One to report and block.

@Emmacox @astronomerritt I looked at his timeline and he’s got a lot of form for doing this. He never asks - just tells them he stealing their work. Not that many followers either. Earned himself a block from me also.

@astronomerritt @Emmacox Ditto. Wait for him to claim he didn’t know it was stealing. ‍️

@HarriettMB @astronomerritt urgh! I think he’s taken it down now (I can’t think Facebook is that fast in dealing with my copyright report).

Why are people like this?

@tantramar @astronomerritt @Emmacox The idiot probably thought he was helping! Sure, stuff on the net gets redistributed but FFS at least credit the creator.

@alan @astronomerritt @Emmacox I’ve had people steal my work — photos, mainly — republishing them on their own websites to drive physical traffic/sales. When confronted, they typically plead ignorance. Unconvincingly. I’ve had it happen in this area: they really don’t like getting phone calls about it.

@tantramar @astronomerritt I wonder if he does go about in real life and snatches peoples wallets and car keys, exclaiming, ‘Stealing this!’

@alan @tantramar @astronomerritt yes, and ask first.

@tantramar @alan @astronomerritt I can imagine they don’t. I do have a watermark in that photo, which I doubt he even noticed. I know it’s easy enough to digitally remove them, but it’s one of the few measures I have.

@Emmacox @alan @astronomerritt Sure but you might not say yes! ‍️ #ArseholesGonnaArsehole

@Emmacox @alan @astronomerritt When I called the guy who stole one of my QuickTime VR panoramas and put it on his website — and this was a guy I’d met in person! — I opened with “where do I send the invoice for $10,000?” That got his attention.

@tantramar @alan @astronomerritt as I’m Cornish I’d call him a tuss.

@tantramar @astronomerritt @Emmacox Oh the number of people who genuinely believe that anything on the internet is effectively public domain is truly absurd.

I put stuff that's 1024px or less up with an obvious watermark and explicitly make it CC-SA-NC licensed. Anything bigger than that does not get uploaded to a public site (and very few "private" sites as well, just suppliers).

@Emmacox @alan @astronomerritt The guy I called out — once he was done stammering and oh, but, uh, I… — he pointed out my logo in the QTVR file as justification, almost as if I should be paying him for the exposure. I said it was there so I could prove people like him had stolen it.

@tantramar @Emmacox @astronomerritt Yeah, I checked with my landlord. He doesn't take exposure as a form of payment. Can I add your name to the lease instead?

@tantramar @alan @astronomerritt ha! I’ll remember that.

@alan @tantramar @astronomerritt I’m doing a big website revamp with new artwork and photographs. I think I might have to up the watermark before I make these new pages live.

@Emmacox @tantramar @astronomerritt I had someone say "your watermark makes the image ugly." I responded "not so ugly that you can't figure it out. Don't like the watermark? Buy the fucking image."

Seriously, the "hey, make it easier for me to steal your work" approach does not get a kind response.

@Emmacox @alan @astronomerritt It’s not as if he’d’ve paid it, but his hesitation in responding made it clear he knew he’d fucked up. And I’d been paid that much for commissioned QuickTime VR shots, so I wasn’t just pulling a number out of thin air, either.

@alan @Emmacox @astronomerritt That’s amazing.

@alan @Emmacox @astronomerritt I’d once done a watercolour painting of a large, stately home near where my parents lived. One day, at an art show where I had a vendor display, a guy who’d been admiring it from a distance approached. It was his house in the painting, but the stately elms on either side of it had been cut down since I’d painted it. But he didn’t want to pay $200 (a steal). Would I come down? No. Did I paint it from a photo? Yes, one I took. Would I sell him the photo? Again, no. Would I loan him the negative? Fuck, no. At that point, having insulted me, not for $500. He went away big mad.