Plagarizing Trips

SKLund

SKLund

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Joined
Aug 19, 2016
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459
This problem is not an issue with Backcountry Post as far as I know but more in social media than anywhere else. Backcountry Post has too high a profile and The Resources section has the author of each resource listed.

Recently when posting trip reports on my own site and sometimes when I link them to social media, they start showing up under different authors or creators name. They even steal the title. It usually takes me 4 or more hours, many times much more than that to create a narrative with photos along with maps and posted gpx tracks in a public forum. This information is free to re-use as long as it is communicated where the information came from. Moral, well-raised people know this already. It does not need to be communicated. Well not anymore. Now I have to make a "terms of use" along with the information. I know it's very difficult to defend yourself against this type of plagiarism (and that is what it is). For myself, when it's a member or subscriber of my site, they get tossed out in haste.

I am curious if anyone has experienced this and what you do about it if you discover it,
 
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I've had videos I posted on Youtube pirated. I contacted YT and they took the pirated copies down. I used to have a blog and found my photos pirated elsewhere, once even on a tourism site for Moab. I eventually took all my content off the net - it's generally a den of pirates and thieves (BCP excluded). There are virtually no consequences for the thieves, unless you're willing to hire an IP attorney. Even the big companies will pirate stuff, as a number of photographers have found out.
 
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While planning an off trail trip in the winds in 2013, I picked up Pallisters book and CD set. The picture for grasshopper glacier looked familiar... very familiar, and was conspicuously captioned as "unknown source from the internet." It was in fact one I'd taken in 2009 and posted on the old backpacker.com forum as part of a trip report. I ended up contacting Pallister about it, and she was plenty kind to deal with. To be honest I was pretty stoked one of my pictures would show up in a guide like that and just asked that I be credited. She said it would be corrected in the next revision, but I have not checked yet, and she may have taken her own trip to the area and gotten her own picture.

Here's the pic in question... since it's well travelled already
DSC_0585-L.jpg
 
Unfortunately what's posted on internet is basically free game..... But that's cool....I have route info in some of Kelsey's Colorado plateau books.
 
b.stark said:
While planning an off trail trip in the winds in 2013, I picked up Pallisters book and CD set. The picture for grasshopper glacier looked familiar... very familiar, and was conspicuously captioned as "unknown source from the internet." It was in fact one I'd taken in 2009 and posted on the old backpacker.com forum as part of a trip report. I ended up contacting Pallister about it, and she was plenty kind to deal with. To be honest I was pretty stoked one of my pictures would show up in a guide like that and just asked that I be credited. She said it would be corrected in the next revision, but I have not checked yet, and she may have taken her own trip to the area and gotten her own picture.

Here's the pic in question... since it's well travelled already
DSC_0585-L.jpg
Click to expand...

Like the photo much.
 
In my case, I found the perp and warned her off. Turns out she was a member of Santa Fe Outdoors (my thing) and just copying off content like topo maps and narratives and then listing them with the local Sierra Club group. I'll inform the Sierra Club if she does it again.
 
Also, Terms of Use is a good idea and I'm working on that.
 
In my architectural photography business, I have given up regulating or controlling the photos I post on the internet, or sell to a client. Copyrights, use agreements, are worthless in the end. Post it, or sell it, you loose control, even though you own the image the second it is made. What can you do when some realtor from Saudi Arabia grabs a photo of a house you make and uses it on their web site. Nothing.
At least you can't print from 72dpi.
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It also depends on who you are dealing with. If it is the Sierra Club, or any other large publication you can be fairly confident they will respect your use right, or enforce it when needed.
 
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I haven't been made aware of anything I've posted showing up elsewhere by other users. If I were, part of me would be flattered, while another part would of course be disappointed. I guess it would all depend on the setting and use of whether I'd even make an effort to reach out and investigate it further.
 
I think choosing to withhold your content online is the wrong solution. Part of creating is sharing that creation or experience with others. That said I don't think this is a problem that will ever be solved completely. People are always gonna steal other people's content, it has been happening for centuries.
 
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