A week ago, I was shocked to see this page on a popular website. The photo of samosas which has been conveniently posted alongside the ‘Tikka Samosa’ recipe is mine and taken from this blog.It was posted under the title Chicken and corn samosa on July 9,2014.
What infuriated me was instead of giving due credit (forget being decent enough to link it), they mention the source as Chef Jalal Haider. Chef Jalal haider is a celebrity in his own right and definitely doesn’t need to borrow some one else’s work. So, I thought it must have been a mistake and mailed him……No response.
Then I posted a polite comment on the pages (the picture was published on two pages and garnered about 16000 views in all)…….No response.
I posted comments again and every time the comments got deleted.
If it was a personal blog, maybe I would have ignored it. But for God’s sake it is a popular website with scores of sponsors. The picture they are fooling the viewers and the sponsors with doesn’t even have the filling they claim it does.It has chicken and corn in it because it took me a day’s labor, planning,shopping,sweating it out in the kitchen,displaying it,photographing it, writing a post and finally publishing it. It may look like I am ranting on something so trivial but I am sure each and every one of my fellow food bloggers can feel the pain.
They still have the picture on two of their pages:
This is the image posted by me on July 9, 2014 on this blog:
I still have the table place mat and the serving basket:
The Solution to Picture Theft:
I was new to blogging then and did not know about the importance of water marking the pictures. But now I do.
Please watermark the pictures published by you. Make them as prominent as you can without making the photo look bad. After all it’s your hard work and you can’t let it get stolen from right under your nose.
- Learn how to water mark your photos
- You can find some useful tips on Blogmaven.com
Better late than never 😦
Aromas and Flavors from my Kitchen 
I’m sorry to hear this – particularly as it’s ‘big business’ doing it as they should know better. I hope you’re able to either get the photos removed or correctly credited.
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The point is they are so thick skinned that despite so many gentle reminders they chose to play deaf and dumb. A big business website lacks basic ethics. What a pity!!
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Arent you in the us – cant you get a lawyer on it on a fee for success basis. Just a thought? Or write to the sponsors directly – they probably have legal departments too? Just some thoughts? Or you could tweet about it 🙂
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I am thinking about it. They are so thick skinned that all my comments and protests are falling on deaf ears. I’m planning to mail this post link to the sponsors first. Lets see what happens. Thank you for the support and sharing my anger 👍
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good, I applaud you, shouldnt take this lying down I don’t think, email the sponsors first and take it from there, seems that it should be easy to solve it
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I guess the only bright side is that your photos are so good that they are worthy of being stolen! Congrats on the great work, it’s something those of us new to taking pictures of our creations are envious of.
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Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words. It is the silver lining in the cloud. Otherwise their audacity is really annoying. And of course you have a beautiful blog with a delicious display. I so much love to visit your blog 👍☺
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Yup sad how people are
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😕😟
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I’m sorry this happens
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Unfortunately this pilfering menace must be much more than we think it is.
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It’s just part of blogging. Don’t fret. It’s still not right though.
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I am quite okay now Stephy though when I first saw it I was extremely annoyed ☺
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Wow! Good to know
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Thank you 👍
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Thanks so much Ana for providing all of this info and I am sorry this happened to you. I am sure it happens often (twice with me) and I have never water marked any photos until now. I use Picasa and wish there was an easy way to water mark all of my previous pictures. I have been concerned as my entire blog has been viewed in one day on a number of times and many, many pictures looked at (over 3 years worth!). Thanks again… 🙂
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You are welcome Judi. I have seen so many beautiful blogs of friends and readers which are unprotected and vulnerable to theft and piracy. I didn’t want any of their precious pictures pilfered that’s why I put up the post. Looks like a lot of ranting and raving from my end.
Its very sad that it happened with you twice. Watermarking is very easy. You can download the free app easily on your phone or computer and make a signature mark of your name or your blog logo and save it. Every photo you click will be marked automatically. Just try it Judi. But yes the problem is with marking the previous pics. Its quite a pain. Even I am thinking of some easy way. Maybe tempt my girl with some reward (she is collecting all of Harry Potters and Wimpy kids nowadays ) if she helps me with the huge task 😉
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This is great information! Thanks so much for sharing. I need to start water marking my photos.
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Thank you dear ☺ Please do. Better to be safe than sorry.
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So sorry to hear this 😦 Any new developments? I keep saying I should watermark my photos but never “have time” to do it…
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Thank you Miia. I have been extremely busy this past month to pursue on the matter. And these people are thick skinned. Inspite of umpteen reminders they have not responded. Now I am getting a hitch that most of their pictures on the website are all stolen😉 Let them be with their stolen glory. On the safe side it is always advisable to take our own precautions. I have watermarking apps on my phone. And it hardly takes 5 seconds to add the mark. So please safeguard your hard work.
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Sad to hear that! irritating too. But yeah, I know, there comes a point when you may say to yourself what the heck, let them dwell in their dishonesty and you decide to move on!
I take photos with my Canon and I am not very tech savvy, so watermarking would add extra work to me… hmm
Have a lovely Sunday! Raining here.
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You too enjoy your Sunday Miia 👍☺☔💧💧
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Great post! I recently had a photo pilfered and I’m a pretty crappy photographer. Now I’m going to go through your links and figure out how to watermark!
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Thank you so much for liking the post. I think we all need to safeguard our hardwork 😉
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Really this is the very nice blog.I like this blog very much.All of the items looking very beautiful and tasteful decorated .
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Thank you so much for your kind words.
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I found several of my photos posted on other sites too, some for restaurant dishes. Only one site had a link back to my page. I’ll read the link you have for watermark thanks. There is so much to learn!
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It is really heart breaking to see our passion and efforts being stolen. But on the brighter side- they were worthy of being stolen. 🙂 All the best with the water marking thing. Better safe than sorry
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By the way your samosas do look yummy. I would have to check that post next.
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haha!! Thanks a lot.
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Its so sad. Yes, I know how much work goes into posting one single post. And you dont expect that from famous chefs blogs. It is very sad. I have to start watermarking mine from now on. Subbed.
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Always watermark photos you share on the web. It serves as a deterrent when people come across your photos on image search engines like Google Image Search. There are tools like Mass Watermark that can add text or logo watermark to your photo collection in bulk with minimal effort. Have a look at it.
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