Over the last few months I have been facing a peculiar problem.
Some of my friends have reported that they have seen some of their friends on a popular social networking site using Kitchen Karma's food photographs. Now when I go to check these out, I cannot, because of privacy settings of these people.
Not once. Three different friends have reported this at various times.
Of course any food blogger would like the free publicity. But no, those who share apparently remove the watermark and then share. They do not make any claims that they have taken the photograph, but then neither do they give due credit.
Of course I am not alone. Most of my blogger friends have to deal with food photography thefts. Unfortunately not only fellow bloggers steal from them, so does the general public. The assumption is if a photograph is out there in the cyber world, it is perfectly legal to erase the copyright and use it as your own.
I will not go into the morality of this. There is no point.
But of course, neither do I want people to use my photographs/ ideas/work without giving me due credit.
I am not the world's greatest photographer, but I work really hard to make this blog look attractive and I certainly do not want people to steal my ideas/work.
Husband and me, we started discussing this. We read up various proffered solutions. None of them seemed feasible or practical. Hence we started brainstorming. Soon we found an ingenious solution.
The solution, when we stumbled upon it, was so easy and straightforward that it kind of took out breath away with it's simplicity. No wonder they say that the best things in life need not be the most complicated.
Okay, without further testing your patience, let me share the solution. The solution is that these thieves can easily remove the watermark using various photo editing software. But what if we put in the watermark in the original layout in such a way that try cropping it and you spoil the photograph?
Once the idea emerged I started using it in my various photo layouts. And you know what I have started enjoying painting these cute name badges.
Like this badge I made for my cold coffee recipe.
I have been using this idea since August 2012. The first time I used this was in my lemon curd post. Of course my style has changed over the months. And of course I have not been able to do this to every food I photograph. I just do not have enough patience.
I did not realize that I would enjoy making these tags so much. I create one appropriate for my post and then simply place it strategically next to the food I am photographing. Any bit of paper including dress tags, discarded greetings cards, bookmarks, discarded theater/movie tickets, odd pieces of paper does the trick. All you then need are some colours or coloured pens.
So what do you think of the solution?
It is working for me, now even if people do not give me credit, the name Kitchen Karma is hard to remove from my photographs.
It is also helping in creating the Kitchen Karma brand.
I have been meaning to write about this solution for ages, but me being me, the regaining queen of procrastination I kept delaying it. Then I saw one popular blogger using my solution, of course without credit, that is when I realized that it is time I floated the idea! Please feel free to use it, but credit would be appreciated.
The cyber world is not a safe place. But there are some nice people out there.
...I'm sure their karma will get them...Thieves!
ReplyDeleteYes I am sure...but till then how do we protect what is ours Jasna, that is the question? :-)
DeleteIts a very innovative and colorful way to stop Plagiarism Suchi.. But then, you are one of the most creative people I have seen :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Nupur :-)
DeleteSuchi , not really a free publicity since most of these photo thieves copy and paste both photo and the recipe on their page :P So , most of their ( retarded ) followers don't feel the need to click the link , that is , if the crazy git also posted the link ugh ! Just love your ORIGINAL watermark :D Way better and aesthetically pleasing than using photo editor to watermark the photos ;D
ReplyDeleteWho's the popular blogger who copied your idea , hmmmmm tsk tsk !
Will tell you in private Anne ;-)
DeleteThis is really a nice solution. Many of us bloggers have faced this theft of pictures repeatedly, mine were even watermarked again in the name of the website owner :-/
ReplyDeleteNow that you have posted, I think getting monogrammed plates will also be a great idea..
Monogrammed plates is a good idea Sangeeta :-)
DeleteVery nice post dear...
ReplyDeleteThanks Vijayalakshmi :-)
DeleteThanks for this informative post.
ReplyDeleteDeepa
Thanks Deepa :-)
DeleteI LOVE this idea! So cute too. It's too bad people are actually doing this. Do you have automatic copyrighting on your site at least? Sigh. Good suggestions!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kimberly :-)
Deletebrilliant idea suchi.... and as always a lovely write up to voice not only yours but a concern which is confronted by most of us bloggers day in and day out....
ReplyDeleteThanks Shhh :-)
DeleteWow this is a brilliant idea. Do you mind if I try it out not that anyone is trying to steal anything from me but still I love the idea.
ReplyDeleteHi Archana, please go ahead and use the idea! :-)
DeleteSuchi, leave alone photographs, there's one blog where they have cut and pasted my entire posts, not one or two, so many, and the solution I came up was to disable the right click button, your solution is not only clever but very cute too..
ReplyDeleteThanks Hema :-)
DeleteHi Suchi, sorry to hear about this cyber thief. Love your creative ideas, so cute and pretty. I shall try it on one of my posting but sure to credit you, my dear friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this great ideas.
Have a wonderful week ahead.
Hi Amelia, hey how are you? Good to see you again. :-)
DeleteIt is an annoying problem isn't it? I love your creative solution. You are a talented illustrator.
ReplyDeleteThanks Wizzy :-)
DeleteLove the idea :) Will try on my post (with credits to you of course :) ).. Thank you for sharing
ReplyDeletethis idea is great and looks interesting.I will try too...I am having the same problem.But most of website owners crop the image and they only share the middle part of the photo,even with their water mark
ReplyDeleteAwesome idea
ReplyDeletehttp://www.followfoodiee.com/