Iconic Britain/Microsoft Stealing?

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

07/31/2008 04:48:14 AM · #1

Not sure if anyone else has seen this over on the AlamyPro board or anywhere else.
I have been able to find about 6-7 of my shots....looks like form my website. If you put in search words (your name or website/business name) in the red box in the middle it brings up just photos, not where they came from like a Google Image search. And then they are used "commercially" by the site (???) If you put the same search words in the top search box, it DOES bring up where they were searched from with a link....soooo.....

this is from a poster on AlamyPro.

Microsoft are promoting Livesearch using images that are not theirs,
have not been licensed to them and with no credit to the source or
copyrightholder.

Take a look at:

iconicBritain

Is there a copyright lawyer out there who can give us a sense of the
legality of this?

With my images they do not link back to my sites so they cannot claim
they are just providing search facilities. I found at least 8 or so
images of mine with little effort.

Martin Wilson

I also believe that Microsoft may be in breach of legislation that
requires contact details including registered office, company number
etc on the web site - I need to check the rules.

Message edited by author 2008-07-31 04:48:34.

Judi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

07/31/2008 05:03:45 AM · #2

I just found 12 of mine!

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

07/31/2008 05:16:00 AM · #3

found 10 of mine, four of them with "fotolia" copyright mark stamped all over them, 2 from dpchallenge, 2 from a fotolia customer's site, who has legally bought them, and what is worst, 2 from 123rf, where I have cancelled my account 3 months ago...

ETA: altering the search term, I also find 2 from Stockxpert.

Message edited by author 2008-07-31 05:17:33.

07/31/2008 05:16:56 AM · #4

Photoshelter, Flicker and others have info. Here is what I am looking at. From dgrin.com

]Anyone else paying attention to the fiasco about Microsoft's Iconic Britain contest? Seems contestants are being urged to use Microsoft Live Search to search images apparently hosted on 'someone's" server and submit them to win a camera. Problem is, those are OUR images, they are not linked and the IPTC data has been removed, possibly creating potential orphans. I found images of mine from my SmugMug pages, my PhotoShelter Collection account, and even one that a client posted on his webpage. I found 17 of mine in just a few minutes of searching.

Nikon was a sponsor and judge for the contest, but after a multitude of photographers started sending takedown notices and invoices the Nikon judge removed himself from the judging panel, and now word is that Nikon may have pulled their sponsorship.

There's been some talk of concern about possible licensing violations on the Rights Managed stock images (there are images there from all the big stock houses) and it was even recommended on one site that anyone who finds one of their RM images should review any current licenses and contact anyone who has licensed the image to inform them.

Pro-Imaging, a fantastic resource for photographers' rights in photo contests, has a lot to say about the problem. They contacted Microsoft and have published MS's official statement on their website (scroll down).

I'm certainly no expert in this and I'm not sure how this it's going to play out, but it seems that everyone is recommending at least doing a search for your images and making screen prints as proof. The main page has images linked properly, but if you go the "submit" page of the contest, that is where our images are hosted on a different server with absolutely no originating/identifying information.

Lori

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

07/31/2008 05:24:17 AM · #5

Try this (DPCHALLENGE)

Also what is funny on the bottom of the page "Respect Copyright"

Message edited by author 2008-07-31 05:36:48.

Apple iPhone 5

07/31/2008 07:40:44 AM · #6

The images shown in the results are not filtered, so are potentially NSFW. (As I just discovered)

SaraR

Sony Alpha a7R III

Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM

07/31/2008 08:14:54 AM · #7

'Iconic Britain - Error
Sorry, there has been an error. Please try again.'

You can say that again!