Was cruising E-Bay yesterday and came across an item for sale that had a very familiar picture of a mini...upon closer inspection it's MINE....http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWA%3AIT

I posted my picture here in the gallery and now it seems it has become public domain. I'm flattered, but the ad also has the sellers name posted across the pic of my car, as if it is now their copywrited image.

I sent the seller a note, saying to remove, but since it was posted here I suppose it's public domain doubt my request will be honored, as the seller is international.

Well guess i'll take it as a compliment and stay flattered....cause my car does look great

My wife did tell me .... "get your panties out of a bunch and get over it".

What is the general feelin on this matter?

 

See http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

1. Its your picture, its automatically copyrighted, it is NOT public domain unless you expressly say so
2. MOST nations follow the same law. See the cited quote

If they make money from your picture, you can go after them

 

I can sure see your point.....but in the end I suppose your wife's advise is best for now.

Obviously the prepetrator was looking for pics of the most fantastic MINI he could find...something that would stop people dead in their tracks and fill them w/ awe and wonder. At least he made an appropriate choice. Can't fault him for his taste but he really should have at least tried to ask permission.

 

Hey the same thing happened to me, but I was quite flattered because it was for a tuning shop's webpage. Whats funny was, they photoshoped my car to look like it had H-Sports springs, because my car was on the H-Sport section. (And no, my car does not have H-Sport lowering springs).

It's a cool pic, so I dont mind them using it. Funny thing was, I had no idea they were using it, I browsed to their site and was like "HEY THATS MY CAR!!!"

It's a great feeling.

 

I wouldn't hesitate to report it to eBay, TwOMINIs. Your picture is your picture; you took it, you own the copyright, and anyone who uses it without your permission isn't flattering you. They're stealing.

Mark

 

I would tell them they need to take it down, or pay you. In my opinion they should have asked you, instead they just said, hey its on the net is free right. I keep photography as a past time, and have some nice fine art shots posted. One day I am out in this turesty town and I see one of my photos up on the wall in a business. Well I ask, he got it from a photo studio lab in town, so I head over, my GF getting a bit tired of missing her shopping while on my quest. Seems the story was some high school kid was printing a copy on the lab's digital print station and the owner liked it and asked to buy a copy. Kid sold it to him for $75. If he had asked I would have told him go for it, but the theft still gets under my skin.

Well that's my $0.02, and yes that is AUD. ;-)

 

Sounds like a scam seller to me. That is a classic scam to hack an ebay acount, post a pic of a random car, and hope someone is dumb enough to send money for a car that will be "shipped" to them.

 

I perused the ebay sale. This guy looks like an electronic-age trinket salesman!!
He obviously shoplifted the MINI images.
Neat product idea though...

dan

 

I forgot to mention that they took the pic, not me.


As for the ebay guy, yeah, since he put his copyright bS on the pics, you need to tell him to take it down since he doesnt have the copyright on jack.

 

Not worth the effort. You can generally forget about anyone from HK or China worrying about intellectual property or copywrite infringement. They don't care and worse yet, the Chinese gov't doesn't care.

Many businesses are getting their product design stolen and they are finding reproduced counterfeit items being sold. There was a great article in a recent Business Week on this topic. I doubt this guy will take down the pic of your car. Good luck.

 

This must be against eBay policy. I'd email them and bring the matter to their attention. Certainly, using your MINI to advertize their MINI must be a mis-representation of their product.

 

What you guys don't appear to realize is that the eBay listing isn't for a car, it's for replacement "Cooper S" wheel center caps. That doesn't mean I think it's OK for them to use TwOMINIs' pictures, I don't. I just wanted to clarify that they're not selling a car. Seems that some people didn't look at the eBay listing!

 

Dude......your wife is right..... " get your panties out of a bunch and get over it"........too much time on your hands!!!!

 

Copyright violation definitely is against eBay policy. Someone did the same thing to me, I reported it, and eBay promptly canceled the auction. Go to http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter...me=home:f:f:US and select "Report another problem", then "Report a listing violation".

Mark

 

Well got a response from the seller. He changed the picture to someone else's car...could it be your's?

Panties are out of a bunch.

 

I think you're right to be upset that they used a photo of your car without talking to you.

I think it should be common courtesy... If you're going to use a photo somebody who's not connected to you or your organization to promote something, it's only right for you to get the permission to use the photo...

Otherwise you should take the photo yourself...

 

I had someone on this forum do the same thing to me a few months back. I emailed them and told them I didn't appreciate that they didn't ask to use my photos. I then removed them from my NAM gallery so that his auction looked like crap. He simply linked to my gallery.

 

You missed your chance to have some real fun with the copyright violator/bandwidth thief combo: don't remove the picture, change it! Imagine the possibilities.

TwOMINIS: glad you got the problem resolved. It's surprising you got a positive response from the individual.

Mark

 

A picture of my MINI which was posted on MINIUSA website was used by some company on eBay. It's the company that sells some chrome slot covers to go over the grill. Those pendejos stole my picture and then they used it as their own with their watermark. That they used my picture is one thing, but to make it their own, now that pissed me off. When I wrote them and informed them that it was my picture, of course they denied stealing the picture and told me the owner gave them permission to use the picture. When I told them that they were full of caca and kept pressuring them to take it down, they did and then stole somebody elses picture to advertise their product.

 

I make it a point to ask people if I can use pictures of their car for websites. 99% of people have no problem and are flattered that you would want to use their car, and at most ask to have their name mentioned in a caption. Taking without asking is stealing.

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidenc...hts-owner.html

By utilizing the VeRO program (through eBay), you can have the item removed (or at least your photos.

I do this on a regular basis with people who violate our company's copyright and intellectual property rights policies. I simply email eBay, and the auction is removed within 2 hours, generally.

 

This practice is fairly common with boat sales (taking pictures of boats that belong to someone else but were set up with the same options) but they clearly lable the pic as a 'Sistership.'