Thanks you for your prompt response!
airport-data.com/images/airc … 155498.jpg
flightaware.com/photos/view/phot … rt07;o=113
One of the links are above.
But I don’t think it should be up to me to police this site.
Are you going to suspend the user that has been doing this?
Thanks again
Best Regards,
Geez! It’s not up to the FlightAware staff to police the photos.
With hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures on FlightAware, do you truly expect the FlightAware staff to look at each and every picture and then search the web for the picture?
If you are so concerned that your pictures might appear someplace other than where you posted them then please do yourself a service and remove all of your pictures from the Internet.
I think the current system of photographers identifying their purloined pictures is the best system.
Why don’t you volunteer to police the pictures. Look at each picture uploaded to FlightAware then go to each of the gazillion sites that have aviation photos on them. Then, look at each picture to determine if it was wrongly uploaded.
There should be a system in place where a person is prohibited from uploading pictures. I don’t know about suspending the person from FlightAware, though.
BlueDharma,
I agree 100% that if the copyright mark is taken off, you should have the photo removed. However, unless you taking pictures of aircraft is your sole source of income, is it really worth the fight? They are pictures. Again, if the poster is taking credit, sure, have the photo removed, but if the mark is left on the photo, and someone put it on FA, again, think of it as free advertising and really think if it is worth the fight.
All of that being said, I believe that the vast majority of complaints have centered around the same poster you mentioned. I don’t think, as a poster on the forums, he has been around in a while, and when he was, he typically complained about FA (again, not taking the time to look up all of the posts, just going off of memory, so I could be wrong). Should be be suspended from FA? No. Be stripped of the rights to post photos? Absolutely.
I am on the other end of the deal. There is a picture out there of the plane I regularly fly in, and is owned by a family member. However, because of the copyright stamp on the picture, I can’t upload it to be used on the aircraft info page. Personally, I think that is crap since it is my family’s aircraft, but, such is life, and it isn’t worth the argument as to if I should be able to use it without the permission of the photographer (which, technically, it is a picture of me since I was in the right seat on the day the photo was taken, but that is neither here nor there).
Basically, to me, it comes down to this. The FA staff (or gurus) put the photos area up because it was a frequently requested feature, and since it is a side part of the main function of FA, it is more for the entertainment of the users than a main business function of FA. Because of that, they may not see the need to police the photo area all the time, but, as shown by mduell, if you happen to see one of your photos by chance, let them know and they will take it down. I would do it in a PM rather than on here, though.
You are right in your frustration with the poster for taking the copyright markings off the photos, but, again, unless it is a primary source of income for you, taking it beyond asking to have it taken down really isn’t worth the fight.
Damiross, thanks for the dialog on this.
The world wide web? No.
The FlightAware site? Yes.
They are resonsible for content posted on this site. Legal action may be taken (and no one needs that…) if this continues.
This is a great site.
And yes, this is a pain.
But it is not my job to hunt down thieves.
The good news is that in this case I have clearly pointed out a current thief on this site and would expect the appropriate action taken.
I did… see airport-data.com/forums/topic891.html
Damiross do you represent the FlightAware policy, or is this just your opinion?
I would be quite disappointed if this is FlightAware’s stance on photos.
If you are not FlightAware staff… then thank you for your response. 
Pika1000, Very nicely put.
Thank you for your response. It is quite reasonable.
I think that will be a great option. You are right… it is frustration.
Damiross… dude you need to take some PR lessons…
Thanks Pika1000.
BlueDharma,
Without a copyright tag on the image, there’s no reason for us to believe the user didn’t take the image. We’ll take action with users as necessary, including suspension. I’ve removed the photo you linked to.
My $0.02 if anyone cares:
The problem photographers face with images appearing on FlightAware is that when somebody submits an image to FlightAware, they agree that the image becomes property of FlightAware. That means that FlightAware can do whatever they want with the image, including sell it to anyone who is interested in buying it. So when someone submits an image that isn’t really their’s, they are transfering the copyright which does not belong to them, and the true owner of the image loses income and recognition for their work.
While the copyright owner of an image should not have to police this site (or any other), they are the only ones who can know if an image is stolen or not. If your car is stolen, the police have no way of knowing it’s stolen unless it is reported as stolen. Likewise, FlightAware has no way of knowing if an image is stolen or not. They have to assume it’s not stolen because the person who posts it says it’s theirs. Then again, FlightAware does take the extra measure of automatically removing images with watermarks and copyright notices.
Unlike the case of a stolen car, when you report an image as being stolen to FlightAware, you can take comfort in knowing that they have a 100% recovery rarte! 
Unfortunately, the only way to ensure that an image does not get stolen on the Internet is simply not to post it anywhere.
Wow, what a great analogy.
The above is the way it’s suppose to be as that is the common sense way, but then why are You Tube and other hosting websites required to screen the content for copyrighted material before it’s posted?
Seems that the copyright attorneys have put the burden of ensuring content is not copyrighted on the hosting site and not the user?
We do live in a crazy world…
Yes, that is a great analogy. You can’t know unless someone tells you.
My pictures…(the ones I know about) are gone from Flightaware.
With the copyright ripped off by cclambert it would have been impossible for them to know.
The only thing that is strange to me is that the user “cclambert07” who took them continues to have many many stolen images on his gallery.
http://flightaware.com/photos/user/cclambert07
This problem has been known about on this “thread” for quite some time. Oct 3rd???
It is not just here… but he was doing the same thing over at http://airport-data.com. Stolen content everywhere.
The admin there just removed the user and his images. Easy…
What I don’t get is why his “stolen” images… (now that it is clear…and we know he is a thief) continue to sit on this site.
see: http://www.airport-data.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2347#2347
I can not get them removed… they are not mine to remove…
but they are stolen never-the-less.
I know the http://airport-data.com admin has been sending emails to this site… but they remain.
Using the “cool analogy” (and it is a good analogy)… Once the Police know a guy steals cars… they tend to watch him… and make sure he is towing the line.
This user is no good… and clearly does not play by flightaware rules.
I don’t know why copyright attorneys have put the burden of ensuring content is not copyrighted on the hosting site. But once the hosting site knows… They should clean house. Flightaware doesn’t need this kind of ####.
Live the Good Life!
Bluedharma
Only the photographer can request pictures to be removed so the admin is wasting their time. The right thing the admin would need to do is to notify the photographer where their picture has been uploaded so the photographer can request the photo to be removed.
If the above website is the source of the problem, and when I say source, the location of photos, then what the website needs to do to help their users of the website is to put safeguards on downloading abilities.
The technology is out there to prevent downloading whether it be disable right click, disable the printscreen and such. I have worked with this technology on my job and it is an outstanding deterrent.
Locks are only there to keep the honest person out. If a person is that bent on getting a copy of a picture, there is nothing to prevent taking a digital pic of their screen and sharing it that way just as a burglar will break a flimsy glass window next to that locked door.
Doesn’t make it even close to being right, but that is the way it is in the digital world.
Suspending a user account the way this is setup here is a very minimal deterrent since all the person needs to do is re-create a new user account and upload away…
A better method for deterring uploads is once a picture has been determined to be incorrectly uploaded due to copyright measures, the webmaster should ban any future uploads by banning the IP address from where it was uploaded.
Again only a deterrent since I know of many workarounds, but something is better then nothing.
Your concerns are valid BlueDharma, but I think it would take more brute force then just suspend an account.
must be a HUGE market for airplane photos. I mean hell guys have them copyrighted.
You don’t need to apply for copyright, your photos are protected from the moment you take them as unpublished works. Just because you take a picture and put it on the web doesn’t mean that someone else can use it without your consent.
It doesn’t matter if you take pictures for fun or profit, you own the rights to them, and it is a violation of both US and international law to remove the copyright notice and republish a photo without your consent.
And the saga continues. The guy is a scumbag.
discussions.flightaware.com/view … 750934533e
Please remove the following two images from FlightAware, they have been posted without my permission:
flightaware.com/photos/view/phot … N4170P;o=0
flightaware.com/photos/view/phot … N4170P;o=1
gsharma removed the copyright notice at the bottom of the images but the watermark at the top center of the images is still present. The original copies of the images can be found at airport-data.com/aircraft/N4170P.html
This photo I posted of N2257V:
flightaware.com/photos/view/phot … est=1;o=22
was re-posted by chasepurnell:
flightaware.com/photos/view/phot … west=1;o=3
On the photo page you can see the FlightAware watermark in the thumbnails where as the watermark does not appear on photos until you click on them to enlarge them. Will you remove this re-posted photo?
Amusing; first time we’ve seen that one.
Thanks for the quick response. I’ve never seen that one either.
How would I find out the address of someone who stole my photo and posted it here without permission? It appears that this photo has gone viral… and now it is everywhere.
Is there any way I can find out the identity of the user Moxie1 and take legal action against him/her?
All I can see is the name Tim Moxon. Otherwise I will have to take the long route to take legal action.
His posting is here and has been used across the net.
http://flightaware.com/photos/view/224641-1cc8c6c15bf7e885ac2e3dc97723fc1c2a1cfc4f
such as here.
http://www.gunslot.com/pictures/n48606-akron-co-airshow
My originals are here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluedharma/sets/72157625066511952/with/4988962992/
I have done some research, and it looks like many of the stolen copies are from here.
Thanks for any help you can provide. I did have them copyrighted… and i know that they are on the internet… but he should not have erased my copyright and reposted them.
Regards,
I just posted an image that you may want to delete. I was at the Mont County Airport.
I was taking pictures and figured I would post those “someplace”. After finding this site and a particular aircraft that did not have a photo I figured I would upload it.
I did layer (watermark) it with my email address to one show it is mine and two possibly give the owner a method in which to contact me if they wanted a copy at no charge.
Its just a file and photography is a hobby of sorts. So I guess I would ask is there any way for an aircraft owner to contact someone that took a picture?
Then why no watermarks if you are the owner of the photo? Since my photo was cropped I dont think you will find the Exim data.
Thanks for your time.
(edited for spelling and addition)
** Found the photo in the Photo section (imagine that 
) and wondered if I uploaded it correctly. (thought I UL it to the aircrafts page). Also there is a description section could one put contact information there or is that just for the description of the aircraft?
Strictly my opinion and worth what it is worth:
You posted pictures on a free website so you have no expectation of getting paid for them. Other than getting this person to stop re-posting your copyrighted pictures I don’t think there would be any award since there was no monetary damage. I agree that he/she shouldn’t be erasing your copyright and then re-posting but my suggestion is a nice PM sent to Moxie1 is the best first step.
