I’m however disappointed recently upon looking at some promotional website under Kraft Philippines for their product Kraft Eden Cheese. Just looking at the page and encountering that picture I saw instantly gave me goosebumps. 
At first I was stuck looking at just one photo of a church in Cebu City I can’t get over with. It was like instant De Ja Vu just looking at the photo no matter how shrunk it was. Maybe I’ve been there…yeah and that explains it…but there was actually more to it. There was something missing about the photo that I noticed- my watermark. 
I then opened another tab in my browser and then searched for my Cebu City snaps. I remember how I went out of my way to extend my stay in Cebu City alone just to tour the city, Mactan and Olango Island to get snaps. Finally I matched the scaled picture with what belongs to me.
The Stolen Photo from my flickr photostream
It’s a picture of the Sto. Niño Church Cebu City using my Canon EFS 10-22mm lens on that day just before I got stranded in the rain. Obviously it’s unmistakably mine and no matter how scaled the picture was compare to the original one, all the elements in the picture match. The people behind that website who stole and without ethics removed my signature watermark on my picture.
I was pissed off from that point. The picture I painstakingly took all the way from Cebu City, with my expensive ultra wide angle lens, was stolen without credits to me, the owner. I don’t see it fair at all. I’m just disgusted by how unprofessional people can be and how that huge company lost integrity to me.
Now I just wonder how the people behind that website for Kraft Philippines got the other Church photos. We’re they also stolen the same way as how mine was? My friends and loved ones told me to make the company aware of such violation to my rights as a photographer who carries exclusive rights to my work. My flickr photostream is not a stock photo portal too and even small stock photos get paid for a price.
I’ll be making Kraft Philippines and the Main company branch aware of this. If they have good core values, I should get a rightful compensation for the inconvenience they have cost on my part who went out of my way just to get that photo.
Argh. How I want to stamp the forehead/s of the people involved in stealing my photo with my watermark. Just because I’m a blogger who has a flickr photostream, it doesn’t mean my pictures come out as free for use with any form of credit. Let’s see how this goes…I’ll be updating about this stolen photo case of mine.
Lesson Learned: I’ll be watermarking all of the photos I post online.
Here’s the site where I found my photo being illegally used without permission: http://sarapngbuhay.com/feedmytown.php
P.S
Panay pasarap kasi sa buhay ang mga gumawa ng website. Mga walang kunsensiyang magnakaw ng mga gawa ng ibang tao. Kung sa tingin ninyo mabuti ito para sa inyo (menos gastos etc.)..hindi ito makakabuti sa inyo dahil nilalagyan ninyo ng bahid ang isang malaki at magandang kompanya. Hindi rin ito magandang pangitain sa kung papaano makikipag-trabaho sa inyo ang mga tao dahil mga magnanakaw kayo. Sana pagsisihan ninyo ang ginawa ninyo.
send them a bill and give them hell!
I hope bloggers will learn from this experience. I’m really hoping for a quick and fuss-free resolution on this.
I couldnt agree more, although from what I’ve seen in your twitter you’re sorting it out you should simply send them an invoice for the cost of using your images in adition to damages caused. Curiously do you allow downloading of your images in Twitter? I dont, but with screen prt, it often doesnt matter…if this was taken from a screen print I may start watermarking, I choose not to because I rely on Flickr’s preventative “save” system. Please do let me know how it was stolen
Haiz, you mean days after, they still didn’t do anything about it?
I sympathize with you having experienced the same before.
Hopes it would be resolved soon.
I hope for a good resolution. So far there was this apology letter…but then no one did admit the removal of my watermark. Do you call that an apology?
Siguro baka naisip nila na once inedit na nila yung photo, wala na copyright yun. Unprofessional..
Wel,, I yet have to find out why my watermark has been removed. I can just let this issue off if I didn’t put a watermark to my picture, because that’s irresponsibility on my part as the owner of the photo.
kraft is evil.. tsk tsk tsk…
Kraft is also a victim here. They dealt with dishonest developers who violated IPR.
ay oo nga pala. The developers behind this website are evil…
This is bad. Thank you for sharing your story. Made me realize the importance of taking that shot.
Yeah. Do watermark your photos. I think I’m gonna take a short hiatus in photoblogging and watermark what’s on my flickr stream. My mom tells me she likes my pictures and tells me to watermark them but I didn’t.
Sometimes as a blogger, you want your readers to get the great experience of viewing your photos without the watermarks. I personally don’t like putting big watermarks and I just limit the size of the watermark when it comes to pictures because it doesn’t look good.
This however is a lesson as a .com blogger…always watermark the photos that belongs to you. People can take advantage of photos without watermarks because it’s just human nature in media to be lax and do machievellian ways for a cost-effective production of whatever they can get for your photo.
I Feel your pain Maki
Happened to me at least half a dozen times already, I used to post all my pictures without watermarks (I find them distracting and messing up the whole photo) then they got used. I put in watermarks, they still got used, this time more agressive and marks got erased. Now I just dont put any up anymore, kakawalang gana…
My Pro Account in Flickr is where I upload my photos and it’s where I save them too before I acquired my 1Tb.
When I want to retrieve my photos I just download them from there. I never realized that people take advantage even putting the fact that I did put a watermark on the photo in this case. That’s just shameful on their part.
The claim of fair usage on my photo can’t be covered by the fact that they removed my watermark and claim of ownership on the photo. It’s their problem.
If they want to claim with an explanation for fair usage. I deserve an honest and public apology on their end and why they removed my watermark.
Kala kasi nila indi na mapapansin ng original owner/photographer eh. Hmmm
Let’s just take note that this can happen to anyone who posts their photos online.
It may have been such a small deal for them just to take the photo, remove the watermark and use it without my granted permission, nor a piece of credit to my end. Well, I hope this puts a lesson on them that we bloggers and photographers also value our craft too. The watermarked wide angle shot of that church in cebu didn’t also come cheap. Heck I used a 35k worth ultrawide angle lens for that shot and flew all the way from manila just ot get there. So claim of ownership on my part is a big deal for me. It was hard work.
Labo naman. Ang dami nang bloggers/photographers ang nabibiktima dito.
Even if the world doesn’t admit it…stealing is a cost-effective solution for firms who would like to skip all the fuss in legally acquiring photos from different artists for fair usage.
For me that’s just bullshit. The developers do get paid for developing a good site for Kraft who values integrity…If the developers can’t do clean business relations to Kraft who hired them, they just don’t deserve another project with Kraft Philippines. The developers are so unprofessional and dishonest to begin with, If a good site done with ethics was demanded on their part for Kraft..then this incident is breaching their deal with Kraft.
Sadly, a lot of people still ignorantly thinks that the internet is a sea of free stuff they can use anyway they like.
If there would be a survey, you would be surprised with the statistics.
In my talks or classes in school, the students usually hear about it for the first time. So unless the public get educated about it, much of this will continue.
I really hope teachers get to teach students about Intellectual Property Rights as it is a critical issue.
its sad that even big companies are abusing the resources found online to just steal photos or copy off articles without giving credit to the owner.
i just recently forgave a Freeman writer who published my blog entry under his by line.
http://www.frannywanny.com/2009/12/forgiven.html
Yeah actually I got sad to because I don’t know the whole story on how the photo got there or whether who had the intentions to be cost-effective and abuse my IPR.
So far I have apology letters from Kraft and Globedez (developers). I commend Kraft but I’m not taking the apology of Globedez a sincere one. It just made a fuss about reasoning fair usage of the photo…taking out the plain fact that my watermark was removed. What a shame.
I’m sorry to hear about this. The same thing happened to one of my cartoons. It was used in one of the Facebook applications. Luckily, it was resolved. I hope you’ll get a resolution to yours too.
Good luck!
Really hoping for a good resolution. Hay…malapit na Christmas…I hope there’s some good left from the people who did the wrong things.
Ack. That sucks!
It really sucks. And to think I was unaware that my photo was already used at a certain time without any bit of knowledge.
Tapos na kaya yung countdown ng sarap ng buhay…*Facepalm* Gamit na eh
Did you consider taking any legal action regarding this?
Sa ngayon, sama-sama nating kundinahin ang kaganapang ito.
I will consider a legal action if 2 things won’t be satisfied:
1. A public apology letter about the wrongdoing (specifically the watermark removal).
2. The billing. My photo was already up for a certain time without my knowledge that my IPR was violated.
I agree about nomnomclub.com about how people view the internet as a free resource. While this kind of thing is horrible, many, even professionals can have lapses in judgement with regards to this. Hopefully these people have the decency to rectify their mistakes.
For some time I blamed both Kraft and Globeez because I was thinking of people taking advantage of resources so that they will create something that’s less costly to the company.
Now that Kraft had spoke from their end..I can just blame Globedez for such action.
Boo to Kraft! D=
Well if we put our place to Kraft given that they were unaware of the wrongdoing by the developers, they would say: Boo to Globedez.
Whoa!
Not good. Tsk tsk.
They are in violation of copyright laws. You have every right to go after them Maki. I support you on this.
I just hope people behind the wrongdoing don’t add another wrongdoing to the mess they did.
gusto makalibre…
Well, that’s what came into my mind. The watermark has been removed, photo cropped a bit and scaled down for site usage without credit to me and permission on my end. I couldn’t think of a good intention behind it. What they did was wrong.
If the photo was used for good reasons in the future…I expect atleast on their end as professionals to get the photo in an ethical manner. The developers are dealing with a big and great company..atleast on their end they do the right things.
that sucks kraft!
Kraft told me they are unaware of the IPR violation for the Sarap ng Buhay website…but by inevitable connection with the site and Globedez, they also have responsibility on their end to make sure that the contents of the site were retrieved by good means in a cost effective way. That’s part of Kraft’s people in taking care of the product or brand in a company.
Ugh, that’s annoying. Likely the fault of a lazy web designer.
I once saw someone on deviantArt whose artwork was stolen by some Ukranian candy bar company, if I’m not mistaken. At least you were able to complain about yours.
It’s either the designer was lazy or the company just wants to save money by going through other means.
Boycott natin yung Kraft na yan ahehe ay yung gumawa pala
Ate Maki isa po akong tagasubaybay ng blog mo siguro magiisang taon na po and isa po kayo sa mga hinahangaan ko po sa blog napabili nga ako ng camera dahil sa inyo D3000 gusto ko rin po maging photo blogger gaya nyo Ano po ba maipapayo nyo sa akin na nagstart pa lang po?
waka. sila din sigur0 yung nagtanong sakin. if the can get a copy of the video footage i have. buti na lang my pictures have really intricate watermarks, mahihirapan sila. hahaha.
flickr photos have copy rights, but anybody can easily copy them. Anyway, you can sue Kraft Philippines for a very hefty price.
and don’t settle for a public apology. Sue them, it’ll teach them a lesson!
sad news…teach me how to do watermarking para hindi rin mangyari sa akin an nangyari sayo.