Marb Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 I have to flag this Facebook group up of people who like to steal images. Here is the link https://www.facebook.com/groups/137237980344870/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy deWitt Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 removed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 I just tried it on a downloaded comp, and it didn't work. UPDATE: I guess the images have to be on Foundstock.com (site not working), whatever that is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 Foundstock are a site that keeps popping up after being taken down. They have hacked a huge microstock library (see my other post ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoDogue Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 Rather funny that they think their group is private but anyone can read it. I guess you have to be a trusted thief to post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 26 minutes ago, fotoDogue said: Rather funny that they think their group is private but anyone can read it. I guess you have to be a trusted thief to post. There is no honour among thieves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brasilnut Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 It's wack a mole with these losers. More of a nuisance than a threat since no serious business would risk stealing this way. Just a bunch of cheap clowns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Johansen Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 How can they remove watermarks? It's pretty impossible without using PS and do it yourself manually. A watermark on Alamy is integrated in the pictures (pixels) so the writing constist of a less contrast part of the picture in pixels. And each pixels behind the watermark consist of different colors. Hard to explain but hope you understand. I didn't click on the url posted there on fb, but think it could be a unsafe site that could infect your computer with malware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MariaJ Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 3 hours ago, Brasilnut said: It's wack a mole with these losers. More of a nuisance than a threat since no serious business would risk stealing this way. Just a bunch of cheap clowns. I'm not so sure. I've had businesses steal my images and use them with the watermark on them. I'm sure they'd like free non-watermarked versions even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotoDogue Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 3 hours ago, Roger Johansen said: How can they remove watermarks? It's pretty impossible without using PS and do it yourself manually. A watermark on Alamy is integrated in the pictures (pixels) so the writing constist of a less contrast part of the picture in pixels. And each pixels behind the watermark consist of different colors. Hard to explain but hope you understand. https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/18/16162108/google-research-algorithm-watermark-removal-photo-protection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Johansen Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 8 hours ago, fotoDogue said: https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/18/16162108/google-research-algorithm-watermark-removal-photo-protection I know, but as you read in this article: " accurately removing it without any visible artifact is far more challenging " So there is not chance to remove a watermark without leaving artifacts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Laidler Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 There was a piece about this issue in last autumn's issue of Canon's EOS Magazine - I've quoted it below with only slight editing to remove the name of the library concerned (it's not Alamy!): "If you have images with any image libraries you will be concerned to know that there is such a thing as automatic watermark extraction. It works using an algorithm that finds common patterns on photographs and removes watermarks leaving them exposed to unauthorised use. Concerned about the risk of theft of images in its library, a popular library with a collection of about 150 million images, asked its engineers to build a watermark technology that was resistant to pattern recognition algorithm. The team developed a watermark randomiser so that no two watermarks are the same. The shapes vary for each image and also include contributor names. By creating a completely different watermark for each image, it makes it hard to truly identify the shape and thus erase it. The new watermark has been proven to be successful and has already been rolled out to the image collection" I asked Alamy for their thoughts at the time and was told: "We are aware of concerns surrounding watermark security and whenever we redesign our watermarks all of the information including but not limited to that in this article will be taken into consideration". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
York Photographer Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 This is where the Agencies collectively need to earn their Commission rates, and get these thieves not only shut down, but prevented from popping up elsewhere. Whether that be a combination of legally and technically, with randomized watermarking, that clearly states Copyrighted material and the consequences to the end user. Although, getting legit customers to pay up for what they have used, might be a start! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 ^^ +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Lewis Posted December 30, 2017 Share Posted December 30, 2017 8 hours ago, York Photographer said: This is where the Agencies collectively need to earn their Commission rates, and get these thieves not only shut down, but prevented from popping up elsewhere. Whether that be a combination of legally and technically, with randomized watermarking, that clearly states Copyrighted material and the consequences to the end user. Although, getting legit customers to pay up for what they have used, might be a start! I agree 100% but the practicality of this is probably beyond reach. Also, consider the fact that many of these thieves live in countries that have no regard what so ever for intellectual property rights. There in lies one of the biggest problems. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted December 30, 2017 Author Share Posted December 30, 2017 Foundstock are back up and running sadly. https://foundstock.com/ and they have actual stolen images on the front page. It’s worth checking if yours is on there. I think it’s important for as many of us to put pressure on them as possible by reporting them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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