PlanetCatfish.com

yeah, see title
kinda sad actually.

I'll keep the name of said store under wraps, for now, to avoid a huge pile of excrements hitting the fan in the worst way possible

but it's like this:
a few very talented fish photographers found out recently that a large store in the Netherlands doesn't take copyrights very seriously

it stole a load of pictures from diverse fora; cropped off names and copyright warnings and used those for their own website.

I just took a peek and they also stole quite a large number of pictures from -for example- Planetcatfish and Scotcat......

if anyone wants to know how or where his or her pictures are abused, send me a pm and I can pm back the name and website of that store, so you can see for yourself

warning; their website isnt exactly easy to manage, it takes quite a bit to found the pictures.


to be continued

Start by sending a cease-and-desist mail to the person maintaining the site, making clear that you're the copyright holder and that you do not want him publishing your photos.

You can also, after having given them fair warning, ask the ISP to shut the site down - assuming it's not in Russia or some such place where European law will not apply.

--
Mats

I've been in touch with Bassleer and they have ignored my two emails. At some point I'll go the ISP / legal route.

Jools

Hey jools
LFS I'm talking about isn't Bassleer (which is Belgian, not Dutch), but they sure are breaking the law

the fact that they have cropped off the names is already plenty proof.

Mats, it's a Dutch store, so European law definitely applies
;)

it's not my own pictures that have been scammed, but pictures of much more professional people

for example, non-catfish pics of Ad Konings have been used as well, as well as some German photo suppliers of the catelog.

I'll look more into this tonight

who owns Scotcat btw?

as far as I know he's on the forum too, and 1 example is Callichthys;
the first pic of Callichthys from Scotcat has been taken by this store.

Ah, OK, well we have another then. Well PM me the details and I'll look into it?

I have not yet found a commercial company that, when reminded of the law, and indeed what their customer base thinks, and other factors, don't change. I've only ever had to report a site to their ISP twice and in both times the site was shut down (and reappeared elsewhere without the images). Buyers are also getting better at understanding that if this image is stolen from a well know site, it means they are taking a greater risk transacting with that seller.

In one recent (Dutch) example, they didn't know it was illegal. I know this seems unbelievable but they got in touch with me and asked about the ID of a picture they had stolen! They acted in good faith though and purchased a lot of images from Johnny Jensen. So it all worked out.


Jools

Allan James, registered as "Scotcat" on this site is the owner of Scotcat.

--
Mats

I still find pics from here on Australian sites, same issue no reply to emails and not sure what the legal stance is from the Australian point of view.


Just checked it again and the feb update still has plenty of pics from here...

Send a PM or e-mail to Jools. But if they are not responding to e-mails, then sending the ISP an e-mail saying that the site hosted by them are using copyrighted material.

And the point I was trying to make earlier is that it gets rather complicated if NL site is hosted in Russia or some such, since the fear of the NL government in Russia vs. the income from hosting the site may not be enough to get the site shut down. In the same country/region, it's much easier...

--
Mats

I really don't think this site is hosted in Russia or something.

we''re not dealing with some bottomfeeding small amateur store here, but one of the largest and best known stores; they even have their own brand of aquaria assorti (filterwool, carbon, meds, the whole thingy) which is sold everywhere!

that's why it's bad; this is not the case of some beginner who's not aware of ownership; they cut off ALL the credits and names of the pictures they use and they stole em from a LOT of people
not just PC, but the Cichlidroom, Ad Konings, Glaser, the best Dutch cichlid photographers, Scotcat, Johnny Jensen, you name it.

no way these people aren't aware of twe laws; these guys make millions a year.

update:

just heard that store #1 of this topic got the hint of legal trouble; they have bought a huge load of pictures from Johnny Jensens' library and can now legally show their fish.

now if only they fix all the mistakes in there (they made a mess of the families)
ah well, can't rebuilt Rome in 1 day I guess

and mucking up catfish taxonomy isn't illegal

it should be, but i digress!


OKAY 1 tamed, now for the rest

Looks like it'll be a long issue...