Posts Tagged ‘stealing’
another case of stealing
[click on image for larger view]
I got a call from my cousin, Nikki, asking for some help, about a week ago. Apparently, a Multiply user was selling my cousins merchandise… Not the originals, but knock-offs. Nikki, along with a few partners own a local fashion boutique here in Manila. It started out as a sell from home type of thing, until demand for their goods rocketed. You’ve probably heard of Sapato Manila, at one time or another or perhaps passed by their store in Powerplant Mall in Rockwell. But, as most good things go, you usually get a few people that will try to ruin it for you, or take advantage in any way they can. Luckily, we were tech saavy enough to get some proof of this blatant pilfering of intellectual property.
I didn’t write anything at the time, as I didn’t want to preempt any legal steps my cousin and her partners were going to take, and we also wanted to catch the offender off guard. But I spoke to Nikki tonight, and found out they already sent their formal letter and are just deciding what course of action to take. Of course, being the curious web crawler (not the Spider-Man variety) that I am, I decided to take a peek at the offending site. Lo and behold, the albums of the merchandise were gone.
But here’s more proof, anyway (thanks to Mozilla’s Screengrab!).
[click on image for larger view]Just a little note though (as a disclaimer): not all of the items on sale in these two albums were from Sapato Manila. The others may be licensed… but, I wouldn’t bet on it.
I’ll post updates, when I hear again from my cousin. But for the rest of us, on the web or even in the regular offline retail, this should serve as a warning. There are people out there trying to make a buck out of our creativity and hard work. There are so many stories of plagiarism out there at the moment. Let’s just hope we can remain vigilant and catch the offending parties.
one giant step for photographers
Today, a giant step in protecting Philippine photographers rights has been taken. Anton Sheker, with the help of his lawyer, is suing a major Philippine daily for copyright infringement. His original post recounts of his photos being used in the offending publication and the steps he took in contacting the daily and the people involved. This was in October 2007.
Fast forward to today. Sheker’s new update reveals he has finally filed a case with the RTC. Now the rest of the (Philippine) photography world is awaiting the results.
Good luck to Mr. Sheker for his and his boldness to take on one of the oldest newspapers in the country. Lets hope his case serves as a warning to all other publications or individuals that do not respect the intellectual property of photographers and artists.
Yehey… stealing?!
While I was driving from one of my favorite eateries, I received a strange text from one of my colleagues from work. One of the articles published in Yehey had seemed to create a stir… with one blogger in particular.
The owner of the blog Twoisequaltozero accused Yehey.com of stealing his article and publishing his work without his consent. A reply was quickly placed by Biz-Dev Officer Iggy Javellana aka tarugoman, in an effort to adress the situation.
Let me, however, put this issue to rest with an official statement from the Channels Department of Yehey.
- 1. The article in question was given to Yehey by its partner MCA Universal as a routine press release / article for publication
2. The said article had no instructions to credit any source or backlink any blog
We are not in the habit of stealing content or plagiarizing any work. Nor will we ever get into that habit. I don’t want to point any fingers or place the blame on anybody, at this point, until al issues have been resolved. As of this post being published, we have removed the “offending” article, until all parties have come to a general understanding of the process of publishing any material on the web.
I have been with Yehey for 6 years, myself, and have had my work reworded and republished. Of course, I did this PR work, so understandably, my work was passed on as general info to be used and abused.
Mr. Twoisequaltozero, thank you for taking time out to clarify the situation and rectify your original post. We don’t know where the connection got lost, but we hope to avoid any similar situations in the future.
