I have to agree with BeckySue about the IT aspect. I won't voice any opinion about the pics since there has already been alot said.

I understand some peoples' desire to have any mention of this topic locked until the person responds, however I thought perhaps it might be time to discuss something productive that CC'ers might do to help the person (and those whose images were lifted) based on the info that Trent supplied (i.e. not based on speculation or supposition, but just going with the facts that HAVE been transmitted by the baker).

Trent mentioned something about speaking to the woman, who acknowledged that photos were put up w/o her consent and that the web designer has been unresponsive to her since March. Everyone here acknowledged that the site has not been updated since then, so that does not sound farfetched. So, how do we help her get her site fixed so that she can remove the photos that shouldn't be there anyway?

Does anyone have any knowledge of website hosting issues so that we can point her in the right direction and help her resolve this nightmare? I'm not talking about handouts, just advice or information that might be able to be passed on to show that the CC community isn't interested in making her life miserable, but that although people here want to protect their own businesses and rights, the CC community is still here to help a fellow baker, or at the least we are glad to proactively and peacefully help resolve a problem.

Just a thought.

Please. So many people have given that same response, that someone else, an assistant, whatever, put the photos up, but not them, and they had no idea, I swear!
I have a website, and happen to know every single photo on there. (And they're all mine )

ceshell has a good idea ..... after all, new as she may be, she is (or at least was) a fellow CC'er and we are all on here to help each other. If anyone has any inside scoop that may help resolve it, then I'm all for pooling our resources to help. (I mean, it would help me and the other decorators whose photo's have been lifted, too.)

summernoelle, I also agree with your statement. I recently added an ad on brides.com. They told me their staff would select photos from MY WEBSITE based on what they know will attract brides to my ad. But you can bet I was on there the very next day to see which ones they selected.

If a business prints a brochure for me and the printer makes a mistake and inadvertently puts profanity on the brochure, I can't throw up my hands with zero responsibility because I didn't print it. My brochure .... my responsibility to ensure everything is correct.

Not passing judgement .... just sharing the proper way to run a business.

Right. I'm not trying to open up a debate as to the veracity of the statement. The issues of right and wrong and who is to blame (which have been pretty well covered in the locked thread) shouldn't have any bearing upon the issue of getting the photos removed.

To return to the facts, there is a problem involving many here at CC whose photos have been lifted. Does anyone here have any resources to help the baker get them removed? If it turns out the baker's statements about her web designer are false, then we can say "Well, at least we tried to help resolve this based upon the information she gave us."

If she registered her own domain - like with godaddy or register.com then she should have the power to go to the domain registraar and change the DNS server so that her domain points to another page temporarily or doesn't point anywhere and then an error page will come up when someone types in her url. I'd be happy with that until she can get her webmaster on the ball.

But if she really had someone else do her site then they might have registered the domain too and if she doesn't know the passwords she is powerless again. Not a good situation to let yourself get into.

I'm sceptical about the story about someone else doing her site because don't most professionals put their name on the sites that they do? I didn't see anyone's name on her site.

Thanks Debi, please do let us know what you find out.

The domain is registered through GoDaddy:

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc.
Domain Name: MYCAKEEXPRESSIONS.COM
Created on: 22-Oct-06
Expires on: 23-Oct-07

While I was searching for this Wendy has already posted the technical solution. Michele is listed as both the administrative and technical contact on the GoDaddy registration.

FYI - Merchantcircle has been informed of the situation and they have promised to contact Cake Expressions and ask them to remove the photographs immediately. They will attempt to contact the owner via email and telephone as quickly as possible.

If she doesn't know how to take them down herself, Merchantcircle certainly does and will, if she makes that clear to them.

I was told I would hear back as soon as that happens, and of course, I will post it here.

Ginger

see her response on the other (locked) thread.

There has been a response in the other thread... perhaps you should all read it.

I just saw a cake made by pinkbunny, it's the Whimsy Flowers w/a Bee!!

This is it: http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Cake.Expressions.620-341-9017

Since I don't have her screen name and can't "defend" my posts directly to her in response to her mails to Stephanie I'll do it here because I'm sure she's reading this one as well.

As for the death threats against you and your family, it was taken completely out of context and was a figure of speach if the person reporting everything to you and yourself had been around to read the other thread you would of both understood what I meant by "taking out back and being shot" it was strictly a figure of speech and not an actual death threat against you or your family. The "attacks" on you being a single parent, I never attack you about that, but I did say it was a shotty excuse for lack of things being done to correct this issue that you've known about since March. And just for the record I'm not sure if everyone that called you gave you their name and/or screen name... I did not call you and waste my time arguing with you about something that is obviously beyond your control right now, I was not directly affected by this as many people that posted on the locked thread weren't affected but still voiced their opinion. I'm not saying I regret what was said because it needed to be said, what I do regret is that someone took it upon themselves to report to you everything that was being said and took my words out of context and made it seem as though I was threatening you and your children. I'm sorry that there is such a brown noser on this site that they would have to put someone else in the line of fire when there is no need for that.

Becky aka OhMyGoodies

Now if someone does know her screen name since Stephanie didn't post it I can't direct this to her, but you can feel free to forward my post to her and if she'd like to contact me she can do so.

I have to finally throw in my 2 cents!

I don't understand why it is so hard for everyone to believe that this woman was taken advantage of what seems like a big con game done by someone claiming to be a website designer. I haven't finished reading all the answers hear but I really am saddened by how fast everybody jumped down her throat, on her back, and all over her website.

She made, what seems to me to be, an honest mistake in trusting someone to do what she couldn't do. They took off with her hard earned money and left her holding a website that may be the end of her cake reputation. I understand that you guys are upset....it all comes down to the credit where credit is due that flies around here every so often... but I don't understand why we "can't believe she didn't know about the pictures"!! PEOPLE ARE CONNED ALL THE TIME!!

I have avoided getting into any of these threads because I didn't want to get dumped into the boiling oil, but I have been reading along, and now that the 'alleged offender' has given her response I just have one question... if you hire a company to create your website, wouldn't you provide them with a disc of images that you chose? I mean, who hands over their entire laptop to a stranger so they can build your website? I am just asking because I have not heard of that practice before and think it sounds pretty risky. Something like THIS could happen. I wonder if she ever got her computer back. Trent mentioned that she couldn't respond because she didn't have a computer at home. Maybe this is why.

I agree that any personal attacks about her abilities, etc. do not help this situation at all. I am not making any personal judgments on her, I am simply questioning the validity of her reply. If she DID in fact do that, it was a poor decision, and I am sad that she has been put in this position. If that is just a poor cop-out, it's been used before as many have already mentioned. I know that I personally created and maintain my website, but if someone is not computer savvy enough to create and maintain it themselves, or if they are simply too busy, they do owe it to themselves to visit it occasionally and make sure they are not getting set up for this kind of trouble.

I hope no one jumps my butt for getting involved, I tried to stay out of it, but I certainly question that one thing. Maybe someone else can shed some light on that for me! Thanks!

Not to mention at least one response on the merchent circle is so nasty I would hate for my clients or customers to see it and know I wrote it!