Now boys and girls, I know this seems petty and small, and some may say “Dude, what’s the big deal?“. But it still hurts by any means.
The thing I’m talking about is the use of my images without permission/without crediting me.
I was browsing the net, looking for news on Sarawak’s latest import, and I stumbled upon a Facebook page which is one of the many which says they are the fans of Sarawak FA. Fine, that’s good, until I found this image.
Under the general heading was how much the jersey cost and where you can obtain it. I don’t want to mention any names, but I hope they realize their mistake.
I double checked with the image I had in my blog (as you can see above).
See the difference? Yes, probably, you’d notice the watermark by now (just added it), but there ain’t no difference as it’s the same image.
So why am I pissed? For starters, the image is mine. It took me 5 shots to take, and some simple editing to get it right. The whole process consumed a few minutes of my lifetime, and now its used by someone without giving me even the slightest credit for the effort. Yes, I know, some of you may say “Still, what’s the deal bro?“
You see, I’m TOTALLY FINE if you want to use my image. I’m super excited and happy if you do! It shows the things I take with my camera phone matter.
The only thing is, I’d really like to be given credit for my effort. Hey, use it as you like, but please do credit me for my effort. It isn’t really that hard. Simply say ‘photo credited to cyrildason.com’. How hard is that? It’s not like I’m asking you for money, but I will if you use it for your business. Such action also shows you respect the owner of the image.
To top that up, crediting the owner actually relieves you of your liabilities. Shall the photo be sued or asked to be taken down, one could trace its origins. You are basically protected.
Well, I’ve said what I wanted to say, and since its for Sarawak, okaylah.. this is the most i’ll say about the matter. Just to note, I’d like to say a BIG HUGE Thank You to the people at UltraCrocs for actually asking for my permission to use my photo above, and also crediting me for it. Thanks guys!
So that’s that, and now the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) . The two US based acts which is related to copyright infringements. The good thing about both acts is that your products and hard work is protected by law – if you are in the US. Cases like what has just happened to me could be avoided, or I could actually sue to get cash if I did find someone using my photos.
So Do I agree with SOPA and PIPA? As a matter of fact, I do think the law is good, and we should start somewhere before copyright infringements becomes uncontrollable. However, my Malaysian side does still want my free movies and free downloads, so that’s why I’m a little against it.
However, if it was gazetted, I won’t be complaining about it too much because there is actually more good than bad to the act. The thing is, Malaysia and Malaysians are the least affected by such a move, and there is little point enforcing such law in Malaysia if enforcement remains ‘meh’. To top that up, the paperwork and legalities needed to just make it a case would burn a hole in your pocket, so yea…I agree with Googlen when they said that SOPA and PIPA will not protect the smaller companies, but eventually kill them, where as the huge corporate companies will live on. Â No money, no talk, no lawyer, no rock.
Point is, if SOPA and PIPA was implemented, do it worldwide. Make complaints on copyright infringements easy and less costly to actually battle it out, and as for my images… a small word of ‘credited to cyrildason.com’ is simply more than enough. At least you are giving this humble yet unknown blog of mine, some advert space on your site/page/blog/space.
The thing about SOPA as it is currently written is, the content owners can get the government to force US-based Internet Service Providers to change the DNS settings so that any US-based web surfers will not be able to visit certain sites. This is bad on two levels:
1. You penalize all the users of the entire site because now no content (legal or illegal) can be accessed from the US. This is an unreasonable restriction on free speech.
2. You tinker with the basic workings of the internet (de-linking a domain name from its IP address) which doesn’t just affect US-based ISPs but everyone else in the world.
This doesn’t get the illegal content removed from the foreign server. Nor does it punish the person who uploaded that content. The US government may try to punish the hosting provider but that company is not always responsible for the content that its users upload.
Bottom line, SOPA/PIPA as written won’t do what it purports to do. There are a lot of other ways to do it right.
I don’t think SOPA/PIPA could have helped you with this case of someone stealing your image, since Facebook wouldn’t be covered under the law (SOPA/PIPA is directed at foreign sites). I do hope you get an apology and a proper citation from those guys.
Thank you for the clarification Nate =)
With that explanation, it does sway my vote to NO for the act.
Damn those thief! Did you contact them about it?
On SOPA and PIPA, at some points it’s a good acts especially in terms of property copyright infringements and for those big companies who make lots of money from internet of their own content but it’s bad for User-content websites such as YouTube and blogs as those kind of websites, like youtube especially, will be shut down for sure. As for blogs, if there’s anything found to be breaching the law, the authorities have all access to remove the whole domain drastically when now there’s a chance of negotiations to settle the matters but not with those acts. Even worst most of websites, servers and other related things of internet are based in US so yeah the whole world will be like China, got internet but “disconnected” from others, literally. Plus now if we want to buy songs, movies and etc some providers have “branches” anywhere in the world or “mirror” link which enable faster downloading and maybe cheaper price. What if all those based and controlled wholly from one location like US? I see trouble for us here :p Like FB and other social medias,now we can share anything from any websites but I don’t thing SOPA will agree with that too.
Anyway, like always sorry for the long comment bro, I do agree if in terms of protecting our online property some kind of law would be good but maybe not SOPA and PIPA 😉
No problem for long comment bro. Seems there’s a lot of fear about SOPA and PIPA *sigh*
Yup, just what we need in our midst, a freeloader. If that happens to me, I’d be pissed off too.
heehehehe…. no respect for hard work, eyh wait, I’m also guilty as charge, and I have those mp3 to prove em.
oh… that’s different. haha. they knew people wud download and share and that’s why they put it up. LOL. but always leave a thank you note, if there’a space for it, to make urself feel better. hehe
..leave evidence u just downloaded a copy of an mp3? no no.. hahahah
I was actually surprised and amazed by the ethics of western bloggers/photographers, who intended to use my image and actually had the courtesy to E-Mail me and asked for my prior permissions before they re-publish excerpts of my blog entries or photos !! Those are big time photographers, to them I am just a small fish in the big ocean, and yet they still have the decency to seek my approval.
So when you mentioned someone said “Whats the big deal?”, I say “Of course it is a HUGE deal !!”
I believe everyone here should do the same. It is about respecting the originator of the work. Copyright is a serious matter.
I feel for you bro. Those jerks need to have their heads flushed down the toilet bowl.
Some people just don’t get it *sigh*
I guess it takes people who do ‘hard work’ to understand how to appreciate ‘hard work’.
That means the rest are just ‘lazy’?
SOPA and PIPA will do more harm than good because we no longer can simply link anyone else because there’s a risk ur site can be close down and no freedom anymore.
Freedom comes with a price. One think I do agree with SOPA and PIPA is the fact that those working hard to do something needs to be respected and paid in proper manner.–Problem is that SOPA and PIPA will disable the internet and disallow us to share stuff, even though we do give credit.
Nowadays, there’s so many free-loaders. They just take don’t give credit to those working for it, and worst claim its their work.
SOPA and PIPA actually limits your freedom and will seriously hurt the Malaysian infrastructure.
So, how does this affect us?
1. The Malaysian government will be inclined to introduce more censorship laws that will seriously your democratic rights. Online news outlets which provide us news from the opposition’s/neutral perspective like MalaysiaKini and The Malaysian Insider may be banned due to the fact that the BN regime loves to ‘tindas’ the ‘rakyat’.
2. I would also like to remind you of the fact that most computers in Malaysia are actually running on pirated versions of MS Windows(especially Sarawak). Heck, some government offices and schools are actually running on purely pirated copies of the OS.
3. Have you even studied how they are going to filter the Internet? Simply put, they’re going to make it so dangerous to the point where any idiot can find your personal details without much problem at all. The people who introduced these acts don’t even know how a DNS works.
4. Malaysia’s economy is simply crap due to the imperialist BN regime sapping the East’s resources. The average Malaysian working in the private sector will earn MYR700-2.2k. 2.5-3k if he’s lucky. A crappy computer in here will cost you an entire month’s pay. A used Toyota Corolla AE91 in crappy condition will cost you about half a year to a year’s pay. To buy a game, you would have to fork out MYR100++. To buy a copy of MS WinXP SP3, you would need MYR500. That is a lot of money in here due to the fact that there simply is no minimum wage system. Some people are actually earning around MYR200/month. Oh, and don’t forget about the fact that you can’t buy legitimate games in most places(KL excepted).