Final Update on the Resolution about the Stolen Photo

I wasn’t able to blog during the holidays right after that post about the stolen photo incident. My blog was implanted with malware and it needed a fresh installation and cleanup. I guess the people who made efforts in reading that post or any post in my blog already know about the malware. The blog has been basically hacked to someone’s personal enjoyment since November. There’s no loss really for my part in terms of money because there’s no money in this blog LOL. So the hacker is probably doing it for personal reasons…anyway, online revenue cannot be disclosed anyway but the bottom line is that there’s nothing but self-gratification on the goals of the hacker. It’s really a waste of time but if that hacker wants to hack, well he can just go and be happy.

So just to clear about the readers who thought that the malware implantation on the previous blog post was a Black Hat Attack, I wouldn’t really know. I just know that there have been malware and malicious code implantations within javascript files of the blog. I can just thank my friends for fixing the problems. I’m just blessed to have them.
As for the resolution about that photo, a Brand Manager from Kraft Phils. Mr. Mark de Hoya, Mr. Raffy Rodrigez of Globedez contacted me as well as Ms. Amor Mclang of Geiser Mclang. At first there was an apology about the photo and stating reasons for fair usage that there was no intent to discredit me and it was to promote the country. I just didn’t take that apology yet because I had a strong argument that there was really an intent with regards to copyright infringement by the removal of the watermark from my photo.

I never heard again from Kraft or anyone from them. Not a big deal at all because the ones I was after were the people behind the website. My claim on the photo was just to make a big company like Kraft who has contracts with 3rd party site developers to monitor such cases as they carry a brand be aware of such incident. As for Globedez during that e-mail apology, I demanded a sincere apology that should also admit the malicious act of the watermark removal, counting that my photo was uploaded on a Creative Commons licensed website and marked as ‘All Rights Reserved’. Another strong reason for it was that even if my photo was used for commercial reasons, I got no credit for it which was already removing my claim of ownership from the photo.

It took some time until I received an e-mail about a resolution for the incident. I demanded two things as advised by my parents and a legal counsel:

1) An Public Apology Letter to me and Kraft Philippines about the incident that’s duly signed by the erring artist.
2) Payment or Bill (since my photo was already used for commercial purposes without my knowledge)

Few days later, someone admitted the act of the watermark removal from the company and I was offered a payment for the photo in a way that I was assigned to shoot the place. As said in the e-mails, I would receive 10,000PHP for the damages from the incident.

So that’s it for now. I actually got an e-mail from the MIS Director of Globedez for a personal meeting soon probably this week. So far I’m optimistic about the resolution of the whole incident. I also thank Ms. Amor Mclang in helping me sort out most of the arguments about the copyright infringement incident. I also thank all those bloggers who sent me messages and gave advice with regards to handling such incident and making me aware of my rights as an online publisher.

Oh and just to finish this post, I missed blogging and I missed greeting all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010. I just like to thank all those who read my blog this 2009. I hope to share more wonderful things and places in every journey of my life this 2010.

Update:

Me and  the very kind MIS Director of GlobeDez Mr. Raffy Rodriguez finally sat down and talked about the issue. We both signed papers with regards to the billing they issued for the payment amounting to 10,000PHP.