Hey guys. I thought i might help abit here. I am first a photographer and cake person second. If you took the picture it is your picture. UNLESS you gave her permission to use it or you are getting commissions of her using that image she can not by law use it without YOUR consent. What she is doing is against the law. She is taking big chances by doing this.

jennywaldon you took the words right out of my text. lol.. I took some photography classes and what Jenny said is correct. When you, yourself, take a photo it is automatically copyrighted. You do not have to file for a copyright on it. Hence, copying someone's photo and using it on your website is copyright infringement. If you research, you might can find a link on the goverment copyright where you can file a complaint with them. I filed a complaint against a credit card company once. It's worth checking into. I hope this helps.

jennywaldon you took the words right out of my text. lol.. I took some photography classes and what Jenny said is correct. When you, yourself, take a photo it is automatically copyrighted. You do not have to file for a copyright on it. Hence, copying someone's photo and using it on your website is copyright infringement. If you research, you might can find a link on the goverment copyright where you can file a complaint with them. I filed a complaint against a credit card company once. It's worth checking into. I hope this helps.

CarolynGwen

I agree with your choice to not publish your photos on the 'Net. If anyone looked at the dates on the last photos I entered here on CC, they would see that it is well over a year since I put anything on. And those flower projects were done in August and October of 2006, during classes I attended.

I do not sell cakes, and do not have the opportunity to do fancy cakes very often. I won't say that my work is worth stealing, but if someone is desperate enough, they will steal anybody's work and publish it as their own.

Theresa

I just wanted to check in and tell you guys that I have gotten SO many PMs saying "My cake is on there, I've asked them to remove it, and they aren't responding to emails, and it's still there".

Not only did they repost the photos, but they are ignoring the owners of the cakes and refusing to remove the pics when asked.

I have no interest in harming their business or trying to put them out of business, or whatever. I am happy for them to keep making cakes, BUT, I don't think they should do it with others pics! They need to act with morals!

Here is my moral dilemma:
Should I continue to keep this private? Advice would be great-I JUST DONT WANT THEM TO BE HARRASSED OR THREATENED IN ANY WAY. Basically what I said in my first post. But this battle is too big for one person.

I would like to see the site. I doubt any of pictures have been taken, but it would be nice to know. The last couple f these threads I saw that posted the site, it wasn't long before the site came down. I don't know if they were threatened or not but I think a flood of calls and emails might cause them to cease a desist.

Ummmm, all anybody has to do is look at your other posts to find the original thread, and the website is still posted there.

I really think people should hammer their web host, since the thief has no morals at all. She is using stolen photos expressly against the photos' owners' permission on a COMMERCIAL, MONEY-MAKING website.

That is illegal as hell.

Is that that Betty person cake website ?

I know they can look at the other thread.
I also know that in all other cases the site came down right away. But these people went through that, the hounding, people being very mean, etc, and they kept them up anyway.
I really don't want to subject them to that, though.
Also, since I am no longer involved (my photos are down), I don't want to be the person responsible for opening those flood gates again.

Oh, and fondantgirl-no it's not Betty. This is a different one. There was two in about a week!

Just an idea - but does anyone out there have an attorney friend/family member willing to write a letter on behalf of all those whose pictures are posted? Maybe something "formal" will force them to take the pics down and not repost them.

If thats not possible I would repost that site - they did this to themselves! If they are big enough to post things that don't belong to them, they should be big enough to handle the consequences - whatever they may be!

I cannot believe that they are just ignoring requests by the photo owners!!

How do you find out who the host is?

The disclaimer that says not all cakes are "referred as our own" is not even in the gallery.

She clearly does not care that she is being deceitful, so I can only have so much sympathy. As in none.

First time around, not having a clue people might get mad - fine, understand, no problem. But to take them down - only to PUT THEM BACK UP AGAIN??? Sorry, deceitful and WRONG.

Wow...There are a lot of CC cakes on there. It is a shame. Now I know the person is reading this, so I am going to suggest something. Go ahead and invest in some cake dummies and decorate those to help boost your amount of photos you can show potential clients. You can even copy designs here and do your own. No one (some) get upset over that.
P.S. How come no one steals my pictures? ...Just joking.

Here is a thought -- I work for a real estate / estate attorney (no court work at all!). However, his daughter (also an attorney) works for the Attorney Generals office and is in charge of "Consumer Complaints". She has told me several times that all complaints that they receive are handled and checked into by their office.

Why don't you contact the Attorney General's office of your state and talk with an attorney there and see what they say and/or suggest?

Ya know -- I might not be afraid of a bunch of hate emails -- but I guarantee you if I received a letter with the signature of the Attorney General of my state on it telling me that I am breaking the law -- I would definitely take notice of that and start minding my manners!!

This would probably be much easier and more effective that getting a regular attorney write a letter.

Suze

In the spirit of the current situation, I am stealing Carolyn's idea....more info coming shortly.

I have seen the website, and the funniest thing about it is that none of the pictures are the same. Once you start taking pictures of your cakes you develop a certain style to it. Maybe you take your photo in the same place in your house, or you always put a border around it, you can even tell if the person taking the photo is tall or short by the angle that the cake is sitting.

NO TWO pictures are the same on her site!! Some are very artfully done, some are horribly out of focus, some have that border, some are taken from a low standpoint, and some are taken from a high standpoint. You can definitely tell that all of these photos werent taken by her.

It's sad that in this world a person has to resort to thievery and deciet to get 'ahead' in the world. My portfolio is not grand by any means, but I dont pad it with photos that are not my own. I tell people that if I dont have what they are looking for, to reasearch and find their own picture and bring it to me.

Shame on this lady for stealing your hard work, your time away from your families, and your creativity. And Summer you are by NO MEANS to blame for other posters harassing her, as is their right. She stole their livelyhood, and she should be harassed.

There are steps to take if you really are upset and angry about this. First let her know that she has posted one of your photos without permission and if your specific photo is not removed in a timely manner that you will be forced to go through other avenues to see that your photo is removed from her site, because it is posted WITHOUT your permission. If the photos are still not removed, I would then go to the Better Business Bureau, and start your complaints there. Then I would also contact the web host, and complain there as well. You can even go so far as to call your state's Dept. of Agriculture and complain there as well. Be prepared to follow it through, because once you go down this road, and start getting legalese, she might very well fight fire with fire.

I wish you all the best of luck.

I would really like to see the web site.

does cake central have a disclaimer or something in the terms of agreement when you sign up to be a member that warns against taking photos?

I think I saw a cake by pinkcakebox.com on her site too! none of mine though (not suprised

I've not seen the website nor do i know of which one it is- and i seriously doubt any of mine are on there but if anyone knows they are, please let me know i'll consider any silence as good news (grins)

Okay, so I've been following this thread as I do some of the others with the mind set of "I wish I was good enough for someone to steal my photos and I wouldn't be that upset about it."

So I went back into Summer's old posts to find the website, found it, went to it...she stole one of my photos too! And not even one of my better ones!

And you know what? I'm upset about it.

I'm LOLing at the OTHER stolen pictures website.

But I just have to say, I find it really funny or maybe sad, that the other thread blossomed to 15 pages rather quickly of people angry at us for being upset at this person for stealing our pictures. Members DEFENDING this person. And now, that's it's PROVEN that this person is deceitful, and a thief, all those people that were so quick to yell at us for being angry are no where to be found. No "Hey, you guys were right, that's pretty scummy."

People so quick to yell at us, but then once the truth comes out, they're not so vocal anymore!

And then you have the people that are posting in this tread, that care and want to help. I just have to say, because of people like THAT, Cake Central is an AMAZING place.


Props to SummerNoelle for being so calm about this, and trying to help everyone out.

I would just like to say .... give her some more time.... at this point a few days to give her time to act on the removal won't hurt anyone. After a few days then, if you are one, and only if you are one of the cake stolen "victims" do another contact. I get that we all want to protect our cake buddies. And if I ever have to have somebody get my back you can bet I sure as heck want it to be my cake central buddies.....

Just my two pennies here...

After the heat that this photo thief faced a week or so ago, if they think that a disclaimer will protect them, then they need a lawyer for advice and not a webmaster.

If this person TRULY wanted to "do right", they would create a separate photo gallery entitled "Designs to Inspire" or something similar, and write a quick title to the page that would state something like "The following labeled gallery contains publicly published photos from other decorators from whom MTJC requested and received permission to post. MTJC did not produce these cakes, but we can use them as inspiration for your cake if you like the design"

Then, hat in hand, they should start ASKING PERMISSION from decorators before posting. Although I doubt any CC'ers at this point would grant permission, MTJC could start anew with some other random decorators.

That would be an honorable, possibly redeeming, thing to do instead of what they actually did. Jmo...

My cakes are not on their revised site, though, so I won't be contacting them.

Another thing I just thought of and tested it to be true. This person doesn't have to be a CC'er to get the pics from this site.

Some computers, like Macs, have the ability to transfer a pic you see online right onto your Desktop just by clicking and pulling it over.

I was shopping for bunkbeds for my daughters and saw a few I liked on different sites. So that's what I'd do so that I could take another look at the pics without having to log in, go all the way back to the sites I saw them at and search for them all over again.

**I AM NOT THE PIC THIEF. Just stating that you don't have to be a member to take things off the home page where the highlighted cakes are. I just tested my theory, right before I wrote this post. I was able to slide a cake onto my desktop just like that. (yes, I deleted it from my desktop afterwards. )

In looking at the site, something about it seems strange in itself. No phone numbers - email only. Was there a phone number or business address before? I can't remember.

Also, it says they take Visa, Mastercard, etc. The site does not look professional and it does not look like a legitimate business to take credit cards.

I almost wonder if it is just a scam site. Perhaps they take orders, take deposits, and don't even deliver cakes. Who knows - but besides just stealing pics, everything about it screams "SHADY"!