With the seed and plant listings gearing up for the fall and winter selling season sellers will be looking for images to use to sell their products.
Previously, I used a small custom text for a watermark and All Rights Reserved for my images here at ATP. After seeing several sellers using my images that were posted to the ATP Database with All Rights Reserved and this small watermark on The Lily Auction (and even other websites!!!) last winter, I changed my watermark this year. Several of last winters sellers were clever, cropping the images so tightly the smaller watermark was cut off. Some were bold enough to not even bother with the cropping and stole the image displaying my watermark right on their auction listing or website. Other sellers asked me before using my images. These sellers were given permission, emailed images without watermarks and many times, a choice of several images of the same cultivar to choose from. All the while creating an exchange of trust and friendship. This year I changed my watermark settings and all my 2015 images have been posted with the larger watermark including Copyright(c) 2015 by Char.
On the bottom of every page in The Lily Auction is a User's Agreement which clearly states the use of images in a sellers auction listing.
http://www.daylily.com/auction...
A few days ago while sipping my morning coffee and looking at the new listings on the LA, I saw an image that looked familiar..... Yup, one of my brand spanking new 2015 images.... complete with the copyright watermark from ATP.
The theft of images may seem like a small thing not worth bothering with in today's world of images posted everywhere on the internet. To me, sharing images you took in your garden with others is one thing. Someone stealing other peoples copyright images for their personal monetary gain is another.
