We wrote earlier about Thomas Hawk writing about an Icelandic photographer, Rebekka Guoleifsdottir [I give up on the accents], whose discovery of her photos on a photo printing site led to an angry lawyer's letter from her to them, then an angry blog post by her on Flickr, then the post's deletion by Flickr.
Now the Plagiarism Today blog has got the story in more depth: the infringing site, Only Dreemin, which claims that it was scammed by a different company - Wild Aspects and Panoramics Ltd - which offered the photos and reprinting rights to them for about £3,000. When Only Dreemin got her letter, it took down the photos; but the company that it says had sold the rights had meanwhile disappeared untraceably.
Trouble is, Only Dreemin hasn't come up either with any evidence of the transaction with the disappeared company - which has left some people unsatisfied about the explanation.
However as we recall you're not allowed to profit from stolen goods; if you sold a stolen car, the money would be recoverable to the owner. But of course it's a digitised photo, this time. Are the costs recoverable? Where's it all going to end?
In the meantime the Plagiarism Today blog recommends that if you're in a similar situation, there are five rules to remember, including that "going public is risky" and "beware your own power":
even if you don't think you have a lot of clout, something on your blog or site can quickly attract tens of thousands of readers. That is important to keep in mind when venting about frustrations with content theft.
In the meantime, of course, if you have come across Wild Aspects and Panoramics Ltd, then we'd be interested to hear about it.
