Using Other's Photos without Permission

3/6/2014

We were away all day yesterday, having gone to visit my daughter and her baby (and the rest of the family too, of course) and got home quite late. Went to check my emails, and the Inbox was full of Personal Messages from DoA members, letting me know some Matthew Christopher Nelson was advertising "his original paintings" for a book he was planning, but the images were all doll photos he'd stolen from various websites, and he'd reworked them heavily in PhotoShop. People had taken screen-grabs of the guy's Facebook pages just in case he decided to delete them, and anyone who recognized their own, or other's photos, was reporting their images. There were over 14 pages of posts on DoA, but I figured it was too late to get into it, so just went to bed. Here's the screen grab from the very first post on DoA .....

So many people immediately recognised that "original painting" as a PhotoShopped version of one of my photos, and contacted me. Here's the original photo, taken in June 2012, at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta.....

And here's another composite photo someone posted of my Carina, and the guy's so called "original paintings" of one of the characters in his story....

Anyway, this morning, the guy's Kickstart Project has been suspended; "Turn the creative vision of "The Road to War" into reality. is the subject of an intellectual property dispute and is currently unavailable.", and many of the reworked doll photos on Facebook have been removed. At least, I think they have. I couldn't find any made from my images anywhere. Looks like the Ball Jointed Doll comunity rallied together in support of each other yesterday, and forced a shut down of a blatant copyright infringement.

So, what can we do to prevent our photos from being pirated? Some people suggest adding substantial watermarks onto any photos you post on the Internet. But this guy just cropped around them, or PhotoShopped over them. So unless one slaps a watermark right across the doll's face, it won't stop most people, and what's the point of even posting a photo of a doll with it's face hidden with an ugly watermark? I hate the look of a watermark, so won't be adding any.

For anyone wanting to learn more, here are all the links;
1 - DoA - Another Artist using Doll Likenesses without Permission
2 - the Kickstarter Page for the Project these images were intended for
3 - the "Artist's" Facebook page

Well, the day is already almost half over, and I've done nothing yet but look into the copyright infringement stuff. And I'm coming down with a cold, so don't feel that great. Time to make some lunch, and then do some hand-sewing on the outfits I started two days ago.

Jane

3/6/2014 06:32:50 am

*sigh*
I am glad to see the KS project is under investigation, but thank you so much for saying you are not slapping a great big watermark across your photos.
You know how much I enjoy your photos and a watermark would totally spoil them for me......so again I say thank you ((hugs))

And take care and get well soon.

Martha

3/7/2014 09:51:52 am

Oh no, I have no intention of adding watermarks.

Laura J. Underwood

3/6/2014 08:03:08 am

I was looking into this because a doll group I am a member of mentioned him. To me this is no better than the websites I find where my novels are being offered as free downloads. My publishers usually do the dirty work, but they cannot be everywhere, so as an author, I have to spend a portion of my time doing searches of my stuff to make sure it is not being given away for free.

I cannot understand what it is about the internet that makes people think they can get away with blatant theft of another person's intellectual property. I know there are some people who think everything should be free if it is on the net and no one should be limited in their right to use what they find, but these same people have little appreciation for the time and effort an artist or an author puts into their creative work.

I was thrilled to see how fast the BJD community jumped on this. I just wish I could get my fans to react as swiftly when my published work is being stolen.

Barbie

3/6/2014 08:26:11 am

I am sorry to hear that someone tried to steal your beautiful photos, and glad others helped to stop him.

I hope he doesn't try again.

Charie Wilson

3/6/2014 01:23:15 pm

I am glad that he has bin shut down those definitely are you photos. It would be a shame if you had to stop posting we all enjoy your photos so much.They are not paintings they look like photo shopped pics of your original pics. I wish I could say I was shocked but I am not. People will do almost anything to make a buck and theft of another artists work is never off limits to people like this.
Hugs Charie

Martha

3/6/2014 11:22:37 pm

I have every intention to continue posting photos, and I'm definitely not going to wreck them with watermarks. I never would have even known about it, if the BJD community wasn't such a tight-knit group, and always on the lookout for things like this. I think the recast problem has made everyone extra-vigilant, and on the ball to report anything wrong. I wasn't even home all day, and didn't even find out about it until the guy's book project had already been shut down, and most of the reworked stolen images had been removed from his Facebook page.

Inma

3/6/2014 05:57:46 pm

Oh Martha, I am very sorry ! I can imagine how you feel, I've seen in several occasions photos stollen of my dolls and posted on ebay to sell dolls, but I am with you, watermarks is not a good solution. You have all my support.

TigerAnne

3/6/2014 11:04:08 pm

Wow, that's rude! What was he thinking, believing nobody would notice?

Lorraine link

3/7/2014 12:51:54 am

Somehow I missed seeing this on DoA. Your blog is what alerted me, and I spent 2 hours last night reading the entire thread. By then most of the links to MCN's sites had been disabled, so the only so-called paintings of his that I was able to see were the ones reproduced on DoA. Too bad this pseudo-artist thinks that applying Photoshop filters to someone else's work automatically makes it his. He is obviously delusional. Unfortunately his actions harm the legitimate artists whose work he steals.

I don't know if he stole any of my photos, because everything was down by the time I became aware of it, but I plan to address this issue on my blog this week. All of us with blogs have a bully pulpit and a duty to use it to enlighten our readers to the issue, as you have done.

I'm sorry your work was used without permission. I for one enjoy your photos tremendously. Your fabulous costumes inspire me to keep sewing even when my results fall short.

Thank goodness for the readers who recognized your work under the bad Photoshopping and let you know about it. The BJD community is strong and united. That's a good thing.

Pepstar link

3/7/2014 09:23:48 am

As a fellow victim of his thievery, I understand how you felt. The doll community was there for me as well and I managed to get FB to remove the so-called artwork of his that was taken from my doll photos. I am amazed after reading his comments above that he claims he did the layout and sketch work for the obviously stolen photograph. His kickstarter page was disabled, as was his Deviant Art page. If he has your work on his FB page, you can fill out an online form and FB will remove them.

Martha

3/7/2014 09:43:53 am

I wasn't home that first day when this came to light, and by the time I went online the next day to take a look, Kickstarter was already down and none of the images made from my photos were to be found. I'm not on FB, but made an account just so I could go look. But now people are saying the images may not have been removed at all, but that the guy just switched them to "Private". Who knows?

If it wasn't for people's screen-grabs on DoA I would not have seen what he'd done with my photos. It's laughable that he says it took him a whole week to make that first "painting". He must be really poor at PhotoShop then!

Deeercott

3/7/2014 12:46:02 pm

I'm glad, Martha, that the photos are down. He's an odd sort - professes to be a Wiccan - and doesn't understand the ramifications of copyright. You've done all of the work - and all of the art - and he stole your photos, filtered them and claimed them as his own. His age-group (45) did not have full access to the internet during his schooling and he knows better. This makes me think he knew exactly what he was doing. He still has pictures up on FB that are blatant copies of photos but he seems to have removed most of the BJD ones. Check out his photo of Odin. It was directly copied from Ebay and then filtered (5 minutes tops.) I'm so sorry you've had to deal with this - and he will be watched - in case he pops up elsewhere. People love and honor your work. That is the reason it was spotted so quickly. Feel good about that. And don't feel violated. His ilk are below you. They are just thieves and users.

Jen

3/7/2014 12:57:57 pm

His kickstarter is down but he's also on this fund raising site.. http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/1164886619/turn-the-creative-vision-of-the-road-to-war-into-r/ . He's raised quite a bit so far, so maybe everyone can get that taken away as well. Good luck!

Lady Tiku on DoA

3/7/2014 01:00:36 pm

I'm actually glad he picked you to copy.... because he can't stand a chance considering how much of everything YOU created... he can't claim to have drawn outfits you designed and made ^^ He put his own a** in a giant sling picking you and the art community at large will benefit from his stupidity in trying to use YOUR creations ^^.

Christina in FL link

3/8/2014 08:57:23 am

I'm sure he hasn't removed the photos, just probably changed the privacy settings for only his friends to view. He still has his personal page public though, so if he hasn't blocked you (which he's done if you've interacted with him anyway through facebook, but I also have my family page and I can still see his page up, but the BJD photos aren't showing now.) This won't help him market "his works" though, and as google and other search engines start picking up post about his theft, news will spread.

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Using Other's Photos without Permission

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