Thread: silvextribal.com stole my photographers pics

just saw this on her tweet:

http://twitter.com/khphotographics

the store that stole her pics:
Welcome to our online store - Silvex Tribal

u can clearly see these are her pics here:
http://www.khphotographicsstudio.com/

just go through dancers or w/e and u can see them.

ughh

click on 'website', 'gallery', 'portraits and people' then 'bellydance stars'

The photos are very pretty... But what happened exactly?

that online store stole my photographer's pics...somehow they copied and pasted some pics and put it up on their website...
they didn't ask her for the permission nor did they credit any of her work. nor did the dancers give permission to use those pictures to begin with (this company looks like its based out of the UK, all those dancers are local here in orlando)

you mean they're not the authors of the photos?

silvextribal.com stole the pictures featured on khphotographics.com
those are HER pictures (kristen) not the silvextribal store.
idk how they got the pics (nor does she) but kristen had no idea of how they got them because they didn't get her permission and they didn't credit her. they just stuck her pics of her clients on their website

Has she contacted them directly?

I'd say it's time to start an email campaign and alert them to the fact that dancers don't want to buy from unethical sites and alert them to threads like this which will (if everyone makes a stink) hurt business.

If this company is related to the Silvex which we have talked about before, this doesn't surprise me. Because the other Silvex stole designs including some of J'es's veils.

{{{HUGS}}}

Woah! Takes nerve!!!


How'd you find out?

I agree with Ozma, raise a stink!!! I wouldn't want to buy from them! Are they giving the impression that the made the ALL the comstumes in the gallery?
I can't access the site, to see for myself.

i emailed her for the full story but no, i don't think the products the dancers wear are from this company because one of the dancers does not link this company under her website as where she gets her supplies

i found out trough her twitter page which i just randomly happened to check after she sent me teaser pics of a photoshoot we did recently

and i can't see the rest of the items in the store b/c i think u need an account but their whole homepage slideshow is plastered w/her photos

I'm pretty sure that she could, if she wanted, especially after a cease and desist letter (which I think should be first), take em to court. Not that there would be a lot of money in that, but copyright is copyright and maybe the threat would make them pay attention. Maybe she could watermark her pics in the future? It is really hard to prevent someone from just copying and pasting (my hubby is a photographer so he is really careful) but it might be harder for them to use her photos. And I'm pretty sure that the models would also have to have signed a release saying they allowed their images to be used to sell said merchandise...

this is what she says:
"I saw your post, thanks so much!!!! Well, at about 2:30 this morning I got an email from my good friend XX of XYZ and she told me that a student of hers went to purchase some items from this site and asked if XX endorsed them since her image was all over it!!! She was like "ummmmm NOOOOOO". She called me frantic and then I didnt sleep. They completely stole my images from who knows where since they get posted everywhere, as well as another professional photographers images (to which I have already contacted him) and other ones from XX's site. I immediately called PPA (Professional Photographers of America) and they are on top of it. I pay a yearly fee for membership and it covers me when I need help like this. The website hosting company has been contacted and ordered to shut the site down until it is resolved but it may take several days. If the man (yes, its one man) does not comply then he gets a nice (not really) phone call from he US Government. So this should hopefully be taken care of rather quickly. But pass the word around NEVER to order from these people!!! They are all over tribe as being a horrible seller and they have been apparently known to have done this before. A friend of mine heard about what happened and she called the phone number on the site. When she told him how she felt he denied it (of course) saying that a client gave them to him with copyright permissions....which of course is not true at all to say the least.

So lets put this guy out and make sure he never does this again!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for your help and support girl!!!!!!!!!!!!"

she does put her signature at the bottom of her pics but apparently those were cut out.

Why doesn't the photographer watermark her photos?

oh good! What a great reason to belong to a guild, you get backup!

Originally Posted by gretchendances

Why doesn't the photographer watermark her photos?

idk but it wasn't just her photos that were taken. you can see some in action shots from another photographer and even those were plastered all over the website.

This is funny, not haha but strange. He uploads photos of dancers wearing costumes he doesn't sell? I know this happens but it's so distracting to enter a site and see something you really want only to realize it's NOT available! I wonder how he stays in business. Oh, I know. He probably steals just about everything he can.

lol i know, right? how in the world did he expect to make business of these pictures anyway when he'd just be producing faulty products that don't even resemble the pictures??
ultimate FAIL (sorry, too much failblog lol)

Originally Posted by zfejzic

that online store stole my photographer's pics...somehow they copied and pasted some pics and put it up on their website...
they didn't ask her for the permission nor did they credit any of her work. nor did the dancers give permission to use those pictures to begin with (this company looks like its based out of the UK, all those dancers are local here in orlando)

It obviously has contacts in the UK and Germany but from what I can acertain the company is based in Pakistan. In a lot of the discussion in the past on different forum there was comment on the cheap prices and high shipping so that would make sense.

yah i saw that they were based in Pakistan after doing a quick search on tribe.net
is this company related to silvex.org?

Originally Posted by zfejzic

yah i saw that they were based in Pakistan after doing a quick search on tribe.net
is this company related to silvex.org?

Silvex?? - Bellydancer Boycotts-No mugs required - tribe.net

I knew I had read about the someone..it's here. Read especially Lyndsey's experience and I think the lady from Scarlett's lounge mentions they steal photos. A firm to be avoided I think.

yea, Kristen from khphotographics emailed me to let me know I was one of the other photographers they stole photos from

Not as easy to get them pulled I suppose when it's someone based overseas and the lawyers seem to have trouble contacting the company and they don't have accurate US or UK biz info lined up.

Kinda sucks when this crap happens.

Originally Posted by gretchendances

Why doesn't the photographer watermark her photos?

When I was doing dancer photos, I came to hate watermarking. It really makes some shots a hash, and unless you have an app that automates the process, it's a big pain in the butt.

Yes, the protection against swiping is potent, but there's a question of how far should one have to go to make that happen?

Yea, I've noticed it doesn't always stop it unless you put a watermark across it so ugly the whole picture looks like crap. So I usually just try to make sure not to post huge files that can be usefull for creating big prints online and post a copyright on the picture.

But obviously silvex just crops out and ignore the copyright and uses the images for small decoration on their site.

thanks for chiming in jeremy. i was wondering who the other photographer was! i see their site is still up...errr :(

Originally Posted by Asim

When I was doing dancer photos, I came to hate watermarking. It really makes some shots a hash, and unless you have an app that automates the process, it's a big pain in the butt.

Yes, the protection against swiping is potent, but there's a question of how far should one have to go to make that happen?

You can create a action in Photoshop to create a watermark. You can also create a brush that is your watermark as well. (a little tip I learn in Photoshop World a few years back).

Originally Posted by zfejzic

thanks for chiming in jeremy. i was wondering who the other photographer was! i see their site is still up...errr :(

Yea, neither me, her or the lawyers have had luck getting in touch with them. Hopefully the lawyers can do something with the hosting site about it, but might take more time that way.

Originally Posted by Mayliz

This is funny, not haha but strange. He uploads photos of dancers wearing costumes he doesn't sell? I know this happens but it's so distracting to enter a site and see something you really want only to realize it's NOT available! I wonder how he stays in business. Oh, I know. He probably steals just about everything he can.

It's not the costumes but the ornaments that are on the costumes. This is not the first time this dude has done this. He has stiffed many dancers out of their money as well. He has sold crap jewelry for good money - stuff that is not pictured on the web site. The dude's a pig.

I had a similar issue. A vendor on Ebay was taking my costume pictures (from my site) and selling them as their designs. I sent them an email everyday. After the 5th email, I got a response - apology - and they removed the pictures.

Start with contact first. Then move to lawyers but things can get tricky if you deal with someone overseas.

My photo taker was a company in China who purchased the pictures from a image supplier in China.

Sad, but true. I learn of more and more vendors who take pictures of good costumes and post them on their site as ávailable for purchase'. I have caught a few too, and posted about it. That is why you have to really investigate who you're handing hundreds of $ too ( several countries away at that). Yay for sites like this!! ..l;,

Hey all!!! So sorry it took me so long to create an account and chime in. Actually I am still battling with everyone on this and PPA (Professional Photographers of America) has told me they did all they can do. The site owner has been contacted, the website hosting company has been contacted...and to no avail. They have reccommended that I sue them. These idiots own silvextribal.com and silvex.org. I invite you to spread the word even more about these people so NO ONE orders from them!!!! Thanks for all of youe posts everyone! And a special thanks to my fabulous model Zana for the original post!!!!

PS. I do watermark all of my images and display them in low resolution, they cropped out the watermark.

Love Kristen
KHphotographics, international wedding and portrait photographer, located in Central Florida