TinEye Discovers cNet CopyRight Violations

TinEye is a cool new tool that will search the web for similar images. After installing the FireFox plugin, you can right click on an image, and search for similar images across the web. I decided to give it a whirl on some of my images. Interestingly, I discovered that cNet has stolen and modified one of my more popular images :

Dust and Rust image (Original Blog Post):

Dust and Rust Mr. Met

Due to hotlinking to that image, I had previously downsized it, and put an ugly watermark on it. cNet grabbed the original off the site before I pulled it.

cNet Version of my Photo (found at this cNet Blog):

Cnet's Modified Version of my photo

They even gave someone named Sarah Harbin a nice credit for the photo. Sweet! I’ll be contacting cNet to see what they have to say. It’s a shame… all Sarah had to do was ask nicely, all I would have asked for is a photo credit and a link back to this site.

5 thoughts on “TinEye Discovers cNet CopyRight Violations”

  1. That definately stinks! I had that happen with a local newspaper that managed to find one of my shots.
    To add insult to injury, they slapped their staff photographer’s name on the bottom.
    I totally here where you’re coming from (and am going to go try out Tin-Eye!)

  2. Certainly a more than useful tool for graphic artists and photographers who suffer from unlicensed use of their work. But the problem with such copyright violations is that it really takes up a lot of effort on the owner’s part to search for wrongful usage. If only there was a way to do that easily and efficiently. 🙁

  3. I would be very interested to see how far you go with this and what their response is. This sort of infringement seems almost unbelievable in this day. I mean what would it have cost the company to license the picture and be done with it.

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