Stolen Images

Yesterday while searching for something on Google, I happened to notice a photo that I had taken for a tutorial I had done on my old blog Just For Fun. Although it's not uncommon to come across my own images, they usually are linked to my blog. This image was not. I clicked through to the site where the "author" had posted her own tutorial, using my photo!. I was angry! I immediately emailed both the "author" of the post and also the owner of the site asking them to remove my image because they had not asked my permission to use it or linked to me in any way. This was the response I received from the "author"

"So sorry about the picture. It has been or shortly will be removed. I truly never meant to steal anything.

Back in those days I used to either take my own photos for articles or if I was low on time, do a quick google image search to find something similar. I guess I thought that anything that popped up that wasn't copyrighted was up for grabs but now we have an editor who purchases stock photos to post for us so it will not happen again to you or anyone else.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention and please accept my sincere apologies"

The image has since been removed and I did accept her apology, however, it still bothers me that people think they can just grab any image they find on Google images. I guess I just assumed that everyone works with the same "code of ethics" that I do. If you didn't take the photo yourself or buy it, then it belongs to someone else. I found it very deceiving on her part to try to pass my work off on her readers. 

So, I have now started to watermark all of my photos. Yes, it does take a little bit more time, but now I feel that it is necessary. Sadly, I guess some people see nothing wrong with helping themselves to others work. :(