Flickr, you are the vehicle for grossness!
UPDATE: 24 June 2010- "She" has become a "he" and has deleted all our photos from his Flickr. Hooray! He has also changed his focus from a leather skirt fan to a communist hero fan.
Just a big alert to my fellow fashion bloggers that someone on Flickr is using our photos for nefarious use. A super huge thanks to Suze for alerting me to this.
It's no secret that there are a bunch of skeezes on Flickr. I no longer do wardrobe_remix or tag my photos with descriptions anymore because of this. I've posted on this topic before and even gave instructions on how to block a Flickr user, which subsequently removes your photos from their favorites and prevents them from seeing your photos.
But this is getting out of hand. This user, who actually claims to be female, has stolen our photos, uploaded them to her own Flickr account, and then added them to various fetish groups. Because she's claiming these as her own, she's even allowed to license our images to Getty Images. Screenshot:
Her followers have been able to favorite these photos since they are out of our control (because they are on her account instead of ours). She has 124 photos uploaded, and I just looked through every page. At least 90 of them belong to fashion bloggers. I'm in there! So is Rebecca and Elizabeth and Krystal! If you've ever worn leather, you're probably in there, too!
So here's what you can do about it if you are a Flickr user.
1. Check out this icky person's Flickr account and see if you're on their photostream. Bookmark the URL's.
2. Leave a comment on your photo telling them that they are illegally using your photograph.
3. If possible, take a screenshot of your comment with the URL of the photo.
4. Save this photo for your records.
5. [MOST IMPORTANT] Go to the Flickr report abuse page.
6. Choose: "OTHER CONCERNS" at the very bottom.
7. Write a quick note with URL's of the photos that they've stolen. Mine said:
One of my blog readers alerted me that my photos (as well as several other well known fashion bloggers) have had photos stolen off our own, personal flickr pages and reuploaded to this person's account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50741641@N03/page2/This means we cannot simply block them since they are claiming rights to our images and using them for nefarious groups and blogs. I feel violated and I want this person's whole Flickr to be taken away.
I am a Flickr pro member and I have been on Flickr since its inception. I am sickened that I cannot contact this person directly to have them remove my photos from their fetish groups.
Images that are specifically mine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50741641@N03/4721633351/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50741641@N03/4721632923/I literally see 93 (of 124 photos) that belong to my blogger friends. When a user uploads our photos as theirs we cannot prevent others from also adding it to their fetish groups. This makes me sick! Please let me know how this will be resolved ASAP.
Thank you.
-Indiana Adams
8. Spread this information on your own fashion blogs so we can make sure to get people like this shut down as soon as possible.
9. If you are not a Flickr user and/ or you would like to take an additional step, go to the Yahoo Copyright and Intellectual Property Page and follow their very specific instructions there.
