The advert in question was added in April to the classifieds website, location Queens Park, Scotland. They have used this photo from our website Silver Siberian Cats kitten page
The photo is of Alexandrite Arianell and Alexandrite Genevieve, who were born in February 2008. Arianell now lives with Denise at Midnightstar Siberians.
I have not contacted the person who is doing this as in the past when I have they have insisted the kittens were theirs and they had bred them, which was a complete lie. And I found the whole experience very upsetting.
Due to this I am now forced to modify each photo we use on our blog or website with our cattery name Alexandrite but this is an older photo and at the time I didn't do this.
We currently only advertise our kittens on a few websites, mainly Cat Planet and Breeders on Line.
So please be careful when purchasing kittens make sure you are adopting the kittens in the photos and always make sure you are dealing with a reputable breeder. Ask for current photos of the kittens and where possible, arrange to see the kittens after their first vaccination.
Thats ridiculous - honestly - what is wrong with people? Its now clear we must watermark out photos. These people are disgusting. Obviously some idiots up in Glasgow - Now I can hazard a guess as to the cats they may have - but irrespective of that - why do they have to steal peoples photos? I'm sorry - its just outrageous -
ReplyDeleteWhat is worse - poor unsuspecting buyers - what will they get?
Its dreadful - and sorry you are having to go through this.
You can avoid this issue by uploading your photos with the EXIF file (i.e. the digital data stored by the camera when the photo is taken). Even if the people who steal the photos remove the exif file prior to uploading the photos they cannot remove the copyright line plus you can always prove they are your own photos by asking them to show their EXIF. You can legally sue them following this. And of course they will be totally discredited.
ReplyDeleteThere is an issue with watermarking photographs (we have a site about photography) because if you watermark near the edges the 'thieves' will just cut the watermark or retouch it using Photoshop. The only way to do it so the photos cannot be stolen is to watermark across the faces / bodies of the kittens so if someone tries to tamper with the watermark they end up with no photo. The problem with this is that people will not be able to see the kittens properly, which may put off potential good families.
Putting a warning on the top / bottom of each page copyrighting the photos to you may also help putting off photo-thieves.
Probably the best way to deal with thieves such as them is to put your prefix (Alexandrite) on the background used for the photos (white or black material). As the kittens are fluffy it will be impossible to copy paste them over a different background without it being glaringly obvious.
Hope the above helps. Greetings from all of us and kisses from Alexandrite Danae to Gemini and from little Mercury to Pantera!!!
Thanks for the support and help with this. It is very sad that people do this. We breed Siberians as a hobby so to have to go to such lengths to protect our photos is very upsetting. Just hope prospective families don't get caught out by someone using another breeders cute kitten photos.
ReplyDelete