Photoshelter hosted images on Google Images
I was appalled recently when I found one of my images on Google Images (with my Photoshelter watermark on it) with a sunglasses website (!) shown as being the source. This particular image was used on someone's Facebook page without my permission. I'm a bit out of touch with how to use Google products, but it looks like you can right-click and copy anything on Google Images. Am I correct? If so, doesn't that negate the protections in place for our images on Photoshelter?
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Hi Gordon
It's impossible to implement cast-iron image protection in websites - the most you can do is make it harder for people to download your images but even then it's simply a matter of taking a screenshot and (if you could be bothered) removing or cropping out the watermark in Photoshop. Downloading images from Google search results is of course another way around them, but there's nothing PhotoShelter can do about that. That's why copyright is protected in law, so even when someone gets around these protections they can still be prosecuted.
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Thanks Nick. I suspected as much, but it seems Google has encouraged piracy by allowing copies. Sad state of affairs for the stock photo industry if they can harvest images from every site on earth and give them away. As you say, the watermark isn't much of a deterrent if someone really wants to steal the image. Still puzzled how my image on Google was credited to a sunglasses web site rather than Photoshelter. Guess I'll have to ask Google.
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