 2008. Much to my regret, various abuse of my Copyright to the photos of my collection have, alas and at last, prompted me to add a "Hall of Shame" to my Website.
I'm generally fairly easygoing with the use of my
pictures, in the cases :
- When they are used with nonprofit pursuits ;
- When they are used with scholarly pursuits ;
- And when I'm asked permission first.
I'll mention that several authors (and a Museum) asked me permission to use some of my photos for their books ; not once have I refused permission to publish, and not once have I asked for any retribution - it is indeed my pleasure to contribute to scholarly and educational efforts.
BUT... several cases of abuse of my properties and my work (including fake photographs proposed for sale on ebay) have prompted me, at last, to retort to two measures :
1. USE OF WATERMARKS ON THE SCANS :
You'll find them from now on - I don't like it, for it deters from the
attractivity of the photos, but they'll make one first level of protection.
Those "watermarks" look like that (or alternatively will consist of
the Hungarian Knot only) :
2. THE HALL OF SHAME :
Well even when my right is undoubtedly abused, I can't really go all around
suing for reparation.
I've taken to EXPOSING the cases of abuse - my only real "practical"
weapon.
Maybe damage to their reputation will make those individuals re-consider their
practices...
Should you feature in the "Hall of Shame", there's an easy way out : stop using my photographs - and let it be know with an email of excuses (djedj@hotmail.com) - and I'll take you off. Simple !
HALL OF SHAME
1. Mr Robert GOTTLIEB - Medal dealer and
Owner of Historik Orders
Added January 2008
What a surprise to happen on the Historik Orders website and to find it adorned with photographs - including this one (left) , which you'll compare to my photo (right) (the latter now modified with my new watermark) :
| Found on Mr. Gottlieb's website | My picture |
 |
 |
| http://www.historikorders.com/afghanistan.htm | See there |
Not only the photograph, but the complete
little biography I had researched and written was copied as well, down to the
very last word !
A bit upset to find my work and property used to enhance Mr. Gottlieb's sales, I
contacted him to ask him to remove the photo.
His answer was -well the usual answer one gets in such cases- I quote :
From: Robert Gottlieb (info@historikorders.com) Sent: Wed 19/12/07 00:33
"Dear Sir,
The photo is from the internet. I have no idea about you whatsoever and your
claim.
Under copyright law you may (as you claim) own a photo but since the image is in
public domain I may use the photo in the future.
Sincerely,
Robert Gottlieb"
Well, as it happens, this is false, and
-interestingly- Mr. Gottlieb is fully aware of it ; as a
matter of fact he had written in December 2006 (one year before), on a
Collector's Forum we both happen to be members of :
"Posted: 15 Dec 2006 20:40
Robert Gottlieb Senior Member
There is a limit in "Fair Use" as to how many words can be used
without paying.
The use of intellectual property under any circumstance should be with the
consent of the owner and that consent should be in writing and specific.
This is the case whether or not the end-user is for profit or not.
The same applies to photos.
Even photos which are copied that are over a 100 years old maybe in some one's
person archive and therefore privately owned.
Even giving an attribution does not protect the end-user if there was no
permission given by the proprietor.
Does this mean that owner's of IP will go after everyone? I think not due the
expense involved but one does have to keep the rules of IP in mind when using it
in a public manner even if there is no financial reward.
RG"
As found here :
http://www.britishmedalforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=12012
I was not aware of his knowledge at that time,
and, giving him the benefit of the doubt, pointed to relevant copyright law
resources - Mr. Gottlieb then retorted to the usual second line of defence :
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:31:11 -0500
From: info@historikorders.com
Subject: Re: Your Afghanistan page
"Dear Sir,
As I have said the photo is from the internet. It has been on my website for
some years. It did not come from your website as far as I can recall.
(...)"
(underligning mine).
Well,
I haven't talked about it yet, but working with old photographs is an alchemy of
its own.
The base material is never the same : two period copies will not age in the same
way - it all depends on storage conditions, humidity, exposition to light...etc
And the digitization also produces different results : scanners will tint
photographs differently ; also, choice of dpi defiition will give different
results.
Last, there's some Photoshop reworking involved - contrast, balance,
effects will never give two identical results.
Which the two photos are !
I digitized the photo and put it online in January 2007 !
So Mr.Gottlieb, "for some years", is it a case of severe
memory loss ?
My endeavours had an effect nonetheless : the
little bio I had written suddenly disappeared from Mr. Gottlieb's page.
A first effort to respect my work - Or was it an attempt to hide away the more
obvious traces of the forfeit ?
If the latter, weeeell it's a failed attempt, as the Web is a resilient beast,
and the whole version can still (to date) be found in the cache pages stored by
Google.
Oh, and I got a printscreen as well - just to show what it looked like :
For those interested in comparing to my web page.
So I've asked Mr. Gottlieb repeatedly -and politely- to stop using my property for his commercial purposes - to no avail.
Further to my discussions and findings, I cannot give him the benefit of the doubt in that case.
Mr. Robert Gottlieb runs his business knowingly using pirated property.
He gets the dubious honour of ranking as #1 in
my "Hall of Shame".
NOTE : said photo had been removed from said website ; so I had put the details down ; shortly afterwards, said photo has appeared again.
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