Another Pakistani company using images without permission

[The Wizard of BC]

I think many of us who have pictures on the web feel upset or betrayed when someone steals our images for their own use.

Imagine though that someone steals your name. The name that you have built up over almost 10 years.

Take a look at the website of Heritage of Scotland. In particular this page from their EBay store.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Scottish-8-Ya...item51927538b2

scroll down to the description of this offering.

"The New Freedom Casual Kilt"

Then again in the third paragraph:

"Our new Freedom Kilt"

And this is a shop operating in Edinburgh!!!!

[Stephan]

Matt,

I'm sending an angry note now.....! In passing, can you please tell me what the tartan is that you're wearing in these photos??

I hope our collective effort to squash this kind of blatant thievery is successful.

Stephan

[Couper]

Matt, try contacting the ISP. It's a strategy that has worked well for me in other situations

There is an online example somewhere on the net for dealing with international copyright infringement with ISPs but basically inform them you are the copyright owner of images held on their servers and require them to remove the offending image/s. If they do not do so (and they almost certainly will) simply contact ICAN (the domain authority) and they should be able to deal with it. ICAN are a US organisation

The ISP (Internet Service Provider), in this case their Web Hosting Provider is usually the best route and will "usually" yield results - unless, of course that provider is also located in Pakistan. With limited "snooping" it appears they are hosted in either Pakistan or Gibraltar - there is a trail of "hidden" registrants among their DNS and registrant records. Certainly not a company with whom I will ever do business. In addition, I could find neither a "Privacy Policy" nor real contact information on their website, which are two items I want to see before making any purchase online.

The ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) route is for domain name disputes. Filing a claim under the UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy) is rather involved, requires a filing fee (expensive) and does not really apply in this case.

It is, indeed, a shame that this kind of cr*p exists. However, with the global nature of the Internet there are [far too] many places where the unscrupulous can hide. B*st*rds!

[RockyR]

Matt... Bigger (translucent) water marks. I have never had a customer ask questions / complain / make a comment about them. 99.999% of people understand you're protecting your artwork.

Also, for those companies on Facebook, there's a "hide from these countries" feature. My FB page is hidden from anyone in Pakistan, China, and India for this exact reason. It's a shame that people in those countries can't view my FB page and can't buy from us, but unfortunately, a few rotten apples ruined the bunch.

[RockyR]

My letter of issue with their ethics has been sent. But that's the basic problem: ours are not theirs.

Well said.

Also, here are a few more:

ScotWeb's picture (with the MacDonald Muted kilt) stolen:


Tartanweb's picture stolen:


I saw a few other pics I recognized as well, but couldn't place. It looks like any picture of a PERSON in a jacket was stolen. Any picture of the jacket by itself seems to be OK. Why they just don't use their own people to model confuses the heck out of me.

[artificer]

Matt... Bigger (translucent) water marks. I have never had a customer ask questions / complain / make a comment about them. 99.999% of people understand you're protecting your artwork.

Also, for those companies on Facebook, there's a "hide from these countries" feature. My FB page is hidden from anyone in Pakistan, China, and India for this exact reason. It's a shame that people in those countries can't view my FB page and can't buy from us, but unfortunately, a few rotten apples ruined the bunch.

I've always been very torn on watermarks. I try to take very crisp, detailed photos of my work and I don't like the idea of stamping stuff all over them. At the same time, getting your pix ripped off (or even worse, your plans/designs/marketing) really stinks.

I have settled, for the time being, for dropping my logo in the corner of each picture.

BTW: Thank you! I had no idea that we could shield our FB pages from whole countries. No more Deleting Spam / banning the same dozen people anymore for me

ith:

[RockyR]

BTW: Thank you! I had no idea that we could shield our FB pages from whole countries. No more Deleting Spam / banning the same dozen people anymore for me

ith:

Yeah... that was a bit of a gem I ran across while setting up our page. Love that feature.

[Riverkilt]

Deer Whoever You Really Is,

I be a kiltwearing Corporal now stationed just north of you. I program them drone things. Would you kindly send me your exact address so a friend of mine can "stop in" and see yer wares? Thanks

[RockyR]

It appears they may be stealing images we put up here on XMarks... Here's Panache's head. I'd recognize those baby blues anywhere ( ). That's just wrong:



http://www.scotlandproductsonline.co...moral-hat.html


Also, it does appear that they have UK offices / representation as well as Pakistan offices:

http://www.scotlandproductsonline.co...ent/4-about-us

[Tobus]

I saw a few other pics I recognized as well, but couldn't place. It looks like any picture of a PERSON in a jacket was stolen. Any picture of the jacket by itself seems to be OK. Why they just don't use their own people to model confuses the heck out of me.

I'm guessing it's because they are trying to hide the fact that they're in Pakistan, and trick people into thinking that they're in Scotland. They likely don't have access to any fair-skinned male models in their home base in Pakistan, and using local models would give away the fact that they are in fact not based in Scotland. I know it may seem insensitive to point that out, but it's probably what's behind their choice to use stolen photos of white guys.