Emma....more picture thieving!

[Martin Thoene]

I tried to forward you an E-mail just now, but your mail bounced it back.

Seems there's a transatlantic image useage thing going on here. A little birdie here in Toronto told me that there's a Toronto-based Fish wholesaler using one of your photos of the "Sumo" loach in its advertising to retailers.

This one:



I have the manager's name and phone #. Would you like me to make a call?

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

Yes please! I can't abide people taking and using stuff without permission.
Thanks, Martin.

Emma

[Graeme Robson]

Grrrrrrr!

[Martin Thoene]

I rang them, spoke to the receptionist. The GM wasn't answering his phone. She asked if I wanted to leave a message, but I said I would ring back. I will too

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

Thank you.

[Martin Thoene]

Well I never did get to speak with him on the phone because he was never at his desk, but a pleasant, if pointed E-mail (Emma has a copy) netted this extremely rapid reply:

Dear Martin and Emma,

Sorry about the use of said photograph.

I, being a fish enthusiast, got caught up in the excitement of having a new item and just wanted to share it with our customers so they too could could see how neat it was. No ill intent was intended.

Have a happy holiday,

Aaron Goulborn
General Manager

Followed immedeately by this, sent to customers and Cc'd to me:

Hello everyone,

I recently sent out a picture of a new item, the Sumo Loach, that I found on the internet. The person in charge of the web-site has contacted me on behalf of the photographer to complain about my unauthorized usage of said photo, which is a fair point.

I just wanted to take a moment of your time to apologize for using the photo. I, like I'm sure many of you do, get excited about new things and just wanted to show you what a cool looking animal they were. I did not think that showing the picture to you would be a huge deal as it was not used in any publications and was within our small community, but I guess I was wrong, it has upset those people previously mentioned, for which I again apologize. Please delete it from your e-mail.

Have a great Christmas Season,

Aaron Goulborn
General Manager

It's kosher too, because I have verification from my original source. I call that a very reasonable and responsible reply to the problem, unlike some of the other copyright infringers who steadfastly ignore requests to remove copyright material from their commercial website.

Yes YOU Aquatics Warehouse:
http://www.aquatics-warehouse.co.uk/acatalog/info.html

They took the trouble to add the Seasonal Title, but still didn't have the decency to remove the LOL trademark.

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

Thank you so much, Martin, and how refreshing to get a reply like that.

I am, however, completely gobsmacked that Aquatics Warehouse has had the nerve to add the Christmas decorations to their website around YOUR hand-drawn clown loach - the famous LOL logo, which they have stolen. I think another of your e-mails may be warranted here Martin, maybe a bit more strongly worded this time and not so polite!

Emma

[Vancmann]

I am, however, completely gobsmacked that Aquatics Warehouse has had the nerve to add the Christmas decorations to their website around YOUR hand-drawn clown loach - the famous LOL logo, which they have stolen.

Emma

Kudos Martin, I never you were the one who drew that famous drawing of a clown loach. I see that many places.

[tinfoil]

Copyright is such an unknown to most people and is very difficult for even those dedicate to the cause to keep up to date on as it is such a fluid topic these days.

As someone who has written about it for a decade, I know I have a hard time keeping up with it.

I'm glad you got such a swift response! Even though I allow for all of my stuff to be used in any way (non-commercially) via a special license, it does require attribution and it's pretty tough to get some people to understand that. At one point I had to threaten a fellow's hosting service to get action.

Kudos to you and to the quick response of the person who, maybe unknowingly, borrowed your work.

[shazam26]

Ok... my photography is one thing.
But my hand-created art? I wouldn't be able to take that.
That's too much. I would give them HELL.

[Martin Thoene]

Merry Christmas Aquatics Wharehouse!

I just registered at their fish forum. Went to the Introduce Yourself part and posted this:

Hi,
I'm new here! I decided that I had better post something here because maybe somebody might take notice of me

I find this Forum rule interesting.

"You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by this BB."

It's kind of ironic that this rule is there when after repeated requests from me, Aquatics Wharehouse are STILL using my drawing of a Clown Loach on their page header. I was informed by Aquatics Wharehouse that the Clown Loach was
placed there by a now defunct site creation company, but they would remove it as they did not realize it was a copyright infringement. This was months ago.

So here we are two days from Christmas and the fact that seasonal decorations have been added to the site header means someone has updated it, but not removed my drawing. This does not fill me with seasonal cheer.
Stealing photographs is bad enough, but personally created artwork is a wholly different matter. Furthermore, this picture is the trademark of the Loaches Online website. The logo has been used there for at least 9 years.
This is the old Loaches Online site....you will note my name and the drawings:
http://archive.loaches.com/

This is the new, recently opened site:
http://www.loaches.com/

The forums for the site:
http://forums.loaches.com/

An old page example:
http://aquaweb.pair.com/archive_search.html
(please note the copyright date at the bottom of the last page)

I have asked Aquatics Wharehouse in a nice and reasonable way to remove my drawing. I was given a nice and reasonable answer, but its promises remain unfullfilled.
My last E-mail was apparently ignored. As I am an English citizen I can bring EEC copyright laws to play if that is the only recourse left open to me. It would seem kind of stupid to have to seek such recourse when a click of a mouse could solve Aquatic Wharehouse's breach of their own forum's rules.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas,
Martin Thoene.

Hohoho! See if that gets me any reaction

Martin.

[Emma Turner]

Well said. I really hope this does the trick this time.

Emma

[tinfoil]

If the site is in the US, you can whip up a DMCA takedown order in pretty short order. I'm not a fan of the DMCA myself, but it had its uses. DMCA takedowns don't have to be written by lawyers and many haven't.