UPDATE: Why Not to Freak Out About the New Instagram Policy Dec. 18th, 2012
Let me start by saying I am not a lawyer and I wouldn’t know how to think like one even if I tried.
What I am is an honest blogger who is feeling duped.
When I started my Instagram account I was instantly smitten. Everything about it was wonderful… the ease of uploading and processing my pictures, the convenience of posting my pictures to other forms of social media.
I even wrote posts about it and made a cake in honor of it!
Most of all, I loved looking at other peoples streams. The talent and content was mind blowing… what people can do with a camera phone is truly awesome!
But there is a dark side.
People take images off the internet and repost them on their Instagram accounts. With no attribution. Essentially, they are creating their own ‘Pinterest like’ boards through Instagram.
This is a violation of the terms of use by Instagram, as they clearly state here:
You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Instagram Services or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, (ii) the posting and use of your Content on or through the Instagram Services does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights, intellectual property rights or any other rights of any person, and (iii) the posting of your Content on the Site does not result in a breach of contract between you and a third party. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of Content you post on or through the Instagram Services.
So when I saw my Surprise Inside Heart Cake posted on an account with over 174,000 followers, I was upset. I left a comment on the picture saying, “This is my picture. I did not give you permission to post it. Please remove it from your feed.”
I was ignored.
I reported the picture to Instagram. See, I read this post and thought they had my back.
I was ignored.
As it stands there are over 24,000 “hearts” on that picture.
There are comments like, “Cool! How did you do that?” and “Recipe please?” ”How did you get the surprise inside that cake?”
The people who posted my picture (proprietors) also submitted my picture to various contests and photo galleries. Never once, anywhere, did they ever credit me or even imply the picture was not theirs.
To this day, the picture is still there and I have never heard one single word from Instagram.
There is another account (around 60k followers) that posted my rainbow pancakes.
I asked the proprietor to remove the image from her feed and she all but laughed in my face. Some of the comments I got when I asked her to remove the picture:
(from the proprietor herself)
“I got the images from weheartit.com a picture sharing website. I feel no shame for taking a picture off a website and reposting it, like hundreds of millions of people do. And that picture is not your picture, unless you uploaded it to weheartit.com yourself, which was your fault because it’s a photo sharing site. Once you upload it there, you cant get upset when someone else reposts it because that’s the whole idea of the website.”
For the record, I have never uploaded a picture to weheartit.com
“If she (the proprietor) gets them off google anybody can take them and if she takes it from u it just means u had a good pic…”
“She (the proprietor) doesn’t have to do anything! She doesn’t know you! What is your problem? Its not like anyone would just take your pics. GET A LIFE! Don’t you have better things to do? Oh wait, I guess not!”
“Once you put ANY type of media out on the Inernet, it is no longer yours. Its anyones to use, repost, or “steal”. And none of those things are any type of actions that are illegal.”
“Dont flip out *** dang! Those pictures are all over instagram and pinterest. Stop being a baby.”
“You do know its not copyrighting unless she sells it or takes credit for it, right? Oh wait, you don’t know. Its basically like printing off a picture from the internet for a school report. All your classmates see it, and its not copyrighting. Thats just the same as Instagram. Read (the proprietors) bio. She didn’t claim credit for them. Get your facts straight.”
Clearly people were not happy I asked for my images to be removed. I am continually getting harassing comments and being insulted.
(These are just two examples, there are many more ofenders)
So why do I bother?
I work hard on taking pictures and publishing things on my blog. Taking pictures does not come easy to me and its often a labor of love. I have invested time and money into every post published.
When I published that picture on my blog, per my disclaimer, I immediately had copyright. I own my pictures. I have the right to say if someone can post it or not. Furthermore, I have legal recourse if someone posts it without my permission.
Except with Instagram.
Because even though their terms of service indicate that you need to own a picture before posting it, there are thousands of accounts that do not follow those terms. These accounts have huge followings, and are full of images that the proprietor does not own. (see below)
And, in my personal experience, Instagram has not done anything about it.
Under the Proprietary Rights in Content on Instagram section on their legal terms page it states:
Instagram does NOT claim ANY ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, applications, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) that you post on or through the Instagram Services. By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Instagram Services, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content not shared publicly (“private”) will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services.
So even if someone takes my pictures and distributes them, Instagram is not responsible.
If you read on further, Instagram also claims your picture as theirs. They can use your image(s) around the world and owe you nothing.*
They, and all of their users, can use your pictures for whatever they want whenever they want.
And there are no consequences.
*I am not saying I wouldnt be honored to have my pictures deemed worthy enough to distribute.
I could contact an attorney and pursue legal action, but right now that would be out of anger and hurt feelings. I want to make sure if I pursue this its for the right reasons and would help the greater good.
I also want people to understand that just because they found a picture on google doesn’t make it their property.
I hope that when people post on Instagram that they have either taken the picture themselves or are willing to pay royalties/give credit to the appropriate source.
That they would post with integrity.
Am I asking too much?
*If you are a blogger or have a website, I encourage you to try searching for one of your more popular images on Instagram.
***********
I just received this from Instagram:
Solution: Watermark every picture, add copyright text and your logo to every image. That’s what I do. I also increase the height of pictures and add in some text at the bottom of the image which I hide through some simple HTML & CSS when posting the images to my blog, but when copied the text is visible because it’s embedded in the image. See this link: http://www.thecraftdad.com/raspberry-chocolate-cupcakes/ , with the 2 images at the bottom. If you click the image you’ll notice the terms of use and copyright notice.
Wise advice!! Thank you!
Agree, watermark won’t prevent people from stealing your pics, but at least not only they’ll think twice before reposting them but also they’ll have your signature on them.
So sorry to hear about what’s happened to you
I use watermarks for my images, too, but (and it hasn’t happened with my images,) I’ve seen ‘how to remove watermarks’ tutorials all over online. So if these people with ill-intentions have even a small amount of photo-editing knowledge, there’s a very high chance images will be stolen anyway.
Ridiculous.
And to the OP, sorry for what happened to you. At the very least, I’m glad IG did a little something, albeit a half-assed attempt.
Rob, I agree on watermarking it however I do see a flaw in doing it as well. All one has to do is simply take a measured screen shot removing the watermark/copyright text. I just tested it and although it crops the picture, it can still be done (After testing, I put it in the Trash.). You could put the watermark larger on top of the entire picture. There is also a widget that fuzzes out copy&pasted images; not sure if it does it for screen shot though.
Amanda, it’s a shame that people behave the way they do, lacking integrity and just being mean, for lack of a better word. I hope this post gets Instagram’s attention and that they do something. I have never used it, always posted pictures through Twitter instead.
If you have the watermark touching part of the image or over the entire image or over a larger corner of the image, cropping it out leaves a large rectangle thats missing.
depends on the photo.
i was gonna comment and say watermark, but these awesome people got to it before me. Can’t you just use a camera instead of instagram? Not having a smartphone or a phone with any camera at all, I don’t understand.
Virginia, you’re correct, they could do all these things to circumvent the watermarking and copyright text, etc. but in a google, instagram or pinterest search with multiple cupcake pictures showing, which are they going to pick first? The one that needs a bunch of editing, or the one with nothing and can be used as-is? More than likely if they’re stealing the pic they don’t have any photographic or photo editing skills, hence the need to steal in the first place. It’s like an alarm system on your car or house. The would-be-burglar sees the security sign at the front of your house but not at your neighbours house. He’s going to break into your neighbour’s house, probably, first before attempting your house, if at all.
Any method is simply a deterant / irritant / time-waster for the thief.
Robert
Adding the copyright text on photos is such a great idea. I’ve been watermarking my photos for a while now, but they still use them
Amanda, so sorry to hear this is again happening to you. I know there were some of your photos on Pinterest linking to Google, and now this. Hope they’ll stop soon and give you all the credit.
You could watermark your website on each picture that way everyone would head to your website! Just a thought! I hate that is happening to more and more people. A blog I follow had their children’s pictures stolen from their site and published as their own. So sad!!
Rob,
How did you do that with the HTML & CSS? That’s awesome!
this is a smart idea! I’m definitely going to start doing this to my better pictures
wow, instagram is really stealing your photos now!
That’s messed up. I use instagram but only post photos I take with my phone and nothing too important. My other stuff is watermarked which I think helps deter people from stealing them.
I think most people use it like you do! Great idea with watermarking.
Oh Sweetie, I’m so very sorry. People suck.
lol Amen.
Hi Amanda.
This is a tricky situation.
While Instagram says that they claim no ownership, the person who submitted the photo claims ownership. Their argument of finding it somewhere and reposting it is not sturdy under Canadian law. I don’t know much about American law though, but I assume it would be similar. It’s like if someone tells you Brad Pitt killed someone, and you spread it, you’re also liable. So, while you could sue anyone who posts one of your photos you would likely only receive nominal damages – meaning less than $100. This is because you didn’t suffer any “real” damages but the judge would agree with your argument. A lawyer costs more. Per hour. It just doesn’t make sense.
Now, if you sue Instagram it going to cost a lot more and I’m not so sure how effective it would be. They have a legal responsibility to take down the photo, but again there are no “real” damages.
I would suggest getting an online cease and desist order. This basically tells them to stop, or you’ll hire a lawyer. If you have a lawyer friend, ask them to put their seal on it and send it off to them by mail. I know a lot of people who do this. It’s probably your best bet.
Hopefully this post and my comment helps a lot of people whose property is being stolen.
I wish you, and everyone else, the best of luck.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!
You are so wise!! Great info. Thank you so much!!
I have generic cease and desist letter that I customize when the need arises. (Woo hoo, that law degree comes in handy once every few years!) I’d be happy to share the form with you–just email me and I’ll send the document. It doesn’t have any magical powers on its own, but it’s official and threatening enough that the people usually take the infringing material down. And send it to Instagram, too. I had a similar situation with Etsy, and it took multiple complaints through official channels, including a physical letter to their legal department, but eventually they did take action.
P.S.
Your photos are purty.
I heart you.
Well I don’t like it one bit, I would never post a picture on instagram that I didn’t take without giving credit. Even if it’s a picture of just people I remember posting a picture of myself with a credit to my husband.
I’m sorry you had to go through this, those commenters must be 13-year olds, I swear. I would be just as frustrated as you. I still like instagram for the community aspect but this is just a huge bummer.
I agree. I love the community. I am just gun shy… for tonight!
No! You are not asking too much! What you are asking is good old fashioned decency. Apparently those two and their supporters don’t have any. I’m sorry this has happened, Amanda. It’s crappy.
Yup. But I sorta feel better when I see your pretty smiling face there.
I think it’s more “the ugly truth about the internet.” People think anything they find on the internet is free. I’ve found my pictures being used without my permission too. (My chili picture was used for a chili cook-off website, IN MY OWN HOMETOWN, without my permission. When I contacted the owner of the site, he got rude with me. Another time, I saw a picture of my salt potatoes being used on a catering website.)
Weheartit has a form under their “Terms of Service” page where you can fill out a copyright complaint. (I’ve had to do that before too, and they took care of it.)
Those people who said those rude comments have absolutely no idea that copyright laws exist on the internet. Unfortunately we all just have to keep an eye out, and catch those dummies one-by-one.
OH MY WORD!!! That is outrageous!! So upset that happened to you!
Thankyou for the tip about weheartit!
Seems like you would have a case if they were using copyrighted material for commercial purposes !!
I am so sorry this happened to you. Those comments you received very clearly show how ignorant people are about copyright law. You have every legal right to forbid people to post your images without consent. You have a clear legal notice. And posting on the internet does not instantly negate copyright law.
What one of the other commenters here said is correct. Watermark ALL your images. And continue to include your legal notice when you post on your site. If you do decide to take legal action, it covers you. (I know lawyers.)
Hugs to you. You are way to good a person to have to deal with this crap. Don’t let it get you down!
Hugs back to you!! I love hearing the truth from a smart and strong friend!
I am sorry that this happened to you! I, too, agree with the first person who advised you to watermark your work! I don’t do Instagram (perhaps what happened to you was in the back of my mind) but I will be launching a blog in the near future and will be watermarking my work. By chance, if you use a Mac, Apple has a watermark program called iWatermark Pro. There is another one by the name of Photostamp, which I believe is also supported by Apple. (Both of these were given to me by a professional photographer just a few short weeks ago.)
Don’t let those who lack integrity get to you!
Thank you so much! Be sure to share your blog when it launches!
Wow. That’s…inexcusable. I’ve gotten google alerts from WeHeartIt before…never paid much attention. Now I most certainly will!
Same here!!
This is terrible, people have no respect. I feel like it’s the same thing on pinterest too. I try to only pin things that give credit to the originator of the photo. Read into use g This does further validate my decision not to use Instagram though. That is not how they should treat their users. Hopefully something can be done to help you out!
I totally agree about Pinterest too. At least there are people like you doing it the right way!! Blessings sweety!
I know I shouldn’t be shocked, but it amazes me that people think they can just use any image they want without at least attributing the author. I’m sure I’ve messed up along the way, but I do try to always check copyrights before I post something that isn’t mine. The people who commented on your comment were not only rude and ignorant, they were stupid too. Sorry you had to experience this. If it’s any consolation, your cake is AWESOME!!! How the hell did you do that??
lol You are so cute. I was just having a I LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA day and that cake was born.
And it sounds like you are blogging exactly the way we all should be!
I’m so sorry. Totally one of those things where I just cant imagine anyone thinking that’s ok??
Thats exactly what I would have thought!
You’d think people would know more about copyright by now, but it’s worse than ever. Every semester, when I talk about copyright (interactive media class) I warn students they have to be careful to check that they have the right to use things like images and sounds. And every time, someone says, “If I bought the CD, I have the right to use music from it, right?” And when I tell them NO, they just don’t get why.
There’s lots of ways people are much more savvy now, like with fonts. But with copyright, I think they actually understand it less than 20 years ago.
Hihihih
Long time reader but usually only comment after recipes are tried.
I took a couple of minutes to find said pictures and reported them to instagram
Under “copyright”
Perhaps instagram users feel the application is like Pinterest?
Thank you so much for doing that! I think you might be right about it being like Pinterest…
I just don’t even have any words. I know the heart you put into your photos. I understand the feeling of knowing you have a good idea but being afraid the pictures won’t come out just so. Your words and pictures move me with every post. You have the eye of an artist. I am praying that you get some peace about this. It is really baffling.
I could say the exact same about you.
Honestly, this is one of the reasons I was hesitant to join Pinterest. It seems SOOO easy for content to get separated from its original source. (And, yeah, I think that many of those separations are, sadly, intentional.) You do good work. I think it’s tragic, but you are going to have to start watermarking your photos, just because your work is so good. I’ll never be a big time blogger like you, but it is totally a fear of mine that because I am a little guy, one of my good pictures (maybe of my kid, yipes) will get swiped. The Internet! Just like the world, I guess. Full of lovely good people but also petty nasty cheaters mixed in.
(Please, PLEASE don’t let this stop you from blogging! I just found you–this is my first comment–and I so enjoy your posts. Keep it up for the goodies. But try to protect yourself from the baddies.)
HI Laura!! So nice to “meet” you! Cant wait to get to know you better.
So sorry to hear your story! This is unfortunately the ugly side of blogging that I hate so much. I once had someone submit my photo to Tastespotting to link back to their post! I was so peeved because it was on the front page so no doubt they would’ve been getting so much traffic from it. The worse insult was that they didn’t even link to my original post properly. I contacted Tastespotting but had no response and they never took it down. Sigh…
Now that is just WRONG!!! Your work is so beautiful, I just feel sick knowing people stole it and profited from it. SO sorry.
People suck. They have to take something we love and screw it up with their crapiness. I’m sorry this happened. Nothing is worse than working hard and having that work stolen. Hopefully Instagram will get their act together and start cracking down on those “sharing the entire Internet because apparently there are no rules because we think it’s the Wild Wild West” accounts. *Hugs*
Ha! Best. Description. Ever.
That’s definitely not a problem for me since I’m not nearly as famous, haha, so I can’t even imagine! So ridiculous especially since watermarking is just one more thing to do in your already busy life! But please don’t stop with the goodies(: love your blog!
Well, I think it can happen to anyone. What seems to matter is if you have ever taken a picture that might appeal to someone else… they can basically take it and do what they want with it.
Thanks so much for the kind words!
This happens to me DAILY {and not only on Instagram}! But what bums me out more than anything, are my photos getting to the popular page on Instargram and in other people’s photo streams, yet my own photos have never once made it to the popular page. A petty emotion, yes, but it’s very frustrating. Not only are they my photos, many times, they’re my likeness as well or my hair or nails, etc. I’ve contacted Instagram a few times but with no avail… now, when I see them, I simply “flag for review” with copyright infringement, but it doesn’t stop them.
Oh Meagan. I am SO sorry!! I hate that it happens so often and hate that we have no recourse it seems. This makes me want to fight harder to get justice for you!!
I am so sorry that this happened to you! Your pictures are amazing and you deserve all the credit for them. I wonder if all of your readers got behind this issue and “reported” these pictures to Instagram- would they do anything? I can’t imagine that they can ignore hundreds of people reporting the same image over and over can they? I will do this myself, but I know that you would certainly have the backing of so many people!
Thank you so much Marci! While this is an extremely frustrating situation (especially since I am still getting harassed by know it alls who tell me I am wrong and a hypocrite because I posted my picture on the internet) I dont want anyone else to have to carry the burden. It is my hope that Instagram will step up and do the right thing… not place the burden on its users.
I’ll add my voice to the choir here & say that I’m very sorry that people are stealing credit for your photos. How awful! I agree that a watermark would be a very smart way to go for the future. I also hope those that have stolen your photos experience a change of heart and remove them from their sites.
Yes, I have that same hope Valerie!! Thank you for adding your voice, its nice to chat with you!
I am so sorry Amanda! this Lucy be a terrible feeling but you wrote about it so clearly. Let me know if there is any way that I can help!!
Thank you sweet girl!
Not only is it awful that people were knowingly stealing your photos, but I think the tone of the commenters is terrible! It seems that since people are typing on a faceless computer and not face to face with a person, they seem to lose any manners or kindness that they might have possessed. so sorry for you
Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head!
This stinks. I have friends who’ve had pictures stolen, not just random pics either, ones of their children that were then passed off as the thief’s children! It’s sad to think that common decency is no longer common.
That makes my stomach turn!
That’s why I love using Pinterest – the picture is the link back to the original source so it takes care of itself – no fiddling around with copying and pasting links etc.
It is sad that so many people just have no idea about what is covered by copyright on the internet – and even sadder that common decency doesn’t fill in the gaps in that knowledge either. I’m glad you aren’t taking it lying down. We need more posts like this one to spread the word and take a stand to say it isn’t okay.
I HATE THIS SO MUCH!!! Lindsay (love and olive oil) had the same thing happen to her and it just really pissed me off. First of all, how can people TALK to you like that? I know it’s the internet but the brashness some people have and the way they interact with others disgusts me. Secondly, I really hope Instagram (or Facebook now) does something about this. I’m sorry Amanda
Infuriating. Hope Instagram does something, and soon. Let us know if we can do anything to help.
Thank you!
This is crazy, Amanda! It’s amazing that people can justify that it’s okay to steal the pictures just because they’re on the internet. It’s not right!
Crazy is right!
This is the kind of piracy that is driving musical artists and authors crazy (and broke) in the digital age. Consumers just don’t care about attribution and they don’t understand why it’s important–even for free products.
You can’t stop them from taking pics and using them without attribution. All you can do is watermark the image so that it is copyrighted, and place a copyright notification visibly on the image. At best, make it promotional by putting your Twitter name on it, or something, so that at least people who are in love with your work will find you.
{{you}}
This is making me completely bonkers!
I’m thinking that Instagram ‘owning all your photos’ began when Facebook bought it.
Ugh! I’m so sorry that you’re dealing with this.
Thank you! I agree… its making me bonkers too!
Some people have no conscience – a concept I don’t understand, since I can’t sleep if I even *think* I’ve infringed on someone else! Irrespective of my mission, I’ve been watermarking my stuff more and more frequently in various ways. Just to keep it mine! I started off with a small mark, but now I just blaze it across the photo. I think I may have photos I didn’t mark, actually, but with experience…. as the saying goes. (-:
When people don’t give credit back it stinks….I had an issue with a so called cupcake “blog” last year about using my work. She basically cruises the internet and flickr and posts other peoles work. When I asked her nicely to remove them she got nasty……and I did too. I’m flabbergasted at some people feelings of entitlement and self righteousness (sp) .
But I learned a valuable lesson and now watermark everything, which is annoying, but does help with the credit eventually returning to me at some point.
Your have such a warm and positive disposition and I’m sure you will allow this to become an opportunity to be more than the current situation …..don’t let it get you down….allow it to build you up
Ugh. I hate that that has happened to you, Amanda! It’s crazy. Unfortunately, it seems to go with putting pictures on the internet. And I don’t even think a watermark would keep people from taking them. It must just make you sick to your stomach to see your beautiful work on someone else’s page….I can only imagine.
I went and searched for a few (um, hundreds) of your most popular cookies and Whew! Wasnt able to find any being misused. So glad that this issue has not touched you… you are so talented!
That really sucks what happened to you, but so many people are ignorant to the copywrite laws. I used to work for both Ritz Camera and Expressly Portraits and people would come up to me at both places either wanting copies of photographs that were clearly watermarked or for me to give them the negatives of them free of charge and then get mad when I would not do either. I would then try to explain to them as nice as possible the copywrite law, but they wouldn’t listen or say I was making it up. We once went as far as to print out the law and distribute to the person asking but again still did no good. I can only said do what the other posters said and to watermark on the acutal image and hid text in the actual photo. One of the reasons I really don’t upload photos of my kids to facebook is exactly this reason.
This blows my mind.
I’m so sorry this happened to you, and absolutely stunned at the responses you received when you tried to have the photos taken down. It astonishes me that so many people still find it okay just to cut and paste other people’s hard work. It happens to me all the time, and not just photos, but original recipes as well as entire blog posts. When someone simply lifts another persons work, it’s plain and simple laziness. Amazing, too, that pulling this kind of media theft can get you kicked out of college or fired from any job in publishing, but when it comes to the internet, it’s perfectly ok.
So upset that happens to you!! And you said it well… hard to believe that audacity of others!
Agreed….I haven’t jumped on the Instagram bandwagon yet myself for a variety of reasons. I think, used properly it can be a great tool to accompany a social media following; but many people are simply not concerned with crediting another’s ideas.
I had a coworker share a recipe with me just yesterday from a cooking blog she had recently made herself and raved over. She sent me the link and said her church was doing a cookbook fundraiser and she was considering including it. The only change she made mention of that made it “hers” was adding mushrooms.
I gently suggested that if she did – she should include “Adapted from *source* by her name” since she didn’t come up with it all on her own. I could tell by the look on her face that had not occurred to her.
As is the case for many people I would imagine. Good luck in bringing positive resolutions to your situation. I know there are a lot of people out there that will recognize your work and help spread the word.
I know a lot of people have probably had experiences similar to yours. I even know someone personally in the foodie world, Nicole @ Life’s a Batch [shameless plug] , my sister, has also had images that were not credited or sourced to her at times too.
By being a positive, guiding advocate in this area – I believe you and others like you will bring about change to some of these popular fledgling applications. I also want to thank you for writing and posting this article and the one that you did on Pinterest etiquette a while back. I know it has changed the way I look at things.
Thanks for meandering through my ramblings….
Cheers!
You sure do have a talented and amazing sister!! And I could not be MORE impressed with you and your integrity in that cookbook situation. Well done! I do hope that you and I and others are able to make a positive change… **fingers crossed***
As much as I hate saying it, watermarks are not impossible to erase from a picture. I know a photographer who posted some great photos of his wife in her wedding dress on his photography web site with his watermark on them, and found his photos all over the internet (Pinerest, Facebook and some websites) WITHOUT his watermark!!!
I wish I knew the solution to this, but I don’t. So sorry that happened to you, I love your blog!
Anyway, like the others said, don’t let them stop, you’re doing a great job!!
I have heard this too… quite often in fact. So sad!!
People suck. That’s basically the long and short of it. I have noticed it happens a lot with people/pages I follow on facebook in regard to baking and photography.
Some people have no class and no problem taking credit for other peoples’ hard work. I’m not sure how it feeds their ego, since deep down inside they know it’s not THEIR work. In my opinion it’s the culture we live in now, where kids get trophies and rewards for losing in competitive activities so they don’t get their feelings hurt, so as they grow up, any type of compliment makes them feel better, whether they earned it or not. Just my .02.
So sorry this happened to you. These stories/situations are the reasons why I haven’t pursued blogging or sharing my baking/cooking photos outside of my immediate circle of friends on facebook.
Sad that we dont feel safe sharing our work.
What happened to you stinks. It’s not okay. If you’ve prayed about this & sense the ord leading you to fight for the”little guy”, let the rest of us know how we can help or support you.
I don’t know if it would help, but maybe you could talk to your state & national reps to see what kind oflegislation is in place to protect us. One of them might know of other resources you could tap into should you choose to fight.
No matter what you decide to do, you’ve got the best kind of support on your side: Jesus! He’ll never let you down. Thanks for the heads-up on Instagram btw; I will not support them by opening an account.
Maybe the reason they aren’t responding to you is because recently Facebook purchased Instagram. They could care less about what people think is fair.
Sad.
Watermark every picture you post… don’t let the offending comments bother you.
People have no shame! They do not respect the work of others. I hope you can solve this situation asap. I did not know there were people using Instagram for such practices…
xoxo
Wow! That is really a shame. So sorry you have to go through this crap. Thank you for sharing this, though. My hubby has fallen hard for Instagram (he can take great pics with anything , from his Canon Rebel to his iPhone), but now I’m concerned about where pics of my children may end up.
/
Amanda,
How did you go about searching for your photos? Did you search by the image name you gave it when you saved it? Or did you just search for “heart cake” or whatever?
I was going to try to search a time or two, just because I, too, have had photos snatched, but I never really knew how to go about searching for it. (I’m usually alerted by a friend or blog reader when they see one.)
Thanks!
Beki
For these two specifically, I saw them on the Popular page on Instagram. I then went and searched under the name of the pic or a general description. I found more than I could count.
Whoa, Amanda. Thank you for posting this. I am utterly floored by the lack of integrity most people have. And floored that Instagram isn’t going to back up its product by having legal jargon that would give those of us making and taking awesome photos like yours the right to go after someone.
You’ve shone a light on a glaring problem. Maybe if we kick up enough of a fuss, someone will sit up and pay attention. I am tweeting this!
The individual user stupidity doesn’t amaze me as much as the lack of response from Instagram! I had a very similar interaction with Pinterest. I contacted them about the issue that once someone has pinned an image of yours it becomes part of Pinterest’s server and cannot be unpinned. So when i go to remove images from online sources to have them published in print magazines there is absolutely nothing I can do about all my images pinned onto Pinterest even if I am not the one pinning them. I emailed them and never heard a word. I just think these new technologies have not given much thought to legal ramifications and at some point there will be consequences. Don’t these people remember Napster?
Good point Rebecca!
Just stumbled upon your blog and you have my sympathies. I think the creators of Instagram copied the Terms of use from the creators on Pininterest, especially the point where Instagram can use your images once posted without your permission ( same as Pininterest).
I print cards for hundreds of amateur artists and it makes me mad when Is ee blatant copies of people’s own work and go to great lengths to help my customers protect their original work. However, sadly there will always be people who do not think the rules apply to them or do not have the imagination or talent to create their own art!
Don’t be disheartened.
x
I’m sorry you’ve been the victim of this. I think it’s so sad that people are so ignorant of how we are supposed to use the internet. I don’t take very nice pictures or have a blog right now, but in academia we have trouble with this too. Students take information from online and use it as their own and then get upset when they’re called out on it. They think it’s theirs once they put it in their paper or presentation. We fail them for that here, or at least fail that assignment depending on the situation. If only there were a simple solution for your photo robbers. Good luck! Know that you have a ton of moral followers who enjoy your blog and everything you do!
It seems like that will always be the case with all forms of ‘internet’ or social media. Some people just don’t see the value or effort others put into their work and don’t considering it stealing – or just don’t care. It is rather disheartening. And I would be downright pissed if someone ever responded to me in the tone of some of the responses you got.
Yeah, the insults keep coming. Its been a tough pill to swallow. On the other hand, I add keep updating the funny ones to this post.
I’m so sorry that this has happened to you. Maybe you should persue legal action against those people for stealing your photos. It is a well known fact that it is illegal but apparently they don’t care. Maybe you should make them care. That’s so sad that people are abusing instagran. Soon they will ruin it for everyone
I’m so sorry for what’s happened.. I feel your frustration and anger! These people (???) who steal your work (and others’ too) really have no shame! So unethical!
I agree that watermark-ing your pictures is one way to prevent photo theft, but I’ve read that some even steal the whole post! As such, some of these bloggers have resorted to applying the “no right click” on their blog. I think this is quite effective.. but it’s a rather drastic measure.
Anyways, I’ve just discovered your blog and really enjoy reading your posts.. so keep up the good work and don’t stop sharing ^^
This type of behaviour is appalling!
Frankly though, if I followed someone on any site, and then found out they were using someone else’s photos / art work, and passing them off as their own, I wouldn’t be a follower for long.
I’m glad to have found this blog as I have yet to copyright any of my cake photos. I have a few original designs, and would really resent someone else passing them off as their own.
Thank you for this post
I just find it amazing that people can even make a comment that the picture “doesn’t belong to you”, I’m pretty sure that if I take a picture with my camera of my food that I made, and post it on my blog then it’s my picture. I’m so sorry that there are so many rude people out there Amanda!
It’s heartbreaking when you spend so much time and effort on things for people to rip it off. I’ve seen stolen content on IG and both contacted the owner and reported the image but sadly it doesn’t do any good. The best thing we can do right now is spread the word and hope people will look out for each other and be honest. Clearly IG doesn’t give a damn about the users… and let’s face it… it’s owned by FB now so the likelihood of ever getting help from them is beyond slim.
It can be so disheartening to learn how crude and unethical people can be. I’m in a similar situation with a client. I provided a service and my client stole my process and began using it with her clients. I couldn’t believe it. To make matters worse when I paid money for an attorney and sent her a license agreement, followed by a demand letter, she threatened to sue me. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I am finally understanding that some people will do whatever it takes to get their way.
I’m so sorry you had to go through this. And I’m so glad you spoke up about it. Together we can help each other – not to hate all people (which is what feels good after something like this happens), but to learn to stand up for ourselves. There’s this woman I call my adopted mom. She tells me that trust is a privilege that people have to earn.
Thanks to your post and your commenters, I guess I might start watermarking my photos now. It seems like the safest way to go. Thanks again for this post. It was really enlightening.
I am SO sorry that happened to you!! That blows my mind!!! What is WRONG with people???
I just signed up with digimon.com which is an invisible trademark but also allows me to track my images. Its $100 a year (spendy, I know) but hopefully will buy me some piece of mind.
Usually I try to read all comments so that I don’t tell you something that the fifth person already said, but you’ve got a LOT of comment, so sorry if this is duplicate info. Love and Olive Oil had this same problem with her rainbow cake photo (guess these thieves like rainbows!) and she had her Twitter minions attack. (My words). She posted where and who on instagram had her photo and after several of us posted as misuse of terms, the photo was removed. I don’t mind clicking the button and saying it’s yours (since it is). But everything else I read about watermarks is good advice too. And yes, while I’m sure it’s flattering they stole your photo, dammit, it’s still yours!
I adore you. Love your insights always!
People really do just suck! They only care about themselves. When you did the patriotic rose cake, I loved it and made one myself. I then blogged about. I used my own pictures but even throughout the blog post I gave you credit and linked back to your original source. It’s the right thing to do. After all I didn’t come up with the cake!
Sorry there are people stealing your pictures!
just know karma will eventually get them!
Amanda, that is so terrible. Definitely the part of blogging and social media that isn’t fun:-( I know I am echoing what everyone else said, but a watermark is such a good idea. It won’t stop everyone from still trying to “steal” it, but it will sure make it a lot harder! I am so sorry you got such rude comments from that lady! I am more than willing to go over and leave a comment about it being yours!
Thank you so much! I dont want anyone to get attacked like I have been. They are relentless! But I so appreciate the thought!
Hey, I just read this. I’m so sorry you have to go through this! It sounds like a ton of niave individuals and most sound like they’re 12! There is obviously no respect for you or your hard work, and those people should be ashamed of themselves! I do agree with the first comment, watermark watermark watermark!!! It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but at least this way they won’t be able to take credit where credit is not due!
It happens and it sucks! The rude comments aren’t helpful either. Some people will say anything from behind a computer screen.
Another blogger I subscribe to has found that her entire blog posts are being reposted in another language on another site. The person posting them is claiming the posts, tutorials, pictures and all, as their own work.
It’s yours, you know it’s yours, and we see it here first. That’s all that matters. Keep making beautiful food!
Thank you so much for posting this! I have filed a complaint on Instragram’s FB page so that other people can be aware of this theft problem. I just found Instagram, but I do need to see if my work has been stolen.
I really appreciate your taking the time to share this info! We work WAY TOO HARD to have these criminals steal our work!!!!!
If there is any sort of petition or something that can be done, please let us know because I am with you!!!!!
I was so sad to hear of this nastiness that is burdening you. I have been a follower of your wonderfulness and your talents almost from the get go. You have such a wonderful heart that is full of goodness and it reflects not only in your baking abilities but also your words. It is shameful that someone feels the need to steal something from you or others for that fact. That their life is so shallow they feel the need to do so is even sadder. Especially given the fact that you have always graciously shared with us how to make OUR OWN. Prayers for you and your family as you sort through this mess. As always I remain a Fan. Gwendolyn
This sucks! I agree with those who suggested watermarking your images in the future. In addition, perhaps if you find additional images posted online without your permission, you might try asking them to rectify their initial mistake and give you credit for the image, adding a link to your site and the original image. The good thing about your images being shared on pinterest and instagram is increased traffic to your website, increased profile for your ‘brand’, etc. – but of course, only if you’re credited as the source.
Good luck!
Wow, this just validates everything I’ve thought. I often wondered about the images found there. I also never understood followers following people they didn’t know. I use IG to share my daily fun with friends… a way to stay in touch. I don’t really “get” the stealing of images… what’s the point? The whole idea sounds foreign to me. I like Rob’s advice. At least it would make it harder for people to steal. Still do-able, but most thieves are lazy as well as stupid. So, if you do something that causes them to go through extra steps, they’ll give up. That’s my prediction anyway.
Goodness gracious, Amanda! I am so sorry you’re dealing with this; it doesn’t seem fair at all. I can imagine how frustrated you are. GAHhh, seriously, internet “commenters” seem to all be irrational and immature pre-teens. Beyond rude and unreasonable!! I agree with all the wise advice given above, and I hope that it can give you peace and reassurance that something can be done about the situation, even if only a little. We love you, Amanda, keep on doin whatchu do, bein awesome n all.
*blushing* Making you my BFF.
Just wondering, has anyone been nice? recognized they’re at fault and taken down your photos with an apology? :- I sure hope so.
YOu have my sympathy… that is just horrible… it breaks my heart that people are so callous. I think perhaps it is time to return to the old way.. watermark your images! It is what I do and I will say this, if I see your images posted in other places, I will link back to your blog I will give you credit for your hard work even if the poster does not!
Blessings
e
I love your pictures and everything you do. Your blog is a sign of generosity and your work shows the kind of person you are. It´s a shame that there are so many people who, not having worked ever, ignore the meaning of effort, and the pride one feels before one´s own work´s results.
Who cares? You are RIGHT and they are not.
All my love and support from spain.
Our Lord bless you.
If I ever see one of your pictures without credit on another site, I will leave my own comment telling them (nicely) that they should link back to your site. Or I’ll just leave the url in the comment.
I remember your pinterest etiquette blog post, and it really opened my eyes to what was going on all over the internet. I am so disappointed when I click through a pinned item to get to the source, and end up on some photo sharing site with huge collections of other peoples work.
You can be sure I will share this with my friends/family who use instagram and pinterest.
Thank you so much!! You are such a sweety!
To be honest I have posted several of your images on Pinterest, but have given credit through posting a link to your site.
And first of all (and I’m sure it’s been said, but I’m not going to read through EVERY comment), that’s an infringement on your intellectual property along with copyright laws (if other people claim it as their own).
You HAVE to watermark your images. And I’m not talking about a little speck in the corner of your image. You have to repeat it, in very large font all over the image (preferably in a very light/ opaque style so that you can still see the image in a diagonal fashion.) That way NO ONE can Photoshop your images or whatever without losing the concept of the image.
Do this NOW to all of your images you currently have on the site – it’s the only way to take control of your creations.
Hope this helps!
Pinterest is totally different and I appreciate you taking the time to Pin!! I just signed up for digimon.com which is an invisible watermark and also allows me to track. I am going to try this method for awhile!
WOW! I am so sorry this happened to you. I love reading your blog and seeing all the fun things you create! I hate when people take credit for things they didn’t do. It’s not fair after all the effort and work you put into making and documentiong your creations that someone else would claim that. My encouragement is that you are amazing and keep on baking!
I feel so bad to hear it! People have no tact sometimes. It’s how I found your blog though. Someone posted your rose cake with your iambaker logo on deviantart.com. I previously thought maybe it was your deviant account but based on this post I think perhaps not.
This is the link incase you wish to pursue it
http://fav.me/d39rehi
DOH! I had not seen that. Just left a comment. Thanks for the link!
YES! Please watermark all of your pics! The nerve of some people!!! I find it deplorable. I have gone on websites and found people have stolen pics from Sharron Zambito, Wilton, and other popular sites and passed them off as their own. It’s horrible!!! We work to hard as cakers to have our work stolen from us. I don’t have an instagram account and I won’t be getting one for sure now. I’m sorry this has happened to you.
That totally sucks. I think the water-marking and adding a copyright of the photo is the best bet. Yes, someone can take the time to crop it out or “fuzz” it out, but then it’s pretty clear that they are stealing if they go that far. I’ve had TONS of my cocktails photos stolen from my books. I was even perusing a Facebook cocktail competition and saw TWO of my photos from my book that people were voting on!! Another time, I went into a frozen yogurt place and saw one of my images from my books being used along with a yogurt flavor as a visual aid! Hard to control. But, I REALLY like the idea of just watermarking it or adding a copyright, your website, name, etc. Then, if they do crop it out, we have a leg to stand on to say “you stole that photo.” Websites just make it so easy to share that I’m not sure most people are ill-intentioned, it’s just that the few that are ruin it for everyone else.
Oh my word Kim. That just makes me ill!!! I feel awful that you have been so abused by ignorance and maybe even blatant theft. My gosh that just makes my blood boil.
That is so awful for you. I’m so sorry that people have taken advantage and believe they can behave and act any way, because it’s the internet! It drives me crazy on pinterest when someone will just post the photo they saw. I want to know who the original poster of that photo is – every time – so that I will know who it leads me right back to if I want to “copy” or borrow their ideas to make in my own life. I hope it works out for you. Personally, I’d drop Instagram after this….just not worth it!
I’m so sorry to read this! How awful! How can people act like this?!?! I cannot undersand… If it’s somebody else’s work, give credit to him/her or else, don’t post it… I have to say though that your amazing work is recognisable (i don’t know if this exists… My English gets worse everyday…) anywhere! Can wait till you book comes to Spain!!! I we can help in something you’ll just have to say
This really stinks. They are basically creating their own Pinterest with their Instagram accounts. What concerns me the most is that they are kids stealing and then harassing you- the person they stole from. Where are their parents? Why aren’t they monitoring their social media networks? It’s probably because they have no idea what their kids are doing. Which is sad, because now that they have a large following, everything those kids do is indexed by Google.
Instagram is now owned by Facebook. I would contact others who they have stolen from and then contact an attorney- or the attorney can track down the others. Even if they make their feed private, they are still subject to copyright laws.
I realized kids were doing this when I went to a friend of mine’s kid’s Facebook page and the child’s timeline photo was one of my “fun food” photos. I don’t mind since I know her, and it had my watermark on it, but that got me to thinking… I bet there are a 1,000 more kids using my photos that I don’t know about.
I was just told that people are passing around my printable designs (from my shop) in private Facebook Groups. Nice huh?! Sometimes, you just have to give up on trying to stop the thieves. There is no way to keep up. But this one with the kids and their comments to you is shocking. I would not let it go.
Good Luck! And if you don’t have time, hire some kid to go put watermarks smack dag in the middle of all of your old photos:-) I love the first commentor’s suggestion with using that code to show copyright info on the downloaded photo. That is awesome.
” They are basically creating their own Pinterest with their Instagram accounts. ” Brilliant. You hit the nail on the head. I had not thought about it in those terms and its EXACTLY right.
I just hate that your stuff is SO abused. You put content out there (amazing content!) and people steal it. And you are also very astute about the whole lack of parenting thing. I was shocked the way those teens spoke to me… laughed my face so to speak… could have cared less about what was right or moral. When I told them I was contacting a lawyer they attacked me even more… if anyone would have told me that when I was a child I would have peed myself in fear. Where is that respect for authority we had as kids?
Your comment is fantastic and brings up so many great points Amy… thank you for sharing!!!
I hate that you are having to go through this. That stinks! Those people you’re dealing with are not bright at all. Now I’m going to be even more apprehensive about using Instagram. Thanks for the insight.
Ugh… this makes me so so so angry. You handled this beautifully though… and hopefully, at some point, it will get taken down. :-/
Your post & the comments point out that the internet has become a Wild West, where law means nothing unless you can enforce it – and none of us “mortals” can. I am a lawyer and believe me, it doesn’t help. If others don’t respect the creators’ rights, there is little we can do. Whether the application is Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or something else, they are the ones with power to make the stealing stop, by being vigilant in taking down posts or pictures they know to be stolen. Those applications are not likely to act at the behest of a single blogger or two, but if they had to face pressure from an organized group of popular bloggers, photographers, etc who would boycott their sites and urge others to do so unless they changed their ways… If only we had a collective voice on this! (Of course, my fantasy assumes that there is a large and potentially influential group of people who respect others rights. I think there is, but have no empirical evidence to back that up.)
I have that same fantasy.
I have been so disappointed by Instagram (facebook?) and their lack of response or concern. I have flagged my photos number times on numerous accounts and they have done nothing. I have reported the harassment and slander that the people who stole my pics are doing. I used every avenue of contact that Instagram has provided and received NOTHING. Not one little peep.
I think my ‘bigger’ fantasy is that Gloria Aldrege (sp) will hop along and see the issue, decide the law needs to be changed in support of what is right, and take on the case pro bono.
That theses huge internet mega powers will finally do what is right instead of conditioning us to believe that we just need to accept that theft/abuse/harassment will occur and WE need to be more vigilant or proactive in deterring it. As if the burden is ours?
Thanks so much for your insights Laura!!
This is a super bummer!! But unfortunately, I think it’s the reality of the internet, at least for now. I am in law school and just took a copyright course last semester. The law has yet to catch up with technology when it comes to intellectual property. I’m obviously not a lawyer yet, and I certainly don’t know a ton about copyright outside of school. But it seems to me that even though Instagram may have some license to your images one you post them, if YOU the owner did not post them on Instagram yourself, how could they have a license? Additionally, Instagram does have a quasi-notice-and-take-down provision, pursuant to which they should remove any material that infringes copyright. I believe you can flag photos for review and select copyright, and you can also file a notice of infringement with them. Not sure if you’ve tried that or not. Unfortunately, if you take those steps, and they do nothing, the only thing left to do is get an attorney on it, which, as you and others have noted, is completely unreasonable and expensive for the normal person. Anyway, I know that’s not much help, but I just thought I’d throw some ideas out there. I’m sorry that people are so insensitive to the time and care you put into your work!
Thanks for the insights Natasha! You knowledge definitely helps!
I am more frustrated and upset by the ignorant comments from people who think the internet is fair game. It is illegal to do this. Copyright is not about sales but representation. I watermark all my photos – it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t find them copied elsewhere but it often makes it easier to defend my case since many thieves are too ignorant of the law to edit it out. There are excellent IP attorneys out there (I believe Hungry Mouse may be able to refer you to someone who might be able to help you) and there is no reason why you should let this go.
You absolutely can file a DMCA report (but read up on it before you do). Refer to copyright.gov for more info. I wrote this article that you may find useful – lots of info and links to info: http://cake-o-cake.blogspot.com/2012/05/butcher-baker-blogger-copyright-you.html
Just because theft has been around forever doesn’t make it right. We all lock our doors at night and if the patio furniture were stolen we’d file a police report. And to the rude commentors: ignorance of the law is NOT an affirmative defense. Perhaps they should look *that* up with their “school reports.”
Good luck!
Fantastic link you provided there!! It covers SO much! Great, great resource. Thank you!!
Just re-commenting to commend you on stepping out and expressing your concern, this is a huge for online communities, I am so glad that Instagram stepped up!!
THIS IS AWESOME NEWS! I am so happy for you and glad that the ignorant thieves got their “just desserts” (pun intended)!
Finally some sense of all of this and justice! I read all the circumstances with great distress yesterday but now glad that Instagram finally did the right and professional thing. I would still watermark your photos, Amanda.
I put a watermark, copyright mark on every single cake. I always pick a part of the actual cake that if they tried to remove the words then it would damage the photo…thus making it unusable. Basically it would be more trouble than it’s worth to remove the wording in order to use the image. If they do use it with the wording then everyone who sees it can see it’s still mine. I highly recommend it.
Cat
I think that your picture probably would not have went viral without this problem…just the truth. So if I were concerned about ME getting credit for my pictures then I would as has been mentioned in previous posts use a water mark on my pictures. I don’t do this because I’m not uptight about it and love to see my pictures reach a status they would not reach otherwise, I know their mine, I also know I’m not going to get paid for them so I don’t care. If I made money on my pictures then maybe I’d feel different but I’d also do things differently.
No mater what, there are people who want to find the original source and those people do find the original source…. But I can tell you this, all this copyright scare is only going to keep honest people from sharing your photos…and sharing your photos is how you got noticed in the first place…so use water marks as mentioned so you get the credit you so deserve and lets stop scaring people to death about sharing. crazy. My opinion, just saying….don’t have to agree with me.
Stolen content is sooooo frustrating, like beyond! Sorry you’re dealing with this. Thank you for making it public, and letting others know it’s not ok to steal. Should seem common sense, but some don’t realize the whole picture thing is still stealing! Hopefully this will help spread the word.
Glad to hear they took action!
Very impressed! But if they want to be the photo posting site, they have to show some care for the photographers! I’d still find a watermark you’re happy with, though.
You’ve got some pull!!
Soooo happy to hear the good news!!!
you deserve it!
Amanda, this infuriates me so much that it actually makes my stomach hurt. The prideful, ignorant feelings of entitlement that people adopt are absolutely abhorrent. I work at a well-known copy chain which has (understandably) very strict copyright guidelines that we are expected to follow. As a whole, the public has a rudimentary understanding of copyright law – especially when it comes to the Internet. And they will argue that they have every right to copy, scan, or print whatever they want. The articles run the gamut of law breaking: artwork, professional photos (but I bought them…I own them!), magazine articles, books, logos, and even altering bank statements (but it’s MY statement!). They will argue, threaten, get nasty, and even resort to name-calling because we outright refuse our services in these instances. I am relieved to see that you finally got some help from Instagram!
Glad they took action. Wonder if they would’ve still taken action if it wasn’t for your above post. SO very glad that the offending sites were removed.
Yes. The law is the law even if it’s hard to enforce.
Yes. There are still lots of good people out there. Glad some of your faith was restored.
Thanks for taking the time to post this and follow through with Instagram. Coming from the newspaper business, I know how important copyright should be. Unfortunately, the Internet challenges the integrity of copyright and it takes a lot of time to make it right. You did that and I applaud you!
On the same note, have you heard or seen http://pasplore.com/ ? It directly takes recipes and photos without author submission and a very small credit to the blog. Thoughts on this?
How anyone could think this is ok, is unknown to me!
How could anyone think that it would be ok to “steal” your photos?!?!
So sorry this happened to you Amanda, but glad you where able to stop it
I am so impressed with the thorough and just response from Instagram.. I breathed a sigh of relief (not that anyone was stealing my instagram, lol). How shocked those Instagram users must have been to find they’d been shut down for stealing! Fantastic and way to go Instagram.. it’s so important to trust the integrity of a system like that!! xo Smidge
AAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!! I mean, go Instagram for their reply, but AAAARRRRGGGHH!!! to those idiot replies you got!!
No, posting your photograph anywhere does not give it free reign. It’s still protected under copyright. Sometimes I feel the internet is so out of control, it makes me want to run for the hills (without my computer)! GO YOU for the persistence!!!
What a horrible situation to be dealing with. I love reading your blog, seeing your beautifully decorated cakes have encouraged me to seek answers on how to decorate my cakes better. It is hard work to make something presentable to post on your blog–and some people just have no regard for the efforts put forth to achieve your vision. Those people making nasty comments, they merely repost/repin your pictures, they do not appreciate all the hard work you’ve put in to make the dish, plate it pretty and take great pictures. I totally understand how you feel about this, it is about being recognized, to receive credit for something YOU did. Best wishes.
That’s excellent news about the action from Instagram! AMANDA 1, LOSERS 0.
I know how you feel! I decorate cakes and have a tumblr with the images of them on, and this has happened to me several times. I always contact them politely at first – it could just be an honest mistake or an oversight after all, and all I ask is for the post to be taken down or for credit to be put up. After all, I’m flattered that they think my image is worth sharing, but I understand you’re pain ; they do very often ignore you, or reply to you rudely or with a sense of superiority, despite the fact that it’s a fairly simple request. It’s always especially hurtful when it’s something you put a lot of effort into, as you do with your photographs! I don’t understand how people can act so high and mighty after taking seconds to steal something that somebody has spent hours and hours creating.
I definitely find the comment from one of the people you had ridiculous: “You do know its not copyrighting unless she sells it or takes credit for it, right? Oh wait, you don’t know. Its basically like printing off a picture from the internet for a school report. All your classmates see it, and its not copyrighting. Thats just the same as Instagram. Read (the proprietors) bio. She didn’t claim credit for them. Get your facts straight.”
I’m not entirely sure what school this person is attending, but copyright and plagiarism are taken seriously at my school and everywhere else I attend. Any image I add to a report is required to have bibliographical information attached. And as far as I’m aware, this reproduction is only allowed because its for educational and not commercial purposes.
…Anyway, I’m kind of going off on a tangent. It sucks that people do this – and they really shouldn’t, but at least most administrators of websites such as tumblr or weheartit have usually been very reasonable in dealing with claims – in my cases, they have nearly always immediately removed the images that were stolen and warned the person.
I hope this doesn’t happen to you again! I’m considering watermarking as well, but it really isn’t something I want to do, and I hope it shouldn’t have to come for that for anyone really.
It’s too bad this happened to you. Too many people think that copyright does not apply to the Internet and take what they want. I teach technology to elementary and middle school students and am the librarian as well. I keep reviewing the copyright laws with the students and then the teachers tell them not to worry about breaking the rules because no one cares or will catch them. May I use this post to prove them wrong?
Hi, The best thing for you to do would be to disable right click on your site. There probably is a wordpress plug in that will do this for you. If they can’t right click they can’t download the photo. That would only help you on your blog though … not on instagram itself. Good luck!
BITCH UR THE ONE WHO HARRASING US ME @girldaily
@femaleposts @Dino_sour @thewadeposts @thebeautyofcolors_
@iinfinity WE DID NOT TAKE THE DAMN PICTURE ME- @girldaily
And @Dino_sour WE NEVER TOOK NONE OF YOUR DAMN PICTURES WE ALL GET THEM FROM WEHEARTIT LOOK IT UP NIGGA WE DONT KHOW WHERE ALL OF THEM COME FROM IF WE KHEW WE WOULD HAVE GAVEN YOU CREDIT LIKE BITCH YOU KHOW KHOW HOW HARD WE WORKED TO GAIN THOSE FOLLOWERS WHY DID YOU DO THAT AND BESIDES THE ACCOUNT THAT HAD 174,000 SHE HAS TON OF FOLLOWERS SHE CAN’T READ EVERY COMMENT AND I NEVER TOOK PEOPLES PICTURES AND SOME OF THEM TOLD ME I STOLED IT BUT I GAVE THEM FUCKING CREDIT WHAT IS WRONG WITH U
While I certainly do NOT appreciate your language, I can definitely understand your frustration. It must be really awful to work hard at something and have someone take it away. To put time and energy into your passion and then to have someone else disrespect it.
Wait, I guess I can understand because I feel the same way about *my* passion.
Just because a picture is on weheartit doesn’t make it public property and certainly doesnt make it *your* property. Those pictures have owners. Those pictures are covered under copyright. Those pictures were taken by people who worked hard on creating something and capturing it just so. Those pictures are someone else’s passion… and you stole that from them. Every single picture in your feed belonged to someone else. You posting them was in violation of Instagram’s terms of use. I am at a loss as to why you think you are the victim here.
Wow…I bet you make your momma proud!
Well, you know when a person uses the word, “nigga,” that they are coming from a place of intelligence and respect.
@girldaily Does not matter where you see the image. Even if that site does not credit the source. Ignorance is not an excuse to blame others. It is your responsibility to know the law and to follow it.
If you broke the law on the street and a cop arrests you, you can’t tell him, “Well, others stole it too,” or, “I worked hard on this so even though it’s illegal I have the right.”
This immature child will fail to see the irony in complaining about working hard.
This has happened so many times with my images as well (with no action taken when I reported to Instagram), so it’s good to know that I am not the only one frustrated.
Look I’m from instagram and
You had my account reported I am
So
Sorry for using your pictures I really am I had no clue that they were yours
I just
Got them
From tumblur I am
So
Sorry is their any way you an please help
Me activate my account
Again I promise I won’t use tem any more my email is wadeallensmith@gmail.com please I will pay
well I’m sorry for my language but like the picture dosent say who owns the picture thats the problem if it said that I would give them credit but it don’t say who owns it and I never said that it was my picture I just posted it just for fun we didint mean to steal pictures and there’s alot of fashion profiles that have more than 100.000 and you didint do anything to them and they don’t give credit . why did you only report us
that was kinda not fair
If you want to share the names of those accounts I would be willing to report them, would that make you feel better?
Hey girldaily,
I don’t know about you, but I could never find the time or energy to write my name on everything I make or own! I’ve made a few crafts over the years (blankets, ornaments, ceramics, photos, etc.) and sometimes I forget to sign my work, or there’s just too much for me to keep track of! I know I’ve taken hundreds of pictures (on my super old digital camera), and not signed a single one.
If someone came into my home, or the art room, or my school, and picked up something of mine to display on their own wall, I would be pretty angry about it. But does the absence of my name make it public property? Certainly not.
The same thing goes for pictures, such as the one from this website. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t claim it as your work – the fact is you displayed it on ‘your wall,’ while Instagram’s terms of use clearly say that you must own the image, or have expressed permission from the owner.
It can be difficult to see the harm in copying a picture that has already been shared so many times. That just means that we all need to be more careful about what we ‘take’ from the internet. We should all check first to see if it is a privately owned picture, or if it is truly ‘free.’ Hopefully, this will become easier as the law catches up to technology. For now, we have to be able to trust each other and respect everyone else’s property – even if it is 2D on a computer screen.
Don’t worry too much about Instagram. There are many other ways for you to express your talents!
Good luck,
Liz
Well said!
Omg you’re the reason we got disabled?!?! I was @beautyofcolors_ and I can not tell you how upset I am right now
( I cried all the day when I saw my account got disabled 
( why did you do it?!? If I knew you owned any of the pics I posted I would definitely give you credit bc I really appreciate those people who have such colorful and creative pics . This heart cake was one of my favorite pics I found on weheartit.com and I even saw this pic on the popular page so many times! I can give you 1000 more accounts on IG who post pics from weheartit and half of them have 100,000 followers!! So why only us? I feel so stupid now for working hard to get followers and losing them instantly:( I only had @beautyofcolors_ for 2 months 
you’re the reason I hate instagram now. If you tried to contact me I would just remove the pics you owned and maybe repost and give you credit so people could see the real owner and appreciate how talented you’re. It was that simple! You didn’t have to report us to instagram. But you chose to hurt people’s feelings.
I am sorry your feelings are hurt. I actually did contact you and request for you to remove my picture. You chose not too.
You mentioned that you feel so stupid for working so hard to get followers… do you understand how upsetting it is for me to have my picture (that I worked so hard on) to be just taken from me? Every single picture you posted belonged to someone. Unfortunately you cant just take it because you think they are pretty. You cant take pictures from ‘photo sharing sites” and repost them.
I hope that you can understand how serious your actions were. I hope that you can understand what copyright and terms of use are. I hope that you would take your own pictures, express your own personality, and start an account with YOUR images. I think you will find that much more gratifying.
No, how did you contact me? If you left a comment on the pic I probably didn’t see it. So if I make a new account posting the same kind of pictures will you also tell Instagram about it? I’m sure you will.. I just don’t think it was fair to report Instagram only 5-10 accounts. If you are really thinking those accounts are against the rules you should’ve at least name 50 accounts! I can name you at least 100 accounts that post pictures from Tumblr, Pinterest, Weheartit, etc. I even saw your “heart cake” picture posted on so many accounts with over 50,000 followers. I wish you were fair… Can you just forgive me? I really want my account back. I am not having any fun even when I am with my friends.
Please..
And I have a question.. I just wonder if you still reported me to Instagram if I had this on my bio: “If you’re the owner of any of these pictures please contact me.. I will either remove the pic or repost and give you credit.. Kik: mylifeincolors ”
Please help me get my account back, I even failed two of my classes for spending most of my time on instagram trying to make my account bigger. I can definitely understand how upset you were when you saw your pictures posted on my account. I am really sorry again.. Please help me, I really don’t feel good since my account has been disabled
((
Thanks! @beautyofcolors_
Do you understand that taking peoples pictures is WRONG? Stop, just for a moment, and think. Anytime you post a picure that YOU HAVE NOT TAKEN, you are violating the terms of service for Instagram.
I am not the Instagram police, I can not possibly know every single time pictures are stolen and report them. You took my picture, you violated my copyright and the terms of service on Instagram, and EVERY TIME YOU DO THIS it is wrong.
Even if you say, #notmine or “these are not my pics” or “from weheartit.com” or “Contact me if these are yours”.
Here, let me try to explain this better. YOU are the proprietor of your account on Instagram. You hold the responsibility for the account. If YOU post a picture that YOU did not take, your account could be shut down.
You are NOT allowed to post a picture you didnt take.
I have no say whatesoever at Instagram, I cannot possibly help you re-instate it even if I wanted too. But I can say this for certain, the classes that you failed were far more important that your Instagram account. Put your phone down, pick your books up, and take some pride in your education. Where are your parents?!???
Amanda, I support you and your choices 100%. I love your site all te wonderful things you post for us to see. Thank you!
I’m 23 years old and my parents passed away when I was only 15. Ok thank you anyways for your answers. I hope you continue to watch other people and help instagram to recognize those accounts too. Then it will be fair.. I’ll even delete the application right now, so you can be sure that one of the stealers are giving up
I just wonder how many days it took you get a re
Beautyofcolors – You seem pretty immature for a 23 year old, for whatever your home, education, work, situation is. Take responsibility for your own actions without excuse or guilt trips.
Note to self in future when the program/app asks do you agree to the terms an conditions of use……DON’T CLICK YES……until you have read them and understood them and are willing to abide by them.
Well done you! Congrats, and I am glad Instagram listened and took action.
oops I just submitted it without finishing..
Here’s the rest:
I just wonder how many days it took you to get a reply back from Instagram.. I am asking this because one of my cousins who post her own pictures had the same issue you had. But this person who stole the picture knew the real owner of the picture. So when my cousin sent an e-mail to Instagram she never get a reply back from them. I will be just happy if you can tell how they replied you.. Then cousin will do the same steps you did.. You don’t have to tell but if you’d like to I’ll appreciate it..
Thanks!
What amazes me the most is the widespread opinion that photo stealing is not actual stealing.
And the idea that if you put it on the internet it becomes public domain so we should just accept that people will take and distribute a photo that we worked hard to set up and actually produce the items in the photo. Just try that with Disney or the Academy awards.
I’m just consistently shocked that it’s so acceptable, and the victim is victimized and ridiculed by the criminals (and their followers) that steal photos.
I don’t bother with photo sharing sites, like pinterest or instagram. I’ve got enough problems with my images on facebook, flickr and my blog. I’ve resorted to watermarking every pic of every cookie, cake, dessert table that I post.
Sorry you had such a problem and that those creeps are harassing you.
I’m always nervous when I make initial contact with someone who has stolen one of my pics. You never know what kind of reply you’re going to get.
Still, I’m always amazed that people think stealing off the internet isn’t plagiarism or stealing. Isn’t that one of the basic rules of grade school?
Wow. I guess that we food bloggers will always battle those who feel it’s okay to take our images. I’m sorry that this happened to you (it’s happened to me), but I have to say– I admire how you responded to some of these very rude (and profane) comments. Bravo, for taking the high road. I’m so glad that Instagram responded to you.
Glad to hear that your situation got resolved! Sorry to hear that you received so much abuse from all those Instagram users! You definitely did the right thing!!
Hi iambaker um I’m glamiesgurl from instagramand I would just like to say I looked at her page and I don’t see the picture anymore I don’t think she laughed in your face I think she was caught off guard with your request to get it removed but I do belive she took it down a.s for anyone else who has posted the picture I don’t know but I do know the one person inpiticular who has tooken it down
Go Amanda! I was so upset for you as I was reading this post. The people that took your pictures without permission are wrong! I am really happy that Instagram paid attention to you and deactivated the offending accounts. You’re very gracious when you reply to those nasty comments, keep it up!
Oh, Amanda. Feeling your pain! This has happened to us, too, with my husband’s business and his graphic/logo that we PAID a graphic designer to create. Very, very frustrating when people think that they can pull things off of your site. In our case, the people covered up a few things and added their own information. Not cool! We flagged the website host and the image was removed. However, I just checked another place we had found the stolen image as well and it was still there. Just left another message about it.
I’m so, so sorry that this happened to you.
I completely agree with your actions Amanda! Don’t let anyone make you feel bad about it. It is THEIR fault for what they did. Instagram is not for people to repost pictures that don’t belong to them, it’s for individuals to take their OWN pictures and share them, not others’ pictures. Those people whose accounts were deactivated have no one else to blame but themselves…they should know better, but clearly from these posts that I’ve read from them, they don’t know any better. All they care about are followers, and would post ANYTHING (even if it wasn’t their own), just to get followers. It’s ridiculous, immature, and really shows the age of these users, who are obviously teenagers who only care about so-called “popularity” rather than integrity, honesty, and respect for other peoples’ hard work, like yours. I am also a baker and own my own business, and I would be just as upset as you if someone were to take my work without permission or without any credit given. These kids don’t realize how hard people like us work on those photos, on the recipe, getting it just the way we want, only to have the end result ripped out from under us and displayed elsewhere without credit given, and that credit was EARNED. Anyway, that’s my rant. Again, don’t ever feel bad about your decision…you did what you had to do and it was the RIGHT thing to do!
That really sucks! I can’t tell you how many of my photos can be found on weheartit (and MANY other places) and I’ve never uploaded one thing on there! Only once have I been asked permission to use one of my pictures for a blog post but mainly I find them with an images search. Some even use my images to sell their products!!! Totally WRONG!!! I can’t understand how people can say that it’s on the internet so it belongs to everyone?
I guess I’m confused….. I don’t do Instagram, so don’t have personal experience with the site. But, the shut down accounts all mention how many followers they had and how hard they worked to get the followers (one even failing classes for Instagram!). My question, is there a prize for the most followers?? Does it make them the “popular” person at school or on the Internet? I don’t get it!
Amanda, you go girl! Keep up the good fight.
I’m wondering the same thing. Is it just a pride thing to get the most followers?
hi there. sorry to hear about all of this trouble. i’ve enjoyed your website for about a year now. i appreciate all your hard work and your creativity inspires me. i can admit that i’ve pinned many of your photos on pinterest [my favorite new thing!] just for the wow factor and inspiration it gives me. i HOPE that when i’m pinning your photos, and anyone else’s for that matter, that pinterest is adding the link back to your site appropriately. ?????? i don’t know. i just click on what i like. maybe you could add your name to your photos? i’ve seen that a lot online, like a vague watermark??? or simply a more bold caption referencing your site? i don’t know how to do that, but i’ve seen it. either way, i hope that you’re able to come to an acceptable resolution. i would boycott instagram in solidarity……but i don’t know anything about it. and by the looks of things, i don’t think i want to. =/
Pinning is a different issue… typically if you pin right from my site not only is it ok, I am thankful!
Wow, I’m stunned!!!
)
How do these people have the barefaced cheek to email you in this way?! They clearly have no manners or respect for anything. You have dealt with them honourably- good for you
If everything on the internet belongs to anyone who wants it, does that mean I can have that hot pink Kitchenaid mixer or a Chanel bag without paying for it?! ‘Cause that’d be awesome!!
On a more serious note, I’m so sorry this has happened to you, Amanda. It’s sad people are so grossly irresponsible and act without being rational. Having been plagiarized for writing (not yet photos or recipes that I know of–*sigh*) I know it’s a long, lonely road before anything can be done. It’s hard and sad and frustrating because people are taking credit for something you put your everything into. I really wish I could turn my back and say “karma!” and be okay with knowing that eventually, these people will get taken down on their own, or stop, or their followers will find our original sites, but I can’t. It’s hard knowing you do something for your fans and it gets stolen and exploited on the internet for everyone.
Way to go Amanda! I am over here cheering you on. This has not happened to me that I know of yet…but I know it could and I applaud your perseverance. Your work is fantastic!!! Thank you for sharing your creativity with all of us!!
Watermark, this is the solution.
Sorry to hear about your incident. I had bad experience with my own friend stealing my bento photos. I’m a nobody so she probably thought its easier to get away with it. I believe in karma. Somehow the ugly truth will be revealed.
I love every single creations from you and I must say all your cakes have your name on it…even though there’s no watermarks whatsoever. Example when I see rose cake, I knew its from I am Baker!
Well here are the names:
@americanstyle
@fashionforall
Please report them they steal pictures and don’t give credit
Hi Amanda!
I just wanted to stop and say how sorry I am that people can behave that way. You were so right in asking these people to give you credit or remove the photos! I just don’t understand them! I wonder if they would be so flippant if it was their work being stolen!?
I so admire and love your work. And you are the only one that deserves the credit for it!
Sending you a big hug!
Mary
I am so sorry this is happening to you! I don’t even post photos to my Pintrest without a direct link… I post the website source as the whole PIN, that way when people click on a photo, it takes them straight to the source. I wish everyone would do that – So that credit can be given sure, but also… So often I click on things I see on Pintrest and there’s nothing… no way of knowing who the photo belongs to and more importantly, no information about the craft/recipe/what-ever-it-is that has piqued my curiosity.
Part of you has to be ready to let your art, (and that’s what I consider your photos to be) go after it’s posted to the Internet. Art that you don’t want stolen should be framed and locked away under a security system you trust. Nothing (on the Internet and almost anywhere else) is sacred any more. Trusting people to do the right thing on the web will only leave you disappointed. Sad. But true.
Lots of people suck. Even bloggers. Case in point… I had a blogger ask if she could come visit me during a trip she made to (near) my area to visit her family. I paid for lunch and even sent her away with gift bags full of goodies from where I work (Hanes) – Since she told me her sister would be joining us, I even sent her away with a bag for her sister and for her nephew, whom she spoke so lovingly of. And you know what? When that blogger returned home, she blogged about her ENTIRE trip and about EVERY other person she met up with along the way – but NOT ME! I didn’t get one mention! Not one photo of us together, of the beautiful gift bags I created for her/her family… Not a mention about our nearly 2-hour lunch where she talked about nothing except all the mistakes she’d made in her life (which confirmed that I didn’t want to continue knowing her!) But still, Nothing. In the end, I do know she’s not worth being upset over, (on top of being someone not worth knowing.) After all, this blogger is a stranger – Someone that adds absolutely nothing to the grandure that is my life. But for a moment I was sucked in… And, I thought of her as a friend. But no more. And, no more of me for others like her… I’m pretty easy to get along with. All I ask is that you not pretend, don’t steal from me and treat me as you wish to be treated. It’s all about the lessons
BTW, you meant to say legal “recourse” (not discourse).
Oh thanks!! I will fix it now. Blessings!
I know I had already left you a comment about this & I 100% support you in this. It then hit a little deeper for me yesterday when a friend of mine emailed me yesterday morning telling me that someone had stolen her images for their FB page & she found pictures on there that looked like my kids. When I went over- sure enough- there were images of myself, my daughters & comments talking about them as if they were her own kids. I was so disgusted about it I talked about it in my post again today & then will be doing a “how to disable right click on your blog” coming up soon. I have had many people help in reporting this gal for fraud. But I am still so sickened by the lengths people will go to to perpetuate the lie they are living .
I am SO sorry Gina. That is despicable!! Thank goodness your friend has you to guide her through the process of reporting this sick person. Thank you for being s seeker of truth and sharing your knowledge! Let me know if I can help!
Ugh, I am so sorry. I can’t wrap my head around why people think it is *okay* to take other people’s photos. And the excuses never cease to amaze me. My favorite is “well it’s out in the public, so it’s free to use”. Say what? Hmmm. So when I park my car in a public lot, is it free to use?
I realize that people have no idea how much time and effort goes into creating recipes, photographing them, editing and all that good stuff, but regardless, if it’s not yours, don’t just take it as your own. I think most bloggers are so very generous with their work, and how hard is it to take a few seconds to provide proper credit? I think I get most upset when I find stolen photos on websites of individuals selling their goods (or Etsy). I always feel bad for the poor unsuspecting person on the other side who thinks they are ordering what they see in the photo, when they are not. I could go on forever, but sorry to hear that Instagram isn’t doing a great job on this one.
hi Amanda ,
you have a point people stealing pictures is really unacceptable ! they need to be reported also how do u make a account get deleted becuase there are SOO many that do the same thing and I want them to be take down !
hopefully you make more cakes and show me the recipe
sincerely ,
Brandon rodriguez
I dont “make” an account get deleted. The only time I report things to Instagram is when someone posts one of my pictures without permission. I cant speak for other accounts.
I know this post is old but this is an issue near and dear to my heart, as well.
What if, you set yoursel up a photo background or some kind of prop with your “iambaker” logo on it? Like a cute tea towel/potholder or a screen printed cake stand/ coffee mug/serving utensil etc. That way the image will always be identifiable as yours without the extra hassle of having to edit the photos to add a water mark and thus avoiding potential to make the photo less appealing. It would be pretty difficult to edit out an actual object in the photo.
Did you also mention in your complaint to instagram the people who were leaving harassing comments? I think instagram needs to at least respond to those comments by reminding the other members that they agreed to the terms of use. Someone needs to point out that they were encouraging others to break those terms, in addition to harassing another user.
Have you thought about watermarking your photos?
Also check out this post : http://blognailedit.blogspot.com/2012/07/popular-polish-company-borrows-bloggers.html?m=1
How awful. If I saw it, I would’ve backed you up and said that it WAS yours and THEY stole it. Thats like saying “well your house was unlocked, so I figure I could take your TV and say it was mine.” Ridiculous people. I would email them again and explain how you were being harassed by people on the site.
I would have given them a link to your site where it was first created, then they might realize it was taken. But that might encourage them to steal more things…
Watermarking is good and I know if its marked across the middle of the picture, it can’t be cropped to not show text (otherwise they would crop the main object in the picture itself i.e. cookies, cakes, brownies, etc.). The only drawback is having a watermark over your pretty image
hopefully Instagram will wise up and take care of this problem.
I am glad I am not alone in this. My trouble isn’t just with IG but FB, Pinterest, Tumblr. It’s a horrible thing we as artists cannot share without plastering watermarks all over our photos.
All the best.
Great post, very interesting to read! Instagram is not a photo-sharing service and I get really upset to see people who use it as one. A feed full of stolen photos is nothing that I can enjoy, unfortunetly a lot of people do.
I felt really mad when I read your post, especially the comments trying to defend the thief. I bet those people doesn’t spend hours and hours trying to get good photos! And the worst part is to find stolen photos on instagram and users who say how amazing that photo is and how the thief happily thanks for their comments. I’ve seen it so many times and I feel the madness in me just thinking about it.
But it’s really nice to see how instagram responded and acted, but still there are sooo many people sharing other people’s work without credits, it makes me sick! Wish they could think about the poor human that actually put work into making that photo.
Edit: Well, it is an photo-sharing service of course, haha, but not like weheartit etc, that’s what I meant
I’m sorry for you’re experience with instagram. But if it gives you any comfort, I’m here due to similar reasons. That’s how I found your blog (I’m sure some others can relate?). What I am doing now is the following and it helps me:
- Watermark My Creations
- Copyright it
- Upload my blogs to http://www.myfreecopyright.com (for legal reasons)
I havr since deleted my instagram account but now everytime I post any blog/any content within is protected at my free copyright and it can be tracked. This will help me make that decision you too are facing “should i pursue legal actions?” Well with my contents having a “digital stamp date” of copyright, YES! If I were to reopen an instagram account, I won’t make the same mistake again. My art even ended up on instacanvas where people could buy and the theif profitting from MY work/vision/creation.
Best of luck to you!
oh.. trust me I hear you about Instagram and the way they do things… My suggestion is to put your signature right smack in the middle… I had to start doing it. Had to many people posting my drawings, claiming them that they drew it. Even fad few IG accounts pretending they are me.
Thank you,
and good luck to you…
LeopARTnik
This is what I’ve been worrying about on instagram. The worst part is when they claim the photos as theirs.
I’ve had art work stolen on ig and it’s very frustrating and kind of scary. I’d ask them to remove it but I only had 100 followers and they had 1k. Now that I have much more followers, anyone who claims my art was there’s cropping out the watermark, I’d make a post and my followers would report them to the point they’d have to delete or they were forced to delete. Serves them right. I learned how to watermark better and since then I haven’t had any problems
Hi Amanda (good name haha) – I stumbled upon this post and discussions as I was researching how instagram dealt with stolen pictures as I saw the most alarming post today from a local facebook business. An instagram site had stolen pictures of her 2 toddler sons and had there names and info about them and had them up for “Virtual adoption” – along with a hundred or so other kids and babies. I then found heaps of other similar accounts along the lines of “adopt a kid” where these sick people steal photos of babies and young kids and the put them up for adoption – and actually take requests such as “can you find me one with blonde hair who likes dancing – 3 years old please”. I was sickened and spent and hour reporting every site I could find – but I have no idea how to raise awareness about it or get any real action taken. Be very very careful people about posting pics of your family on instagram. would love for you to help spread awareness about such a terrible and sick dark side of an app that most of us with iPhones etc use daily. Thanks.
Oh wow. I got chills reading that. So horribly demented. I am just sick thinking about it… I wonder if the perversion goes much deeper and these are actually people who want to find children to abuse. Thank you for taking the time to report!!! You are making a difference!
I’ve just emailed Instagram with a whole list of those accounts. Some owners of these accounts I could tell are kids but it is still weird and disgusting.
I’ve just experienced the exact same thing and I wrote to that person too and they just laughed at me. And it just made me angry, of course I am flattered that someone liked my photo so much that they wanted to have it but still… They could have given me some credit of it, especially since it was a picture of me although you cannot see my face. I just mailed instagram and well if you didn’t have much luck then I think I wont either.
It just sucks that other people take someone else’s work (and obviously its not the end of the world) but its still frustrating.
This is weird because I just read an article about a blogger who got sued because she used a pic (and she didn’t know she wasn’t allowed)
Pretty sure it is NOT legal
Someone took a picture of mine, one I took myself, and is using as their default picture. I just want them to acknowledge who took the picture, but the persons profile is private. The most I can do is report their account. What else can I do? I requested to follow this person so I can say something but if they don’t accept I won’t be able to. It’s just annoying that they’re acting like its their picture.
I don’t have an Instagram account but have been very tempted to try it.
Thanks for sharing this..
Sorry that people behave the way they do sometimes.
Veena
i’m an artist, and i post my work on instagram all the time. this totally made me sad, and i’m sorry this happened to you
talentless, disrespectful people in the world.
Read your post and just wanted to say, I totally understand your frustration. Unfortunately, the internet is a big ugly beast to battle when it comes to media sharing, particularly photos. Instead of going to war with every IG user who re-posts your photos, it might be a good idea to comment on the photo and just let people know that if they are interested in the recipe or more info, that you are the person who the pic belongs to and offer them a link to where they can see the recipe/more photos. That way you come across as friendly and professional and you get the visitors to your site.
Also, those pancakes look AWESOME!
It is actually scary to think of the caliber of people out there. It is the exact same thing as plagiarising your university paper. Sorry you had that experience, humans can be quite shockingly disgusting
I would be outraged too! Your photos are always beautiful. Yhank you for sharing them with your fans (me)! They make me smile.
I put my name and website on my photo’s. That way if they are copied and used I get some exposure. By the way I love your artful rainbow pancakes, very cool!
i liked hearing your experience
i also have a problem with a violator stealing my works and removing our watermark, or modifying images all of which he marks as his on instigram
we filed a formal complaint to instagram but they would not sign for the registered letter. we sent two in case the notice was erroneously lost but no such luck. the email and phone system didnt seem to work either and now are at a loss on how to get them to follow their own dmca process. which email worked for you?
we are likely going to file a complaint in California with the attorney general but there seems to be o accountability
I am so sorry to hear about this. This recently happened to me on facebook. It is still going on facebook refuses to do anything. I am being bullied and stalked and they want do anything. This guy even mad a hate page with all my personal pictures with hate messages on them and they do nothing. Even though they claim to be against it. It’s crazy, makes me not want to use the internet all together.
Oh no! How awful!
Hi, this won’t help you with instagram but if you don’t already, you can write your copyright information (symbol, name, date) into the metadata (data that is stored in almost all digital photo files) of each image you take. This can be done (and viewed) easily, I do it in Adobe Lightroom. Then you have proof that the image is yours, as the information is copied along with the photo. If you take an image, copyright is automatically yours, unless you sign it over in a contract.
I just read this. I am so sorry, because I read your blog “I am servant” first and re-posted AND translated into Spanish (adding the Word Jesus Christ to it, to clarify who am I worshipping. I am sorry I did not request your permission to post. I can remove it if you’d like.
No, its fine. Thank you for checking!
I think you should just put a watermark on the image with the words iambaker dot net so when people do steal your pictures you will get tonnes of traffic going into your website.
I am so sorry to hear about this. This recently happened to me on facebook. It is still going on facebook refuses to do anything. I am being bullied and stalked and they want do anything. This guy even mad a hate page with all my personal pictures with hate messages on them and they do nothing. Even though they claim to be against it. It’s crazy, makes me not want to use the internet all together.
hey I know this is sort of late haha; but I was wondering what your instagram name is? I’d love to follow you, you make some beautiful stuff!
I really enjoyed your article!
In my quest to school myself on this subject, I stumbled upon it while looking for some justification on why a nationalwide site would use a photo of mine without giving mention of the photographer.
Bastards… all the one of them.
Social media is killing us all.
I wonder if you still use Instagram or sites such as… where photos can be uploaded so easily. I think this is one reason why I’ve limited myself to one social media site, and have avoided Instagram, Facebook and Foodspotting.
Twitter, I think the content is still mine. I’ll need to look into the TOS. Thanks again for the small schooling.
Well, now it seems that Instagram wants people’s images for its own use. According to the news there are new terms coming which will allow Instagram to use and even sell your images. I don’t think this is even legal, at least in the UK, but they will do it anyway. The only way to stop them is to remove all your photos, particularly those that have any value to you. Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, expect them to be doing the same thing soon.
Hello, I found your website and this post while researching whether or not I should start watermarking the photos on my site.
With Instagram’s new policy change (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57559710-38/instagram-says-it-now-has-the-right-to-sell-your-photos/), I’m curious to know your take.
Thank you for sharing this with us and I’m sorry to hear your frustrating experience.
I’m sorry. Totally should have read the top first. You already stated your opinion on Instagram’s policy change.
No worries! Thanks for stopping by… I am always here if you have questions or need to vent!
I absolutely love your website.. Excellent colors & theme.
Did you create this web site yourself? Please reply back as I’m looking to create my own personal website and would like to find out where you got this from or what the theme is called. Thanks!
You are completely in the right.
I totally deleted my Instagram account after reading this. I was already considering it but you convinced me. Thank you.
that what happened to me!
My fellow classmate posted MY 12/12/12 picture.
I told them to credit me or delete the picture but she deleted my post.
It is kind of getting on my nerves now, to know that she doesn’t care.
Hi, I am a photographer and currently studying on a Photography Degree. It is extramly important to me that my photographs are not stolen or used by others. Water marks work but can be removed easily. A helpful tip would be to add two watermarks! One large but another hidden. Using photoshop zoom into the image and inbed a tiny water mark in a faint colour that can not be seen by the eye. The only way to find the water mark is to take the file into a software and zoom into the image, find it then edit it out. Even if your larger water mark has been removed your smaller hidden one will remain. This technique is used by a lot of photographs and can be used in court to provide evidence.
Another very important think is to inbed meta data to your images. This can also be done using Photoshop. You do not only name the file when you save it but attach information such as your name, website, phone number (if you wish), the copyright, image discription and more… so if your image is stolen this information is inbeded into the file and can not be removed.
As well as all this try to use website that let YOU keep your copyright! or sites that block the stealing of images such as flickr which stops the right click copy and paste option (the only way to steal the image is to take a screen shot).
Best of luck,
Oliver Cummings-Cpve
Great tips! Thank you!
This blew my mind!!! I am a new reader and I can’t believe how horrible people were to you when you requested that the photos be removed! It would never ever occur to me to steal someone’s Instagram photos… the stuff people come up with is mind boggling. I’m so glad you got it (sort of) handled, so sorry you experienced so much negativity, and am so thankful you shared this!!
Your are absolutely right, but one advise to keep your images copyright! Just put a label
With your username on it! So this happens again it will clearly show your name
On it!
I always think it’s sad when people ruin lovely photos with watermarks out of tight-fistedness. But I don’t think a watermark would detract much from yours, so you should definitely use them!
I am SO sorry you had to go through this!However, there are thousands of accounts where people just post pics from other places. I always know that it is not their pics but just posting pics of things they like…kind of like Pinterest. I don’t think children understand before they post that it is wrong. I didn’t even know and I’ve already graduate college and use the internet and social media sites religiously. In fact none of my Fb or instagram followers know this. Also usually people with that many followers receive tons of comments daily and don’t see all of their comments…perhaps those ones didn’t see your comment to take it down or they would have.But if they were saying it was their photos then that’s totally wrong. Otherwise I just don’t think they were aware…most aren’t. Unless there is a watermark, I wouldn’t know. I will inform others about this and report photos I see of yours.
By the water mark comment I thought a water mark meant that the owner does not want anyone to take his her photos. I’ve been on several sites and tumblrs where that was the case. When it ha s nothing I thought it was fair game although I’ve never taken anyone’s pics…except one time of a cake to show others how something was supposed to be done correctly but I said what blog I got it from. If I didn’t know the blog I wouldn’t have said anything bc I didn’t know. I am a hobby Baker and if I saw my pic somewhere else with flattering comments I would be thrilled LOL…and comment that is mine with pride. If someone was claiming it to be their own I’d be furious!”!! I
Hi Amanda,
I have been a photographer for many years, but have only recently begun to use IG in earnest. I wonder if you would kindly share tips on how to search for your images on IG?
How, for example did you discover that others were pilfering your images and reposting them to their own accounts?
I may discontinue using IG if stealing is this rampant.
Thank you for this very eye-opening article!
Hi! I was notified about my images. You can search users and hashtags easily, but I have not found an easy way to search for a specific image.
“drag the image over to the Google Images page with your mouse”
http://www.wikihow.com/Search-by-Image-on-Google
Amanda please explain how to watermark the way you do. My wife is an artist /photographer and she wants to put her work in a new website. We are worried about theft.
Thank you in advance.
Unfortunately, people steal ideas as if they had no value … I bet those very same people would think twice before stealing a bicycle or a car … and yet, they think nothing of stealing your photos … they are miserable individuals with no talent of their own … pity them and protect your Intelle©tual P®ope®ty as much as you can
Awesome blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A design like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make
my blog shine. Please let me know where you got your theme.
Many thanks
Thanks- its a custom design.
OMG I saw these rainbow pancakes at this site! :http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/rainbow-pancakes-107612
They got it from a different site which they posted the link to and no where in there did I see these words “These belong to Amanda on Iambaker.net and she made a fantastic job doing them” So I don’t know if you got the recipe from them or something but I am shocked at the lack of copyright laws being enforced. I wish to never see and of my pictures stolen and I know this post is old but have you tried adding multiple watermarks or if you take a picture of a cake sliced in half to actually add frosting that says @ *insert website/ instagram here*. It think this will make it harder for people to photo shop. And I do art and photos and when I use line art, I always credit the person as I know that all I did was add original designs.
Something like this should never happen to a person as sweet as sugar and as nice as ice cream on a summer day. I don’t know if my photos have been stolen but on my DA, it has shown people downloading my picture (it shows the number of people who download your pictures but it never shows the person who did it.). But I know one of my fellow users has had her characters stolen from her and the person who stole it went under a name insulting her. But fortunately he was banned and not allowed to post again. Another user has even reported a blog which posted the many people of Deviant art’s works. She and the rest of us had to go through so much work, and the problem was the server the website used? Sweden. Where there are next to no copyright laws. The blog had so much well… graphic ads leading to not very innocent places. (Porn sites and other sites)
This is extremely saddening that such low-life people claim others works as their own and get money from it while the person who took the effort in making the picture possible gets nothing in return. Not a check, not a thank you only the rude comments of others claiming the person who stole as the sole owner of the picture. And to the woman who’s child’d picture was stolen, I feel so bad for you! It must be stomach turning to know your child’d identity was stolen by another.
My heart goes out to all who had to go through this… Huggles!
So sorry you have had to experience any trouble with copyright issues… its so frustrating!
Oops just realized that was you…. oops! I feel so stupid now. Time to hide in the corner *goes to corner*
I wonder if adding meta data to a file in Photoshop before first uploading it could help make a difference. If obvious copyright information appears when you ‘get info’ on the file, it could curb some of the sloppier infringement.
Oh my God, I’m so sorry that happened to you! I simply don’t get why people are so mean about things like that. They could at least tell or ask you first. But I have looked at your blog for ages and I know that the awesome Amanda of i am baker made this cake!
I just came across your post after doing some searching on the same issue that happened to me. I couldn’t believe it when I randomly saw one of my pictures show up on the popular feed and it wasn’t through my own instagram account. I don’t have many followers and felt a little jipped that someone had received over 200o ‘hearts’ and people constantly praising their photography skills. I also wrote a comment and the backlash was a slap in the face. People called me a baby, and told me to prove it was my picture, which I would happily do so. It was a battle just not worth fighting with someone who clearly wasn’t concerned about copyright laws. What’s sad is that this happens all the time to many people who are exceptionally creative and great photographers- and may not even know that their work has been stolen.
However, it does make me grateful that your similar story has brought me to your site. You have outstanding pictures and great blog posts. I’ll check back often to see what’s bakin’ in your kitchen for some {credited} inspiration!
I totally agree with you watermarking your pictures. Its a shame people steal pictures like that, I think I need to start watermarking my pics too. I love your blog and I frequently go to it for ideas
Good luck
It’s 1:20 in the morning and I can’t sleep because of these situations I keep reading about regarding your social networks and thieves! I feel like hitting something, it makes me so mad!
It’s reasons like this why I stopped using Instagram. I used to love it, but now I don’t even bother. While they seem to be helping you, it’s a problem that won’t stop.
I don’t think anything of mine is worth stealing, but I think I’m going to look into watermarking my photos from now on. After reading this and your Facebook post, I feel like the food blogging world is one vast ghetto where I can’t even stop at a red light without getting my tires jacked.
Thanks for another great post! You have a pretty cool blog here, did you know that?
As a graphic designer at a printing press, we deal with stuff like this ALL of the time. People will just do a google search or visit a website and swipe the image. Most of the time, they are too low quality for print, but people just don’t think about copyright issues. They just think “Well, it’s there. Why can’t I just take it?” or “Why can’t you just make it look exactly like ______’s logo?”. We’ve had to tell people “We can’t print that.” many time because something is copyrighted.
It sucks for those people who have their images stolen. It is SUPER easy for someone to steal an image that isn’t theirs. It’s not just instagram; it’s everywhere.
This is a great post. I have a question and hopefully someone can answer this. What if someone takes a photo from another user to post on a blog, but clearly states that the photos uploaded are solely the property of it respected owners? Or along with that, mentions that the photo belongs to (users name) somewhere in the blog posting?
Not only should you use a watermark and (c) for copyright on the photo for everyone to see thats just half the battle.The good ol saying its not what you know its what you can prove! And lesson learned here you should always have DOCUMENTATION of when you took the photo and when it was uploaded and every detail.Im sure you can even send the photo to the copyright office and have it copyrighted and legally on paper in your possession if it has to go to those extremes.People need to learn how to trademark and copyright if they are this worried about things this is how legal issues arise and businesses close down.
I’m so happy Instagram finally emailed you back, and your problem was solved. These days theft comes in so many ways, and people have a disregard for what is wrong and right. They take music, movies, art, take it at no cost, when the people such as yourself who work hard for the end product get no accreditation. Keep up the good work!
I hear you!
Loud and clear!
And did you know that the same thing happens to me?
And now, sadly, I have had to resort to making my watermark image on my photo larger, so people can really see it.
How awful is that?
I hate to watermark, and yet I have to, so that if someone does steal it, it’s pretty obvious who/where its from.
And do you know there are people out there that will take the time to edit out the watermark? Oh yeah, it’s like, get your own camera and take your own photos!
So I hear your pain girl, I do.
Oh no!!! I am so sorry!!! Hate that you are dealing with it too.
I found your post while doing a google search for harassment on Instagram. I’ve had a woman harassing me for over a year–calling me names via friends’ streams, adding my friends and parroting all of my comments, etc. I’ve reported her countless times–with direct links and screen shots of her abuse. Instagram has done nothing–NOTHING–to remedy the problem. It’s irritating, and I think it’s a terrible way for a business to be run. I am seriously considering leaving…
This is a topic which is near to my heart… Many thanks!
Exactly where are your contact details though?
Sorry to read about this. I would have hoped that people would have the decency to remove your pictures or acknowledge their origin as you see fit when you ask. I hope this doesn’t stop you sharing your work, though. Your blog is beautiful and I look forward to your posts. I hope at least one of the solutions offered works for you. Is there a way you can post pictures so that when people upload them, they also upload a link to their original site? Like indelible referencing software?