What would you do?

[knoxknocks]

The thought of someone using my images as their own work has never crossed my mind before, but it's actually happened to me! A couple who recently met me said they saw the photos I was showing them on the website vitalmomento.com - 74 of them in fact!

I've screen captured all the 74 pages before they took it down and am speaking with my lawyer about this. These kinds of action hurts us photographers and it's a shame that it's other photographers doing this to one another. They were selling their Perth prewedding with these images on their site!

 

[razor]

expose them!!!

i wonder how many couples have been fooled by them also. outright cheat!

 

[thomas990]

shame. "copyright 2009 vitalmomento all rights reserved"????

 

[SniperD]

wah.. seems that this photog copied a lot of styles from everyone....

 

[enghong17]

Damage control?

http://www.singaporebrides.com/cgi-bin/forumboard/show.cgi?tpc=7&post=3769077#POST3769077

 

[shojibake]

Sometimes i really wonder about these people. In a place as small as singapore and still try to leech.

 

[SniperD]

Damage control?

http://www.singaporebrides.com/cgi-bin/forumboard/show.cgi?tpc=7&post=3769077#POST3769077

hmmmm... shifting the finger-pointing?

 

[Cheesecake]

pls sue them. everything else from them are jus excuses.

 

[Ninja]

Why they put a WPJA banner, when I couldn't find their listing in WPJA ?

 

[waderbreak]

wow this is ridiculous. i hope you get them to rot in hell, they don't deserve any better.

 

[sjackal]

Please update us on the results.

IMHO, you should not give them chance.

What is WPJA stand on misusing their banner?

In the thread over there at SingaporeBrides.com, they said you are their 'friend'. These people likes to push the blame to their 'web site developer' their student intern shooter, their assistants... Thieves and when caught, "no not me! its my friend!" yucks.

I am sorry for your situation dude.

 

[BlueFly]

Blame your photog skills! Your photos are so beautiful the culprit fell to temptation and lifted your photos.... so in a perverse way it is acknowledgment of your pg talents! (*grin*)

OK, OK, just kidding you ! I know how it feels to be a victim.

And I don't condone leeching, not one bit.

So, as passing-off is a serious offence, ask your lawyer to send the culprit a letter demanding compensation or face a lawsuit. Cost approx $100-150 in lawyer fees. Or waived if you have a lawyer friend. You could also claim possible defamation, loss of earnings, etc coz you met someone who alerted you to the theft. She cld be yr witness.

Also, perhaps you could look into using flash-based photo galleries.. that will make copying of yr photos practically impossible, if not more difficult. PM me if you need help on that.

All the best to you !

 

[xziredmp]

but on their website is only actual day ?

i mean people do make mistakes, and i do believe they do deserve a 2nd chance or even a chance to explain themselves.

as much as i would love to know the full story, seems like everyone here is defending the mod/victim.

and yes i know leeching is wrong too... but that doesnt mean it hasnt happened before right ? i've been in CS for quite a while, and seems like such things do happen now and then. It depends on how we handle the issue only.

rather den just crucify the "whoever did it" and burn him alive. why not everyone just wait and listen what he has to say ?

 

[Chris Lim]

Spoke to the guys from Vitalmomento and understand that the matter is being looked into at all levels. As such they have decided to shut the site down for the time being as well.

So until further actions and corrections have been made. Lets all leave this for a moment and allow both parties involve to sort this out. No point adding fuel to the fire when all is very unclear to us as a 3rd party viewer.

 

[euphoria2004]

Well i think i should back Yushin up on this, who happens to be my bro-in-law.

Apparently, this guy was engaged by my BIL for RAW photos conversion all these while. That may explain why he had access to all the high resolution photos. But according to the latest post in SGBride, he claimed that someone else has sabotaged him??? See link .

Lets see what he has to say. Waiting for a good explanation from him.

 

[knoxknocks]

Mob lynching was not the intended objective of this thread. I was truly hoping for some ideas on how to deal with this but it appears that legal recourse is the best option at this juncture, although I'm not out for blood.

This issue does not have anything to do with being a mod. Mods are human beings too, and mods who photograph for a living need to put food on the table. I'm all for giving 2nd chances, but I'd also like to make sure that what has happened to me does not happen to someone else easily. On a selfish note, I have my interests to protect too!

Whilst I don't rule out extenuating circumstances, I would certainly like someone to own up to this and take responsibility for it so that he/she learns that this is not right.

I think I've gotten a feel of what needs to be done. Locking the thread as it's served it's purpose.