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Stolen Family Pic Ends up on Billboard
Here’s a horror story for you if you’re just about to launch a blog full of pictures of your family: a mom blogger who posted a picture of her family in high resolution on her site got an e-mail from a friend in the Czech Republic recently. He’d just seen their family portrait posted across a billboard.
And, no, they aren’t a family of models.
The picture, which Extraordinary Mommy writer Danielle says was used on her family’s Christmas card, her private Facebook, her site and a few Ning sites, where she’d posted it in high resolution because, as she says, “Clearly, I am not a professional photographer and should have made the resolution smaller and/or watermarked the picture.”
The ad is for a door-to-door food service – it directs you to a Website, and the words underneath have been translated by her friend who spotted the shot as “We will prepare and deliver your requests in two business days.”
Danielle blames herself for the mistake, and she’s not angry so much as creeped out by the matter. She’s not even planning to stop using family photos – although she will be reducing the resolution and/or watermarking the pictures. And while she puts all the blame on herself, let’s face it – it’s easy to see how this happened. As a professional photographer, I try to ensure my own photos are relatively small when I upload them, but back in the early days of blogging, I didn’t. I was equally clueless.
I read a lot of people who freak out about the use of kids’ images on blog sites because they’re afraid some pervert is going to get their kids. While it’s true they might be looking at your kids to get their jollies, let’s face it – they’d have the same reaction seeing your kids out on the street somewhere.
In this instance, the picture isn’t put out to any more people than the mom blogger already potentially opened her family up to. Their faces aren’t defaced, the photo is virtually the same. But I can’t blame her for being a little creeped.
What do you think? Will this change the way you blog? Check out her site for the original and more on the story and come back to comment.
Image: Extraordinary Mommy
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14 Comments
Betty Wu commented on Jun 08 09 at 3:49 pmWow. Maybe if they make a pattern of stealing people’s photos off the internet they can give a half-hearted apology and then get all pissy when people don’t instantly forgive them!
Erin commented on Jun 09 09 at 9:37 amBetty Wu, perfect response!
Sid commented on Jun 09 09 at 9:51 amThe irony of this is searing.
Marj commented on Jun 09 09 at 1:38 pmI’m already careful about my image online. When I was younger I wasn’t, and no doubt there are a few images of me out there on friend’s sites. Most law enforcement agencies reccomend being careful with personal images.
ann05 commented on Jun 09 09 at 1:42 pmYeah, Sid, I was going to say the same thing. Hell, you all did this for ages until people made a big deal out of it. This was a weird story choice. Glass houses you know?
Manjari commented on Jun 09 09 at 2:39 pmWow, I had no idea that was going on here.
lea commented on Jun 09 09 at 9:38 pmOnce you post your pic on internet that’s it, you can find it anywhere. too bad, don’t post your pictures on net.
Robotto commented on Jun 11 09 at 8:32 pmListen everyone! This isn’t just about posting photos on the Internet. DO NOT step out of your house, because potentially thousands of people will see your face just by walking around in New York for an hour. And, more importantly DO NOT let your kids out of your house. Especially in big cities like New York, it is very likely that one of the thousands of people you walk by will be a pedophile. Be careful out there.
Sara commented on Jun 12 09 at 11:49 amIf this happened to me, I wouldn’t be mad but I would sue for royalties. If somebody is using my family’s image for advertising purposes, why shouldn’t I get some form of compensation? Also, this company was obviously too cheap to buy a stock photo they could use and instead just picked some random photo off the internet. A big no-no in marketing. Stock photos are not that expensive, so I don’t see why they had to do that.
Cnrmpwbx commented on Jun 22 09 at 6:21 pmG5YbNx comment5 ,
Lisa commented on Jul 02 09 at 3:59 pmI find it silly to worry so much over internet photos. There are a gazillion photos on the internet, and 99% of them are nameless. No one knows who it is behind those still pixels, and no one really cares. Yeh, there are bad things that happen, but as you said, being out on the street is “just as dangerous” so to speak. People are way too paranoid and conceited, thinking that everyone cares so much about their child that someone would take the time to research a picture, find the name, find the address, then travel there. Psh. I say, don’t worry so much. As long as you have basic internet common sense – don’t give your address, phone number, and last name out to random people online, and don’t get into internet flame wars, then you’re pretty much good to go these days. No one cares about a random kid with cake on his face, or a random online family photo of kids petting a dog…well, except maybe for a creep getting his jollys, but it’s doubtful it will ever go further than that, and it’s something you’d never know about anyway. Life goes on.
BTW, I’m a mommy blogger with a 1 year old, and I twitter and have facebook.
Oh, and I’m with the commenter who said they would sue for royalties! They can use my images all they want if I’m getting properly paid for it.
Syncencar commented on Jul 04 09 at 2:48 amMy cousin has an iphone and shes with AT&T they are charging her extra for texting people in Canada.
Is there a way for her to get free texting to Canada?
AgrixPeeddido commented on Oct 18 09 at 10:02 pmHi-ya for everyone, I’m new on this forum. It’s great for being a part of such outstanding community. Have a nice day. :)
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