Should I Watermark My Old Pictures

When I wrote about my Prashar Lake pictures getting copied, many of you suggested me to watermark it. I will have to go picture by picture but I am OK with it. Will it mess up my feeds completely for those who subscribe to this blog in a reader? Will it change the way google indexes them? Some of them are the first one to come up in a search and I am scared to lose that ranking. :D

To watermark I would have to download and upload it again, right? Any tips much appreciated.

How Many Copies of My Prashar Lake Images?

Yesterday I did a google image search for Prashar Lake on a whim. And I am completely aghast. The number of times my pictures have been copied by others across the globe without any credit is depressing. So here I go. These are most of my Prashar Lake images (with the December images posted with permission from Anil).

Now look at the copycats, why so many? :( :( :( :( :(

(And don't worry all the links are nofollow.)

Indie-Reise in German, why in Germany would someone copy my Prashar Lake image?

Someone at a site called Wherein City copied my Prashar Lake image

Someone by the Name of Sachin at Merinews copied the Prashar Lake image

Another one by Sachin at Merinews He has copied so many of my images apart from the Prashar lake one. I have left a comment on each of the copied one.

Instablog copied my Prashar Lake Image

Another Copy

Would you blame me if I am hopping mad right now?

Another Case of Lifting a Picture by Mudra?

PlaneMad reports that a picture taken by him was lifted by Mudra (the Ad agency from Wikipedia)!

But when i see a big print ad for a reputed online property portal that too by a respected agency in one of the leading english daily, skimping photography charges by stealing photos off wikipedia, you wouldn’t exaclty expect me to smile about it.

Cross posted at Blogbharti.

MSM (Mint) on MSM Lifting Images from Blogs in India

Mint did an article on Mainstream media lifting images from blogs and I thought it was a good one. It didn't even spare the home publication Hindustan Times-

The Hindustan Times, which is published by HT Media Ltd, has also faced similar allegations. For instance, Archana S.R., a Bangalore-based photographer, blogged last month that a Mumbai supplement of the Hindustan Times had reproduced her photo of an eco-friendly Ganesha idol, without permission.

“We would not tolerate any infringement of copyright, be it infringement on the part of our journalists or someone else infringing on (our) copyright,” says Sanjoy Narayan, recently appointed editor-in-chief of the Hindustan Times. “There is a need for greater awareness all around about the sensitivity of copyrights. Digital media is relatively new in India, and sometimes people don’t realize that creative work online is also published under copyrights.”

Mint, which is also published by HT Media, has specific guidelines for its staff on both text and photos as part of its Code of Conduct, which says: “We don’t copy the work of others… We do not plagiarize, meaning that we do not take the work of others and pass it off as our own.” (The full Code is available on Mint’s website, www.livemint.com.)

Times of India Plagiarizes Again

Times of India seems to be in regular habit plagiarizing. This time it is a photograph by Shrinidhi in their Chennai supplement.

I’d clicked this photo few months back at Marina beach and had uploaded it to my blog. Some users have referred to this image in some forum discussions also and incidently, if you search for Chennai police car in google, this image comes first.

I also feel that if your image comes on the first page of Google images, the chances of it getting lifted are more!

And fellow contributor Jo has complied a list of plagiarism incidents by media.

Cross Posted at Blogbharti