Alert Etsy seller Trollflings noticed today that some of her images were being used on www.polyvore.com, a website which allows users to upload photographs and create sets or collages of images.
Trollflings discovered 50 pages of images from Etsy shops uploaded by Polyvore’s membership, and started this thread about the issue. It quickly became apparent that very few, if any, Etsy sellers were aware their images were being used on the site, let alone had given permission.
Under Title 17, Chapter 1:106 of the U.S. Copyright Act, “Exclusive Rights in Copyrighted Work” it states:
Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
Some of the pages with images from Etsy sellers found on Polyvore contain a link that simply says “etsy.com” that links back to the item listing on Etsy. Some pages contain no such links. No pages give written credit to the owner of the work or Etsy shop name. Some images from Etsy sellers have been altered, clipped, or otherwise used by Polyvore members to make collages, which were then posted on Polyvore as works by Polyvore members. Polyvore provides a graphics application on their site which allows people to make alterations to image they have uploaded.
Additionally, some images from Etsy users that had watermarks or copyright notices on them were found to have been tampered with to removed the watermark or copyright notice.
Under Title 17, Chapter 5:506, “Criminal Offenses” of the U.S. Copyright Code, it states:
(a) Criminal Infringement.—
…
(d) Fraudulent Removal of Copyright Notice.— Any person who, with fraudulent intent, removes or alters any notice of copyright appearing on a copy of a copyrighted work shall be fined not more than $2,500.
In Polyvore’s Terms of Service, they state: [bolding is mine]
User Submissions
1. The Polyvore Website may now or in the future permit the submission of photo or other content submitted by you and other users (”User Submissions”) and the hosting, sharing, and/or publishing of such User Submissions. You understand that whether or not such User Submissions are published, Polyvore does not guarantee any confidentiality with respect to any submissions.
2.You shall be solely responsible for your own User Submissions and the consequences of posting or publishing them. In connection with User Submissions, you affirm, represent, and/or warrant that you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize Polyvore to use all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to any and all User Submissions to enable inclusion and use of the User Submissions in the manner contemplated by the Website and these Terms of Service.
3. Polyvore does not claim ownership of User Submissions. However, with respect to User Submissions or content you make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service, you grant Polyvore worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s) to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such content on the Service in connection with the Polyvore Website and Polyvore’s (and its successor’s) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Polyvore Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Polyvore removes such Content from the Service.
4. In connection with User Submissions, you further agree that you will not:
submit material that is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third party proprietary rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant Polyvore all of the license rights granted herein; (ii) publish falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage Polyvore or any third party;
submit material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate;
post advertisements or solicitations of business;
impersonate another person.5. Polyvore does not endorse any User Submission or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein, and Polyvore expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with User Submissions. Polyvore does not permit copyright infringing activities and infringement of intellectual property rights on its Website, and Polyvore will remove all Content and User Submissions if properly notified that such Content or User Submission infringes on another’s intellectual property rights. Polyvore reserves the right to remove Content and User Submissions without prior notice. Polyvore will also terminate a User’s access to its Website, if they are determined to be a repeat infringer. A repeat infringer is a User who has been notified of infringing activity more than twice and/or has had a User Submission removed from the Website more than twice. Polyvore also reserves the right to decide whether Content or a User Submission is appropriate and complies with these Terms of Service for violations other than copyright infringement and violations of intellectual property law, such as, but not limited to, pornography, obscene or defamatory material, or excessive length. Polyvore may remove such User Submissions and/or terminate a User’s access for uploading such material in violation of these Terms of Service at any time, without prior notice and at its sole discretion.
6. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The images referenced, made accessible or made available to you on these pages or by means of the Polyvore Service are protected by the copyright and trademark laws of the United States and other countries. You may need to obtain authorization of the owner of such materials before using them for any purpose other than viewing on the web. For authorizations to use an image, please contact the image owner as indicated on the source site, not Polyvore. Polyvore cannot give you authorization to use the copyrighted images. We cannot guarantee that the Polyvore Service will not locate unintended or objectionable content and Polyvore accepts no responsibility or liability for the content of any site included in any Polyvore item or set, or otherwise linked to by the Polyvore services, or for your use of such content. Polyvore reserves the right to remove any pictures or content without notice to you, any other user, or any third party.We will review all claims of copyright infringement received and remove content deemed to have been posted or distributed in violation of any such laws. To make a claim, please provide us with the following:
A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or the person authorized to act on its behalf;
A description of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
A description of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit Polyvore to locate the material;
Your contact information, including your address, telephone number, and email;
A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under the pains and penalties of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
Claims can be emailed to copyright@polyvore.com7. You understand that when using the Polyvore Website, you will be exposed to User Submissions from a variety of sources, and that Polyvore is not responsible for the accuracy, usefulness, safety, or intellectual property rights of or relating to such User Submissions. You further understand and acknowledge that you may be exposed to User Submissions that are inaccurate, offensive, indecent, or objectionable, and you agree to waive, and hereby do waive, any legal or equitable rights or remedies you have or may have against Polyvore with respect thereto, and agree to indemnify and hold Polyvore, its Owners/Operators, affiliates, and/or licensers, harmless to the fullest extent allowed by law regarding all matters related to your use of the site.
In this thread on the issue started by Kateblack, a representative from Polyvore has invited any Etsy seller who does not want their image used on the Polyvore website to contact them and request removal.
At the time of this article publication, Polyvore has removed some of the illegally used images.
We at UEN respect the rights of artists to control how and where their images are used, and encourage our readers to investigate Polyvore’s use of images for themselves.
[ed. by KateBlack at 11:14am, January 28, 2008. There's been an interesting revelation from GreenMamba on the Etsy forums. While individual images have been removed, many collages remain which still contain those individual images. If you thought your work was removed from Polyvore, it may still be there. Artists with violated copyrights will have to contact Polyvore about each individual collage which contained their work. ]
January 28th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Seriously I don’t see anything wrong with it if the item is linked back to the shop, then it’s free advertising and the seller doesn’t have to do anything. If anyone wants to, they’re more than welcome to ’steal’ photos of our fisherman pants and collage them :)
January 28th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Thai, you may not object, but others do. In the eyes of the law, they have the right to say “yes” or “no” to other people using their images.
Furthermore, not every image had a link back to the item listing on Etsy. And no written credit was given anywhere on any page.
And it is not advertising. In the words of a wise friend: Advertising gives the owner of the message control of that message. There is no control when permission is not granted. I know several people who are quite upset about the manner in which their images were altered or combined.
Also, if you read the bits of Polyvore’s TOS which I bolded, you will see that by uploading images to the Polyvore website, you grant Polyvore the right to use those images anywhere they like. So Polyvore could use an image of yours from some user who uploaded it to advertise Polyvore, with zero credit to you. Perhaps you’re okay with that too, but many people are not.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:24 am
thaidreams, one big objection here is that the images are being turned into derivative works. For people like you and me who make 3D items this may be less of a big deal as the image of our item isn’t the same as the item itself. But to those who sell 2D items (prints, paintings, etc.) this is a major problem. Also the lack of attribution or link to the specific item in many cases is a problem either way.
Anyway, I’d also encourage all Etsy sellers to look into licensing for their images - even if they are happy for their images to be used in this way (which you can stipulate in the licence).
You can create the licence that suits your situation here: http://creativecommons.org/ … I know Etsy has no official place to put licensing info, but putting the text into your profile will be okay. If you have your own shop I’d strongly suggest that you build a copyright page and include any licensing information there.
January 28th, 2008 at 8:28 am
I was one of those who had images taken, violated, manipulated and not credited back to me. For most of the images displayed they violated my copyright. I posted one of the images on my blog - http://www.aussiepatches.typepad.com you can go there and see how they trashed my artwork.
I have never been so humiliated in my life. My artwork was degraded and looked like crap. I came across images of Ashley G, The Black Apple and Gorjuss who had just as much problems with their images, faces drawn on, colours changed, backgrounds altered. Even to the point where Gorjuss had her illustrations with her watermarks removed before they were trashed. It was so depressing to see them all.
If you didn’t go to my blog my image was ‘inserted’ on top of a body, given sunglasses, a hat and a horrible background of colour and shape. It made my work look so cheap - how was that good advertising to my store?? Not only that but most of the works didn’t even link back to me.
I have a creative commons license, but it was completely disregarded by the people in question. Thankfully all of my images (that I’ve found) have been removed from the site. What disappoints me is the great number of people from ETSY who submitted it to the site originally and destroyed my artwork. Then they contact me ‘upset’ because I was so disappointed with what they did to my works. Oh, and surprised because I was offended by it. What did they expect? How else should I react? I have a copyright notice everywhere I can on my pages on the internet and they seemed to have forgotten to look when they stole my images.
Thaidreams it might be good advertising for you, good on you. I’m not desperate for sales, I hold high values towards my intellectual property. If someone took your images and claimed that they produced your pants and started selling them - then you’d see things differently. For me however it is one of the most disappointing experiences I’ve ever had since I’ve been selling my illustrating. Try selling illustrations and make money from images, and you’ll see what I mean when people abuse them.
January 28th, 2008 at 8:46 am
At first blush it looked like Polyvore was merely collecting cool things, and linking to where they were sold. With only this as an incomplete picture of the whole site, I was all for the idea of free advertising.
But, as I had a chance to look deeper at the site, there were most defiantly derivative works there, without attribution. Although they looked more like 12 year old, little girls playing with paper dolls than an ill intentioned “artist” hoping to make a fast buck.
That last point aside (children playing), the fact that the site itself (run by adults?) was encouraging the creation of derivative works using other people’s property without permission is a very bad idea.
If no profit was derived but either the collage maker or the site owner, and the object was educational, it might be exempt in the US under US Code Ch1, T17, S107 - the Fair Use doctrine. Under Fair Use a school teacher, for example, could have students cut photos from fashion magazines, and make collages. If the teacher, or students sold those collages, or used those collages to make a profit in any way, it would be prohibited.
So the bottom line for me is that IF the site was attributing, AND linking ALL the images they would be on more solid ground. Not completely home free, but closer.
January 28th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Ali J Says:
What disappoints me is the great number of people from ETSY who submitted it to the site originally and destroyed my artwork.
*****
Ali J, this is most shocking to me! It was Etsy member who made the collages? I thought is was children!! It looks like a child’s paly, so I figured it was children!!
Holy cow. This really blows me out of the water!
:(
January 28th, 2008 at 8:54 am
PS: I’m sorry I didn’t see your post Ali J, before I posted my long post. I was typing…
January 28th, 2008 at 9:49 am
This sort of thing happens on the internet everyday - and it is not okay. Anyone who has their intellectual property displayed somewhere on the world wide web can be targeted. Thanks to the sharp eyes and vigilance of Trollflings, Kate, quirke, and others, the Etsy community has been made aware of this unlawful use. And thanks, Simone, for the tip and the link. Very sound advice.
January 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Ali, I’m sorry they did that to you.
There were 600+ responses to my thread before admin locked it. So no one has to go wading through, Polyvore’s admin chimed in on page 43.
Polyvore had some interesting excuse-making on page 49 as well. (You may want to refrain from reading if you’re currently on blood pressure meds or have anger management classes to attend today.)
January 28th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Just a bit of general advice to everyone: if you see incidents like this when you’re browsing the web — TAKE SCREENSHOTS.
Then file them away in a well organized folder with the URL, date and time you saw them.
If/when there’s a class action against the sites which enable and encourage wholesale thievery, those with the best documentation get the biggest piece of the pie.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:06 am
they got me, too.
i might blog about it. i want my stuff removed from that joke of a site immediately.
official or unofficial, i will make them.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:12 am
i just revisited the links that featured my images, they are now blank.
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/search.things?page=10&query=etsy&sort=
hopefully they are gone for good.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Ali J you have my deepest sympathy. I didnt see the collage you were speaking of, but I did see Emily’s as well as gorjuss’s work altered. I cannot imagine.
I completely understand those who would like their work featured on polyvore but for those of us who don’t, who don’t want our works altered and tampered with/stolen/maimed or shown in a deragatory light , try to be understanding of our feelings.
Thank you to quirke for this article. Thank you to Kate Black and Kellirene for your support and the great super people who made me feel a lot better yesterday.
Polyvore has removed my images as well as the collages they were placed in.
Hopefully etsy/etsyians/trunkt can come to an amicable agreement with polyvore someday, and we can all live in peace and harmony. Unicorns , rainbows…and all that good stuff.
((troll love always))
January 28th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
trollie Says:
I completely understand those who would like their work featured on polyvore but for those of us who don’t, who don’t want our works altered and tampered with/stolen/maimed or shown in a deragatory light , try to be understanding of our feelings.
****
I hope you all know that my first impression was wrong, and that after I became aware of the whole story of what was being done to people’s work there, I had a change of mind.
In the beginning I thought it was a prmo site. The link I had was to photos of Esty items only, not the collages, and they linked back to the seller’s Etsy shops. It was not until later that I saw the collages, and they looked like little kids had made them they were so poorly done.
Also it was later that I saw that the site actually encouraged the chopping up of art works to make the colleges, besides just hosting them.
It was later still that I learned that is was Etsy members who did it! That really fried me. It is one thing for children to be running amok unsupervised on the site, but even worse that they were encouraged to make colleges from other people property.
I should not have posted at all until I had all the facts.
I feel very badly for the artists who had their work maimed.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I am so sorry this happened to *anyone* on Etsy. It looks like Polyvore is working hard to resolve the problem, but its just not cool to allow it in the first place.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I love how Polyvore first came into the thread with their stupid smilies and seemingly placating comments about how these things happen when you post stuff on the internet, how it’s advertising us, etc. and then all of sudden two posts after Etsy Admin stated they’d handed over the concerns to their in-house lawyer, Polyvore comes back and states how all the Etsy items have been removed, and links blocked.
It made me laugh outlood.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
sandra Says:
January 28th, 2008 at 8:46 am
If no profit was derived but either the collage maker or the site owner, and the object was educational, it might be exempt in the US under US Code Ch1, T17, S107 - the Fair Use doctrine. Under Fair Use a school teacher, for example, could have students cut photos from fashion magazines, and make collages. If the teacher, or students sold those collages, or used those collages to make a profit in any way, it would be prohibited.
———————————————
Yes, the fair use doctrine covers the use of copyrighted works for educational and new-reporting purposes, but this clearly wasn’t a classroom situation. Also (and I need to check deeper into this) but it seems that Polyvore may have been making a percentage profit if a sale to companies like Amazon were made via click-throughs from the site.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Pretty much “ditto” to what Sandra said. Only part that I can’t “ditto” is that I didn’t realize until just now that Etsy members were amongst the ones altering others’ images. I knew some Etsy folks were uploading their own pics and playing with them in collages, which is their perogative.
I first thought the thrust of the site was like Wists…social shopping, with “visual Wish Lists” in the form of collages. Turns out the thrust is the collages, and the linkages and the “potential free advertising” are secondary. The site actively encourages folks to take and alter artworks, and all the CYA language in the Terms of Service is just that…CYA. Some of the artwork was really badly distorted, maimed, and ruined…that’s like seeing your baby’s picture defaced. Polyvore may be responding to these issues now that Etsy members are up in arms, but they’ve been aware of it through other venues (Flickr, DeviantArt, RedBubble), and haven’t fundamentally changed anything about the way their site operates, to ensure links, or done anything to educate their users about Copyrights. Their “concern” rings disingenuous.
While it may not be as big for people like me who make 3d tangible objects and whose photos are merely to show those tangible items, it’s a HUGE concern for folks whose products ARE the artwork, or for folks who don’t want their items shown in potentially offensive derivative art, or when the photos aren’t given any attributions or linkages at all. And bottom line, really…it’s illegal, whether I really care all that much about them taking my photos or not. Some people DO care, and a site that encourages it is asking for a lawsuit. Ask YouTube. Only copyright holders can ask for works to be removed, but I have to think there’s something that can be done about an entire site whose whole purpose and intent lends itself to such wholesale Copyright violation and yet doesn’t police it.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I do hope they are acting in good faith. But, as Kate mentioned in the updated article above, the collages/collections remain. And, as long as those remain, ANYone who views them may create their own new collage or collection with any of those images - access to them has not been disabled. So, there is potential for the copyright of those images to be violated over and over again. One Etsy artist has an image of her artwork featured in 51 collages!
Be clear and direct when contacting Polyvore, and specify that you expect not only the original image to be permanently deleted, but all derivative works as well. And it might be wise to search Polyvore for any other venues you may be selling on, as well as personal websites (I believe the latter is searchable by domain).
January 28th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I’ve gone through a bunch of collages that are still up, and it appears that a high percentage of the items the images were stolen from are sold items or direct image links (including links still to images.etsy.com)
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=635049
contains Matty8080’s deer mask drawing.
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=642372
contains one of DirtyMirror’s images, which was swiped in a way that it doesn’t go back to his shop. It was one of those “images.etsy.com” images which Polyvore said they blocked. It was in 89 collages when I pulled it up!
And good for him for adding watermarks. That’s the ONLY reason I found him.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
some etsy sellers who have ecrater stores still have art on the site, just fyi, search by the venue name as already suggested
January 28th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I just emailed iStock about images being taken from their website. I find the entire concept of polyvore to be disturbing. I think it’s terribly unfortunate that people who make a living off their images and illustrations are being ripped off like this.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I thought it was interesting that polyvore mentioned Flickr in Kate’s thread on the fora. Someone mentioned to Google “polyvore copyright infringement”. I did and on page one of the search results there is a thread on Flickr from last October dealing with Polyvore’s actions.
Polyvore responded several times. This was their last comment on that thread but it is not the only thread on Flickr about it,
” pashasadri says:
hi. I think a further explanation is in order. The original help documents were written with product images saved from online stores in mind. We are going to update our docs to emphasize the importance of respecting copyrights.
Posted 3 months ago. “
January 28th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Oops, meant to give the link for that…
http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/57337/?search=stealing
January 28th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Polyvore looks as though it’s got some really great functionality which could be put to good use in ways that aren’t anywhere near such a problem.
I’d love to see it merged with one of the social shopping sites like ThisNext, for instance, and used to create magazine-style sets of recommended items which go together - of course with links which go back to the source in terms of where those items can be bought. Then the focus would be on promoting items for sale with a clear marketing benefit to those featured - the focus on creating derivative artworks in their own right would then not exist, nor would images which are not of items for sale be used (which is another problem they currently have).
But as it stands now, the site is one enormous copyright problem. I can’t see that it can continue to exist for long as it is. There are some big names having their images used almost certainly without permission - you can be sure that at least one of them will take serious action at some point if things don’t change in a big way.
January 28th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Simone, I agree, it has the potential to be something cool but they way they execute it is asking for trouble. Giving people tools to make derivative works is a BAD idea. I think Polyvore could be a good thing IF:
1. images could only be placed next to eachother, not layered on top of eachother. (some of the fashion collages are like this now)
2. images could not be cropped or altered, only resized.
3. only images of fashion items would be included, not fine art. I think Etsy sellers of clothing, handbags, and jewelry are not as upset about seeing their items there as the Etsy artists who make 2-D work, seeing it butchered into “backgrounds” or stickers.
4. The maker’s name always featured prominently, and always include links to the listing.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
JB, it would need major changes for sure to be a truly good thing that sellers would like - the ones you suggest seem like very good ones to me. But I can definitely see the potential in the piece of development that’s been done - it’s pretty nifty! It’s just that its current purpose and execution is a nightmare.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Pasha from Polyvore posted an explanation for the missing links in this thread- on page 7.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5440216
January 29th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I found 3 of my paintings in use on that site in 37 different collages. My images were tagged “backgrounds”….
In accordance with their information request to comply with the DMCA I sent my info this morning. Received this email from them -
***************
Hello Aja,
Thanks for reporting this situation to us.
Polyvore is a web based scrap-booking application focused on creating collages using images added by our users. When people add items to Polyvore they can then be discovered by the rest of our community who may then click back to the site it came from to find out more about it and perhaps purchase the item. As such people are usually happy for us to have images that link back to their sites. Many items from Etsy are linked back to a bigger image instead of the real Etsy shop, and that’s a technical problem, not someone doing it on intention. We’ve posted in a thread on the Etsy forum to explain it (http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5440216&page=7). We have blocked all imports from Etsy while we work things out.
As per our terms of service policy (http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/tos) we adhere to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and respond to all notices of claims of copyright infringement by copyright owners and after confirming such ownership remove copyrighted material promptly. We have already removed that image from our index.
Sincerely,
The Polyvore Team
****************
My response -
****************
The problem with what you said lies in the fact that your site actually seems to facilitate the theft of images across the web to create derivative works. You might see it as innocent, but as an artist today we need to ensure the integrity of our work does not become diluted by sites such as yours, where users claim my original paintings as mere “backgrounds”, instead of stand alone works of art. My work is *not* a “background” and its use is not up for negotiation.
You have created a platform through which users can import copyrighted images from any number of sites and then create “new” works from copyrighted material. In your message to me it seems you are defending the theft (even if after you defend it you take my images down as requested in compliance with the DMCA.) Simply ensuring it’s linked back is not the whole issue. I actually did have all links coming back to my products. That is not the issue. Many 2-D artists have licenses, contracts, guarantees to past patrons and the like that prohibits the use of such images outside of the stipulations agreed upon between artist (and copyright holder / intellectual property owner) and agent / agency. You seem to not understand that. This is a MAJOR problem and will most definitely need to be addressed if you expect your site to stick around in the long run.
I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter and wish you success with your vision. Hopefully it will not be to the detriment to those whose images have been used without consent.
Regards.
~Aja
*************
Sigh.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
two more observant etsy users have informed me that even after polyvore removing my work yesterday, there have been two more found this morning.
here is a link to on eof them, my best selling picture - also notice how many users have thieved it for their own work!
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing?id=344047
im really so sick of this crap.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
how do i contact them to complain?
i dont know how to present the infrigement notice.
i did send a personal email to tell them i wanted my stuff taken down.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Artandghosts…I know how you feel. One of my images was included in 23 sets :(
January 29th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
This is what I sent -
To Whom it may concern,
I am writing because I have found several examples of my original artwork used in assemblages and collages on your site of which permission was not given. No one ever approached me to ask if it was ok to use my work.
The pieces entitled “Learning to Fly”, “Above it All”, and “High Wire” were used in a number of collages and I demand they be taken down at once.
Collages utilizing “Learning to Fly” -
(10 links including this work followed)
Collage utilizing “Above it All” -
(23 links to sets including this work followed)
Collage utilizing “High Wire” -
(4 links to sets including this work followed)
I also demand my images be taken down from the site as well so further collages can not be made with my material.
“Learning to Fly” - http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing?id=343120
“Above it All” - http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing?id=343112
“High Wire” - http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing?id=343119
My address is -
(My address)
My Phone # is - ***-***-****
My email is - sagittariusgallery@gmail.com
My website - sagittariusgallery.com - all material taken can be found there.
The above information is accurate. I am the copyright and intellectual property owner of the above material quoted.
I appreciate your prompt attention to this serious matter and look forward to hearing from you shortly.
Sincerely, Aja
Sagittarius Gallery
___________________________________________
Modify it to suit your needs, artandghosts. It worked - they were all taken down within hours.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Artandghosts - this is what I sent them. Modify it to suit your needs. It worked - they removed all of the sets and images within hours.
________________________
To Whom it may concern,
I am writing because I have found several examples of my original artwork used in assemblages and collages on your site of which permission was not given. No one ever approached me to ask if it was ok to use my work.
The pieces entitled “Learning to Fly”, “Above it All”, and “High Wire” were used in a number of collages and I demand they be taken down at once.
Collages utilizing “Learning to Fly” -
(10 individual links to sets including this work followed)
Collage utilizing “Above it All” -
(23 individual links to sets including this work followed)
Collage utilizing “High Wire” -
(4 individual links to sets including this work followed)
I also demand my images be taken down from the site as well so further collages can not be made with my material.
“Learning to Fly” - http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing?id=343120
“Above it All” - http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing?id=343112
“High Wire” - http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing?id=343119
My address is -
(address)
My Phone # is - (phone number)
My email is - sagittariusgallery@gmail.com
My website - sagittariusgallery.com - all material taken can be found there.
The above information is accurate. I am the copyright and intellectual property owner of the above material quoted.
I appreciate your prompt attention to this serious matter and look forward to hearing from you shortly.
Sincerely, Aja
Sagittarius Gallery
January 29th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Weird. I am not seeing my comments…artandghosts I replied, not sure if you can see it (I tried copy and pasting cause it didn’t show up and it said it was a “duplicate comment”)
Eh….
January 29th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Artandghosts - check your email.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Sagittarius, your comment was held in moderation because our spam filter is fairly aggressive. Generally when you post something with multiple links, the spam filter grabs it.
I just approved it. Sorry for the inconvenience.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
for anyone needing to report a copyright violation on polyvore:
http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/help#copyright
you can report infringement using the standard DMCA format:
1. an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
You are acting as your own agent, so you can make an electronic signature by using your full name between 2 slashes like this /John Doe/
2. a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed; (the name of your image is enough, you don’t need to describe it in detail)
3. a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Polyvore site, with enough detail that we may find it on the web site; (Just give the direct link to your image on their site AND to any collage using your image. You may also give the link to your Etsy shop where the images were stolen from. )
4. your address, telephone number, and email address;
5. a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law; (since you are acting as your own agent, you can just say “I , the owner, do not give permission for polyvore to use my images”)
6. a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner’s behalf. (I, John Doe, state the above information is accurate and I am the copyright owner.)
Polyvore’s Agent for Notice of claims of copyright or other intellectual property infringement can be reached as follows:
By email
copyright at polyvore dot com
By fax
(866)-651-6243
January 29th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
thanks both, for the info.
one of those links turns up a blank now. hoping it has been removed.
i did get your email, sagittarius, thanks very much!
January 30th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I appreciate that Polyvore has blocked image imports from Etsy for now.
January 10th, 2009 at 2:00 am
[...] a year ago UEN reported on a site called Polyvore, which allows users to upload, alter, clip and assemble images from the internet into collages or [...]
February 24th, 2009 at 12:59 am
Polyvore States:
“At Polyvore, we take copyright issues very seriously. Our goal is to be a place where both Polyvore set creators and the owners of the items in those sets will benefit from the community. It’s in everyone’s best interest for these items to link back to where they were found. First, it gives the owner proper credit and hopefully drives traffic back to their site. Second, in many cases it allows anyone to discover and buy these products.”
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
1. There is no benefit to anyone but polyvore. Let me explain in case any teenagers are reading this, but the owners of polyvore know exactally what I’m talking about.
By placing “nofollow” on every image on your site in the code you are NOT giving “proper credit” to the owner of that image. For the kids, that means that google does NOT follow that picture back to the owner. So in essence your not telling the truth. Furthermore this claim can be backed up by a simple google image search. My image shows up in the google image results but it’s a link to Polyvore, not my site where the image was stolen from. Then for more advance users you can do a “Link Popularity check” I have a handful of images on polyvore yet there are no links from polyvore to my site. I can’t believe no one else has noticed this. So all this means, no traffic is given to the owner of the image. I can confirm this with google Analytics.
Cut down for example purposes…
girlprops.com
2. “It’s in everyone’s best interest for these items to link back to where they were found.”
Sure it would help, but your traffic sux for lack of a better SEM term.
Why wouldn’t you just tell people that you/your code will put the buy button if they do Google base? Took me a second to figure out, so I’m sure it’s getting overlooked. Why not just tell us? Then it would actually be somewhat beneficial to the image/shop owners.. Seems shady that it would get left out of the help page etc. But the traffic would be classed poor at best. I’ll get to that..
3. I see that you have an enormous link popularity (most are from retard yahoo) yet no google ads etc. By my estimates you would turn a coin from the ads alone. However i’m guessing that Google adsence turned you down. I bet they see the shadyness too.
4. Then there’s a personal issue I see as well.
The site is listed as located in Mountain View Ca. But you seem to be from India. I have nothing against people from anywhere just a bit suspicious in this case. Real close to Silicon Valley. Not associated with any of the big dogs are we? (Google, Microsoft etc.) Wouldn’t it be a huge scandal if it was rumored to be employees (sub contractors) of lets say Microsoft that were “condoning copyright infringement”.
5. Then there’s the issue of what type of traffic that would be sent to the image owners site if you’d let it leave polyvore. It’s teenagers who everyone knows don’t have credit cards and they don’t spend $. So the traffic would be classed poor at best. Just ask Google (look it up) They are still feeling the pain from their deal with myspace. Kids don’t click ads, period!
6. If you think for a second that your little script box that pops up with the image owners site is somehow remotely giving us credit for our Images. Then your not as bright as I thought. Everyone knows googles spider don’t follow script like that. So again no credit is given to the owner of the image.
I could probably find more issues…. This will do for now.
At the end of the day you do not give “credit” in any real since of the term to the Image owners. Some who do Base may see a sale or 2. But for people who survive from the work on their sites, your raping them!!!!
You should be banned from Google!!!
John Q Public
February 24th, 2009 at 1:04 am
Admin Please edit my above post to indicate the following.
Cut down for example purposes…
rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank” href=hxxp://www(dot)girlprops(dot)com/RetailScience/page2/group/8251
What is this? “orighost” Fibal attempt to seem legit…
class=”outbound” orighost=”girlprops(dot)com”>girlprops(dot)com
Wordpress made it a link, thats not whats intended. I want your users to see the code.
Thanks!
John Q Public
June 8th, 2010 at 2:36 am
Belstaff Jacke werden mehr und mehr zum absoluten
Trend und zum modischen Muss, nicht zuletzt, weil viele Hollywood Stars Belstaff tragen. Ein
weiterer Pluspunkt für die Marke ist, dass die Belstaff Jacken auch mit dem Alter ihren Reiz nicht
verlieren. Die Jacken halten ein Leben lang und werden durch die Benutzung nur noch
charakteristischer