Photos are being stolen from SM Here

[Glory2Jesus4Photography]

EDIT: Update by Andy, June 17th, 2010. The site has been suspended. We've validated this from a whole bunch of SmugMug employees trying the site.



A friend pointed out that he could get some of my photos as backgrounds here
http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=Reg]
I checked it out just typed in my SM nickname and there you go a bunch of my photos all able to be downloaded. Some are even from LOCKED galleries and most have Watermarks still on them. SmugMug How can this happen and how do we stop it. My biggest thing is photos from locked and pass worded non viewable albums.

[daylightimages]

A bunch of mine are on there, too, although they are from a section of my website that I have discontinued -- an old Coppermine gallery. There are none that I can trace directly to SmugMug -- I used my nickname for the site search, but my website has the same name (www.daylightimages.com (http://www.daylightimages.com)). In fact, given the names of the files, I believe none are from SmugMug, as my Smuggy site uses a different file naming scheme.

Still, I'd like to see them removed from this site.

[Andy]

A friend pointed out that he could get some of my photos as backgrounds here
http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=Reg]
I checked it out just typed in my SM nickname and there you go a bunch of my photos all able to be downloaded. Some are even from LOCKED galleries and most have Watermarks still on them. SmugMug How can this happen and how do we stop it. My biggest thing is photos from locked and pass worded non viewable albums.

Specifically which photo(s)? Give me a precise link or two please, so I can see the photos also in your SmugMug gallery.

[pgwelch]

I found a couple of my images at the site listed above. Link to the page: http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=pgwelch
Link to page on smugmug where one of the pictures can be found. It is an unlisted gallery, I think you can get in though. http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance/Site-Customization/8042324_czSrH#523586630_kxDU8 or here http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance

Neither one of the 2 pictures on the fotosimagen site are of any importance. The fact that my pictures are being used without my permission is of great importance.

[JAG]

Yes whats with this smugmug? The link above site took me to two pages of MY IMAGES!...take a look at this below...
http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=JAGCreations

And looking at the referrals links in my pro account here is another site that has 30 random images from my smugmug account starting at this link....
http://image.baidu.jp/i?tn=baiduimage&ct=201326592&cl=2&lm=-1&s=9&word=JAGCreations#z%3D0%26it%3D0%26color%3D0%26pn% 3D0

They even have my descriptions of albums or images under each image. What is really disturbing is my lil dd is in quite a few of those images on the second link I have listed!

There are a few others on my referral list that I haven't a clue to what they are...one is an s&m site but I do not want to join them (it also has a fee to join) to see what they have of mine. I plan on emailing the webmaster to try and get them to remove my photos.

Also a new one cropped up in the past couple days called singsnap.com. I will most likely join that one to see what they have but I shouldn't have to be doing this. I have been wondering why my site seemed to have taken a jump up in counts per month. I will have to check my anillitics to see when things started to go up.

What is going on??

[denisegoldberg]

Specifically which photo(s)? Give me a precise link or two please, so I can see the photos also in your SmugMug gallery.
Andy -
I can find photos of yours on the site, mine too. There aren't a large number, and they are all small images.

When I looked for denisegoldberg.com, 3 images popped up. I'm sure all three were used in blog posts. Using my smug url, 15 images popped up. Again, I believe all were used in my blog.

I clicked through to the large image of one and saved it. The size? 85kb. Too small to get a good image, and hey - it's advertising for me since it's watermarked.

Everyone...
Keep in mind that if you show something on the web it can be grabbed. We each need to decide what we are comfortable sharing. Don't allow access to your originals, and understand if something is shown in a browser the image is in the screen buffer and it can be easily grabbed.

--- Denise

[Andy]

What is going on??

First image of yours there I checked, it's from this gallery http://jagcreations.smugmug.com/Other/Challenges-and-Competitions/4781458_4rHF3#390416175_SjRuD with external links on and it's a public gallery.

[Andy]

I found a couple of my images at the site listed above. Link to the page: http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=pgwelch
Link to page on smugmug where one of the pictures can be found. It is an unlisted gallery, I think you can get in though. http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance/Site-Customization/8042324_czSrH#523586630_kxDU8 or here http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance

Neither one of the 2 pictures on the fotosimagen site are of any importance. The fact that my pictures are being used without my permission is of great importance.

Turn of external links in the gallery:
http://pgwelchphotography.com/Site-Maintenance/Site-Customization/8042324_czSrH#523586630_kxDU8

[Glory2Jesus4Photography]

Specifically which photo(s)? Give me a precise link or two please, so I can see the photos also in your SmugMug gallery.
This is it in a locked non public gallery http://glory2jesus4photography.smugmug.com/Church-Family/STC-s-Rockin-Comedy-time-the/3108310_e4D2s#170046862_Gudfe
and is on their site here
http://www.fotosimagen.com/img.php?t=glory2jesus4photography&img=http://glory2jesus4photography.smugmug.com/photos/170046862_Gudfe-S-2.jpg
Andy you can see alot of your images here http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=Moon+River+Photography

[Andy]

This is it in a locked non public gallery http://glory2jesus4photography.smugmug.com/Church-Family/STC-s-Rockin-Comedy-time-the/3108310_e4D2s#170046862_Gudfe
and is on their site here
http://www.fotosimagen.com/img.php?t=glory2jesus4photography&img=http://glory2jesus4photography.smugmug.com/photos/170046862_Gudfe-S-2.jpg
Andy you can see alot of your images here http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?imagen=Moon+River+Photography
They likely got it when that gallery was not locked at some point.

[mistifarang]

Although I couldn't find (yet) my photos from Smugmug I saw that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of my photos from Flickr.........

[JAG]

First image of yours there I checked, it's from this gallery http://jagcreations.smugmug.com/Other/Challenges-and-Competitions/4781458_4rHF3#390416175_SjRuD with external links on and it's a public gallery.

I must be mis understanding how this works....I thought that I had to have my links turned on and the gallery be public in order for ME to share my photos and to be found on searches such as google (who by the way does not display my images for free download).

Why is it then...that my images are seeming to be harvested from the smugmug galleries...including my descriptions? How are they doing that? Explain to me please how I can be found in searches and avoid my images being used without my permission on these type of sites.

Granted...when I post an image outside of smugmug...such as on dgrin...I run the risk of someone taking an image and using it without permission. That was a mistake I discovered when I found an image on the s and m site that I thought came from the picture association game I play on dgrin. I have since decided not to play anymore. However I was under the impression that my galleries were protected being on a pro account. What am I missing here?:scratch

[Andy]

What am I missing here?:scratch
Public photos with external links on can be found and linked anywhere, by any number of bots or programs.

As Denise said, if you put something on the internet- expect that it can be grabbed. Watermarks, external links off, rcp on, and blocking Originals (and other sizes too, as you decide) are the ways to maximize your protection.

[JAG]

Well...I had just tried to rewatermark all the albums that had my old watermark from 08 to a bigger one. Problem is that its not working. I have done it to 2 different galleries...set it in the gallery tools and also using the watermark tool to change them and it hasn't done even 1 of them. I am wondering if all this is worth it. I think I will just delete all my galleries except for my customer galleries. Not like I am making enough through the site to pay for itself. Thing is...I really enjoyed using dgrin...but now I am afraid to even post an image here anymore. Especially since I do the challenges that don't allow large watermarks. Some of my best photography is displayed in the challenges.

[bohdank]

Geez... I need to watermark everything. I found pages and pages of my stuff on that site.

[Andy]

I'm also working on initiating contact with this site to get them to stop taking photos and offering them for wallpaper. We'll see how that goes.

[Harryb]

They have pages of my stuff too from Smugmug and my old Pbase galleries.

[Ric Grupe]

They have pages of my stuff too from Smugmug and my old Pbase galleries.

Maybe (I thought it should always be) everything should be locked down by default and unlocked only when one wishes to do so...instead of the other way around.

BTW, Harry...where's the link for your images? I could use some good stuff! :D

[ebwest]

Can somebody tell me what they are doing with them. There are a number of mine there too but I can't read Spanish.

Sure would be nice if power users could watermark their images.

[samidget]

I also typed in my company name and there are photos from nearly every gallery I have posted. None of the galleries had the external link button checked. This has got to be stopped.

[jfriend]

Maybe (I thought it should always be) everything should be locked down by default and unlocked only when one wishes to do so...instead of the other way around.

BTW, Harry...where's the link for your images? I could use some good stuff! :DThis depends upon your point of view. If sharing with friends and family is your first priority, then today's default settings are perfect. Since I don't sell my images and thus there is no income on the line, I'd rather it be easy to share with my friends and family than worry about whether someone is stealing my images.

Second of all, this site that everyone is up in arms about appears to just be an image search site. Everybody wants your images to be found by Google Images so what's the big deal here. It's an image search site. Many of my images are shown here. The thumbnails seem to be cached at the local site, but the larger versions of the images are linked directly from my Smugmug site. If I remove access to those larger images, the ability to access the larger images from this site goes away too (the thumbnails do not disappear though).

It's a fact that NOTHING that Smugmug does can keep a site like this from collecting images that you put on the web. If you put them there so a browser can display them without any human intervention required, then any site can take what you allow a browser to display. That's life on the internet.

Right-click protection doesn't change things. You can limit what sizes are displayable on the internet. You can watermark (if you have a pro account). You can password protect.

If you really wanted to stop this (which seems ill-advised to me), the only solution I can think of is to require some human challenge before entering your site. For example, if you set a site password but supplied the password right in the hint, then no machine crawler would be able to enter your site. This would, of course, also stop Google Images, stop regular Google search, stop Bing, etc...

[denisegoldberg]

I also typed in my company name and there are photos from nearly every gallery I have posted. None of the galleries had the external link button checked. This has got to be stopped.
Your galleries are set to be available for public access. Any image that is shown in a web browser can easily be grabbed - it is sitting in the browser cache on the local machine. This is not a function of SmugMug - it's a function of the browser.

--- Denise

[Ken K]

Hello Everyone:

Just a heads up that a bunch of my images are on this site:

http://www.fotosimagen.com/ (http://www.fotosimagen.com/)

They have taken from both my SmugMug galleries and from my NatureScapes portfolio.

Ken

[Art Scott]

I found one of mine there also.........they are in Peru and the domain
is registered thru Go Daddy,,,,,,,,,but contact info showing:

Administrative Contact:
Melendez Oros, Michel Sandro domains@inkastech.us
InkasTech
Pumacurco 650
San Cristobal
Cusco, Cusco cusco 84
Peru
+51.084240417


The above info is a cut and paste from the WHOIS data base.. (http://www.whois.net)...........................

[daylightimages]

Second of all, this site that everyone is up in arms about appears to just be an image search site. Everybody wants your images to be found by Google Images so what's the big deal here. It's an image search site. Many of my images are shown here. The thumbnails seem to be cached at the local site, but the larger versions of the images are linked directly from my Smugmug site. If I remove access to those larger images, the ability to access the larger images from this site goes away too (the thumbnails do not disappear though).
...
If you really wanted to stop this (which seems ill-advised to me), the only solution I can think of is to require some human challenge before entering your site. For example, if you set a site password but supplied the password right in the hint, then no machine crawler would be able to enter your site. This would, of course, also stop Google Images, stop regular Google search, stop Bing, etc...

Now that I've thought it through, I tend to agree with John. If this is nothing more than an image search site, then basically it's free advertising. (I clicked on my photos on the site, but all of mine are from an abandoned part of my website and all give 404 errors; none of my SmugMug stuff has made the site). If it links back to your original gallery, then I tend to think in terms of no harm, no foul.

The only concern here is security, but unless your galleries were locked 100% of the time, whatever crawler they used could have visited while your shields were down (to use a Star Trek term).

Free advertising is good.

[RogersDA]

Yahoo.com is on the case.

http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157624276135822/

[Andy]

Yahoo.com is on the case.

http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157624276135822/
I have also contacted this site.

[jfriend]

Now that I've thought it through, I tend to agree with John. If this is nothing more than an image search site, then basically it's free advertising. (I clicked on my photos on the site, but all of mine are from an abandoned part of my website and all give 404 errors; none of my SmugMug stuff has made the site). If it links back to your original gallery, then I tend to think in terms of no harm, no foul.

The only concern here is security, but unless your galleries were locked 100% of the time, whatever crawler they used could have visited while your shields were down (to use a Star Trek term).

Free advertising is good. I'll amend what I said earlier. They appear to be an image search site, but they are not linking back to our actually gallery pages like they should.

[Andy]

I've put a call into the webhosting/isp of this site as well. Stay tuned.

[Harryb]

Maybe (I thought it should always be) everything should be locked down by default and unlocked only when one wishes to do so...instead of the other way around.

BTW, Harry...where's the link for your images? I could use some good stuff! :D

Apparently these fools are stealing everything that is in view. Why would anybody steal an image in this format?

http://behret.smugmug.com/Nature/Viera-Wetlands/augb0041/32571300_paqVv-L.jpg

It has to be some automated process where they just grab anything they can get w/o any kind of quality control. It doesn't cost them anything and any $ they get is pure profit.

[daylightimages]

I'll amend what I said earlier. They appear to be an image search site, but they are not linking back to our actually gallery pages like they should.

Then I'll amend what I said, and join the "this is a big concern" crowd. As I said, I haven't been able to find any of my SmugMug photos on the site so I couldn't check where the thumbnail links were going.

I noted in the Flickr discussion group that the thumbnails of photos pilfered from Flickr weren't linking back there.

[Ric Grupe]

This depends upon your point of view. If sharing with friends and family is your first priority, then today's default settings are perfect. Since I don't sell my images and thus there is no income on the line, I'd rather it be easy to share with my friends and family than worry about whether someone is stealing my images.


I, like you, want to share....don't sell and would opt for the inconvenience of security. It's just sensible to have the door locked instead of wide open. That's my point of view.

[raptorcaptor]

They have a bunch of mine too!

http://www.fotosimagen.com/ver.php?t=raptorcaptor&url=http://thm-a02.yimg.com/nimage/71ddfb6485247602&img=http://raptorcaptor.smugmug.com/photos/572329932_LHPkg-L.jpg

[DJKennedy]

There are 21 photos of mine there. http://www.fotosimagen.com/imagen.php?pg=1&imagen=djkennedy

[SamirD]

I keep right click off and all my galleries unlisted as well as watermarked. I don't see a single one from my SM galleries.:dunno

[jfriend]

I keep right click off and all my galleries unlisted as well as watermarked. I don't see a single one from my SM galleries.:dunnoIf all your galleries are unlisted, then Smugmug provides no public access, thus no search engine will find them via Smugmug. How does someone from the public find your galleries? Or do you not share with the public?

[Andy]

I've filed a DMCA notice, you all should email legal@powweb-inc.com and do this:


In order to substantially comply with the DMCA and our TOS, you must send a “Proper Notice”, as defined below:

"Proper notice" contains the following:
a. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
b. Actual identification of the material you claim violates your copyright, or if there is more than one violation, a representative list.
c. Sufficient information to enable us to locate the material you claim infringes your copyright. Please include the URL, rather than a description of the content.
d. Information that enables us to contact you. Anonymous DMCA complaints will not be honored.
e. The following statement: "I have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
f. The following statement: "Under the penalty of perjury I state that the information contained in my complaint is accurate and I am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright I claim is infringed."
As you may know, we are a web hosting company. We are not responsible for the content posted by our customers who create and place content on websites that we host. We further do not "monitor" the websites that we host or prescreen the content placed by our members on their sites. However, when we become aware of alleged illegal infringing activity by one of our customers on a hosted site, which would be a violation of our TOS governing the member sites, we take such situations seriously, investigate promptly, and take appropriate action.

[jachang]

My photos are on that site also, but every one of mine that's there is also on Flickr. If it's not on Flickr, it's not on their site.

[DJKennedy]

My photos are on that site also, but every one of mine that's there is also on Flickr. If it's not on Flickr, it's not on their site.

NONE of the photos of mine they are using are from Flickr, just SM.

[denisegoldberg]

I've filed a DMCA notice, you all should email legal@powweb-inc.com and do this:
Andy -
Thanks for the details.

I've also filed a DMCA notice.

--- Denise

[Ric Grupe]

Apparently these fools are stealing everything that is in view. Why would anybody steal an image in this format?

http://behret.smugmug.com/Nature/Viera-Wetlands/augb0041/32571300_paqVv-L.jpg

It has to be some automated process where they just grab anything they can get w/o any kind of quality control. It doesn't cost them anything and any $ they get is pure profit.

Yeah...they have 89 of mine and only 3 or so that are something anyone might want. Mostly family shots and tiny images. :scratch

[Sam]

Now I feel like a complete failure...................not one of my images is worthy of theft......:cry:cry:cry

Sam

[DJKennedy]

Now I feel like a complete failure...................not one of my images is worthy of theft......:cry:cry:cry

Sam

hah! Normally mine are not worthy of theft either but not so sure I like having them (finally?) taken...

[pilotdave]

Now I feel like a complete failure...................not one of my images is worthy of theft......:cry:cry:cry

Sam

Found tons of mine, but oddly enough they are almost all video thumbnails. I don't think they're being too picky!

Dave

[jachang]

Found tons of mine, but oddly enough they are almost all video thumbnails. I don't think they're being too picky!

Dave

You know, that's strange. There was a link on that site to videos, and I found some of my videos there. When I clicked on one, it played right from their site. The site was called SonicoMusica. It's apparently for downloading/stealing free music. I think they got the videos from YouTube, though, not SmugMug. Then again, I'm not sure.

[Art Scott]

here is al ink to one of mine: http://tinyurl.com/2alfdh6
this was grabbed while I had the colorful 3 PROOFS going across it and it you clik on it 2 times it actully brings up the current watrermark: My WEB ADDRESS


States it is off Dgrin.....here - http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=31608

[stirinthesauce]

I've filed a DMCA notice, you all should email legal@powweb-inc.com and do this:


Andy, I am confused. Are you saying email the above addy and do a cut/paste job on this quote?

Quote:
In order to substantially comply with the DMCA and our TOS, you must send a “Proper Notice”, as defined below:

"Proper notice" contains the following:
a. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
b. Actual identification of the material you claim violates your copyright, or if there is more than one violation, a representative list.
c. Sufficient information to enable us to locate the material you claim infringes your copyright. Please include the URL, rather than a description of the content.
d. Information that enables us to contact you. Anonymous DMCA complaints will not be honored.
e. The following statement: "I have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
f. The following statement: "Under the penalty of perjury I state that the information contained in my complaint is accurate and I am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright I claim is infringed."
As you may know, we are a web hosting company. We are not responsible for the content posted by our customers who create and place content on websites that we host. We further do not "monitor" the websites that we host or prescreen the content placed by our members on their sites. However, when we become aware of alleged illegal infringing activity by one of our customers on a hosted site, which would be a violation of our TOS governing the member sites, we take such situations seriously, investigate promptly, and take appropriate action. I have found some of my images on that site as well.

[denisegoldberg]

...Are you saying email the above addy and do a cut/paste job on this quote?
Use the specified email address and construct an email that follows the instructions included in that quote. There are two statements in there that need to be included in your email, but you will need to include the requested detailed information as well.

--- Denise

[stirinthesauce]

Use the specified email address and construct an email that follows the instructions included in that quote. There are two statements in there that need to be included in your email, but you will need to include the requested detailed information as well.

--- Denise


gotcha, thanks!

[michswiss]

I didn't have a chance to search if there were any images of mine on the site as it appears the site/account has been suspended by their hosting provider.

[Art Scott]

I didn't have a chance to search if there were any images of mine on the site as it appears the site/account has been suspended by their hosting provider.

NOPE not suspended...it is still there in all its glory.........I just cliked on the link in the 1st post and went directly there.......and searched for Crumm Castle and there it is....with my waternark and all...and a lot of other peoples pix of the same Castle

[KMCC]

I've found 48 of my images on the web site.

I just filed a DCMA notice via e-mail with the hosting company.

Thanks for communicating this violation and the appropriate action to take.

[Andy]

EDIT: Update by Andy, June 17th, 2010. The site has been suspended. We've validated this from a whole bunch of SmugMug employees trying the site.

http://img.skitch.com/20100617-q2t7k6id2me47d8258hrm7awj3.jpg

[ebwest]

I see Andy's last post was at 1:54 pm EDT. This was at 2:15

http://ebinfl.smugmug.com/Other/Misc/Capture-pics/904559407_UbrdV-L.jpg

Also, there's a lot of people over at NAPP contacting the owner's of the site too.

[Andy]

I see Andy's last post was at 1:54 pm EDT. This was at 2:15

http://ebinfl.smugmug.com/Other/Misc/Capture-pics/904559407_UbrdV-Th.jpg

Also, there's a lot of people over at NAPP contacting the owner's of the site too.

It could take some time to show up for everyone is my thinking....

[Ken K]

As of 2:25 PM eastern daylight time the site is back up.

Would insert a screen shot but can't figure out how to get that done here.

There is more of my SmugMug stuff there today than yesterday. Seems that sending the DCMA notice callled attentiom to the site and they went and got more.

Ken

[ebwest]

This from the system admin at NAPP:

This situation was just brought to my attention. After some quick research; I have found that the fotosimagen.com site is using two web hosting companies. Though the powweb.com account is now suspended; they have a mirror of their site currently being hosted at another web hosting company called midphase.com. That is why some people are getting the site suspended message and others are still able to view the live site. It just depends on which DNS entry you're hitting when your browser loads the fotosimagen.com site. The technical details of this are beyond the scope of this post; however they have two DNS entries for each web hosting company; so it's basically a 50/50 chance on which one you get.

[pwilder]

Hi ebwest and others... I'm the system admin at NAPP. Your forum post was brought to my attention as well and since ebwest beat me to my own post here; but only posted half of my original message to our NAPP members; I thought I'd post the remainder of it for your reference; since it would potentialy be useful:

I have just contacted support@midphase.com (support@midphase.com) and would recommend that anyone with an image theft concern contact them as well to file a formal DMCA takedown request. Since the web hosting company is in the USA; they will honor a formal takedown request to remove your specific image(s); and after enough of such requests they tend to eventually decide to shut down the entire website.

[ebwest]

Hi ebwest and others... I'm the system admin at NAPP. Your forum post was brought to my attention as well and since ebwest beat me to my own post here; but only posted half of my original message to our NAPP members; I thought I'd post the remainder of it for your reference; since it would potentialy be useful:

I have just contacted support@midphase.com (support@midphase.com) and would recommend that anyone with an image theft concern contact them as well to file a formal DMCA takedown request. Since the web hosting company is in the USA; they will honor a formal takedown request to remove your specific image(s); and after enough of such requests they tend to eventually decide to shut down the entire website.

Sorry about that. I thought I had gotten it all.

[SamirD]

If all your galleries are unlisted, then Smugmug provides no public access, thus no search engine will find them via Smugmug. How does someone from the public find your galleries? Or do you not share with the public?The galleries are linked from my main web site, and it is highly public. Still nothing. :dunno

[pwilder]

Hello again. I made my initial assessment based upon what I had been told and what is being complained about in the NAPP forum; which was that this site is illegally stealing our images. After having a chance to look at the site further; it is essentially just a tacky search engine though. They are using Yahoo thumbnail images for the small images and not actually copying the full sized pictures. From the images I've looked at; they are linking to the images directly on our web server (or the Smug Mug site, etc.); just in a way that we don't really want them being used. That is a hazard of posting images online.

Essentially; DMCA does not apply in this case since they're not actually storing the images on their server; they're just linking to the original images; so they can't be taken down by the web host. There may be some other technicality that could be used to have the site taken down. I just haven't found it yet.

[jfriend]

The galleries are linked from my main web site, and it is highly public. Still nothing. :dunnoThey may have specifically crawled sites known for images (like Smugmug) from which they cannot find your images. They may not know about your main site which would lead to your images.

[David_S85]

They show 11 of mine. I'm not going to include the link to them again, as it will just increase their traffic even more.

EDIT: Only nine are mine. How they link the other two to my username is a mystery. Oh well. Odd "search site" it is. I wonder what they're really up to.

[nipprdog]

http://knippixels.smugmug.com/photos/905242464_HBLaQ-O.jpg

[nipprdog]

http://knippixels.smugmug.com/photos/905242464_HBLaQ-O.jpg

So much for that. I just found 8 of my images there.

[CWSkopec]

Now I feel like a complete failure...................not one of my images is worthy of theft......:cry:cry:cry

Sam

Sam, don't feel bad... If I was the type of person to do it, I would happily steal a number of your images! :D

On a more serious note, they've got a whole bunch of my images, most from flickr and most are super low res. Those that are of decent web viewing res, have my watermark (old one on flickr) on them. While I wish their image search linked back to my site properly, since the photos are low res or watermarked, I'm not overly worried that they're actaully making money off them

[Ken K]

All the images that had been taken down in response to my DMCA notice are back up. However, now when I click on a thumbnail it links directly to the image in my NatureScapes portfolio or in the case of my SmugMug portfolio to my home page.

BTW, if you search on SmugMug you get 5,691,231 thumbnail results!

Ken

[pmbpro]

I'll amend what I said earlier. They appear to be an image search site, but they are not linking back to our actually gallery pages like they should.

Actually, John, at that photosimagen site, when I type in "pmbimages", I see my thumbnails and when I click on my thumbnails, it takes me right back to my Smugmug site's Home page (in the lower frame)! Clicking on my thumbnail in the upper frame doesn't "get" them anything larger though), but my URL is there next to it.

I'm getting a link-back as you'd originally said, to my Home page with the slide show.

[kd2]

I just found nine of my image on there. When I did a search a few days ago, none were on there. Now I'm part of the stolen club. And like others have said, if you click on an image, it goes to my home page.

[mannytkd]

It looks the site has been suspended??

[kd2]

It's still up. In fact, I typed in the name of several photographer friends and also some more "well-known" photographers in the industry. They all have photos on there, too.

[DJKennedy]

I noticed at least two of my images on that site actually link you to dgrin :P

[KMCC]

If the site was suspended, it didn't remain suspended for very long. All of my images are still being shown in spite of my submission of the DMCA notice.

[T-photos]

I don't have time right now to read all of the comments, but I posted similar thread about 5 a.m. this morning when I discovered my locked, passworded unlisted galleries being accessed. It's odd as I haven't really paid much attention to my smug lately, but another smug user asked me if I had any sales through here and I said no and they wondered why not since I am able to sell other places, then I find the 'baidu' and other links to my images and it's just disturbing that I pay good money but no protection here at all. I love my smugmug and doubt I'll ever leave. But I will just have to be more careful I guess and limit what I put online. I just thought my private galleries were private.