Fauxtographers and alike

This is nothing new under the sun and despite the improving possibilities to search images using Google reverse image search is something that continues to happen.

It can be interesting to start a reverse image search with your popular pictures to see if some of these might have ended up in another portfolio. To get an idea, here is a story and here is even a wall of shame (though I do not agree with some of the things criticized beyond the main subject of this blog).

Nothing new, but still sad.

Best regards,
Michael

Michael,

This is great news and fair warning to everyone here. Don't take other folk's pictures. We have discussed it.

Now what about repurposing the picture for some other kind of new work?

Asher

Asher,

The correct answer is: It depends.

The cases described are pretty strong examples of plagiarism and are different to the use of one's work to create something new.

IANAL, so this is just my personal take on this:
If the source is unknown, attribution is difficult. Referencing 'From unknown source' or equivalent acknowledges at least that there is someone else's work involved.
Using Google reverse image search could help to determine the author of a work if it was found on the WWW.
Finally it depends on the originator - some prefer to establish a contact and sort things out directly ( my preferred way), others might start right away with legal actions, sometimes because they had bad experiences when contacting people directly...

Best regards,
Michael

We can, at least in the USA, reproduce pictures with attribution, when it's for editorial or critical discussion. That's covered here by the so-called "fair use" doctrine". Do you have similar "scholarly" use allowances in Europe?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

We can, at least in the USA, reproduce pictures with attribution, when it's for editorial or critical discussion. That's covered here by the so-called "fair use" doctrine". Do you have similar "scholarly" use allowances in Europe?

Click to expand...

The law differs from country to country, but in practice yes. But we were discussing "unfair use" in which someone presents the works of other people as their own.