Sorry to start the morning off negatively, but I need to vent. Loyal readers, this does not apply to you. It probably doesn’t apply to anyone reading Cookie Madness at the moment, but I need to vent.
Photo stealers users. If you want to use Cookie Madness photos, feel free. But please, please, please, don’t put your name by the photo and say it’s yours. I’d appreciate a link, but you don’t even have to do that. Just put “Photo Credit: Cookie Madness”.
That means YOU, person who posted it on allrecipes.com.
And you know what? If you are going to post someone else’s photo, at least match it with the correct cake. That is a photo of Food &Wine’s (most excellent) Applesauce Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake. It does not match the cake you posted it next to. So along with stealing my photo, you are misrepresenting the cake.
Phew, I feel better now. Hopefully allrecipes.com will remove the photo and I can delete my rant.
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Honestly. Some people’s mothers just didn’t teach them good manners.
Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
Why are some people so dumb? “Look what I made all by myself with my amazing baking skills!!”
Very dumb. I’m sorry you have to put up with stuff like this.
Wow! Not only did she(?) steal the photo, she credited herself as photographer.
DAMN. That takes some kind of rumballs!
I think you’re right to be ticked. I hope Allrecipes takes it down for you.
Have you considered a watermark to help guard against stupidity? It’s an extra step for you, but it might be worth saving yourself some hair-pulling later. It’s easy to do in any photo editing software that uses layers.
)
I don’t blame you for the rant – down with the photo-stealers!!!
That is rude! You deserve to rant. And your pie looks delcious.
Ugh! I am coming out of my lurkerhood to say, “That really stinks!” You put so much time and energy into having a nice blog, Anna! I can’t believe that someone would be so rude! You deserve to rant! I’m ranting, too!
What a shame! Why would anyone do something like that? I’m sorry to hear about your situation!
That is SO ANNOYING. Do you read Allie’s Answers? She recently had an issue with CBS (or was it ABC?) stealing something she posted on her blog. What jerks.
That’s outrageous–did you write the website a complaint?
I can’t believe someone would do that. Well actually, yes I can. Sad.
Aw Anna. I’m so sorry this happened! You are so unbelievably giving and generous with your time and talent on this blog. It’s insulting that someone would take advantage of your talent and generosity and falsely represent it as their own.
I hope you can find a way to prevent further theft of that sort.
that would make me really annoyed, too. your recipe doesn’t even have walnuts or chocolate frosting on it like the stealer’s recipe claims is in the cake recipe. what an airhead. powdered sugar isn’t even in her recipe but it’s on “her” cake? people these days.
That’s awful and I am sorry it happened to you, Anna. I don’t understand people that do that.
Anna, I’m a long-time reader/viewer/admirer of Cookiemadness but have never commented before. Your post today has prompted my response. I teach pre-service, language arts teachers at a large university, and today we will be discussing how to teach academic integrity and the ethical use of sources to middle and high school students.
Your post underscores the significance of the issues. Many internet users (from the very young to the older-and-should-know-better) have a difficult time distinguishing between copyrighted material and common knowledege. They assume that because something is posted on the web, they can use it in any way they choose. However, even if a text (be it a photograph, a recipe, an article, a song or whatever) is open source, it is still copyrighted and therefore must be attributed to an author/creator.
Thanks for bringing copyright to our collective attention. I’m going to use your post as an example in class — I promise to give you credit
Nathalie
You don’t deserve this. All she had to do was ask and give you credit.
Your photographs are top notch (photographing food is hard). I am kind of surprised it hasn’t happened sooner. Maybe it has and you don’t know it.
I like the idea of a watermark.
I wasn’t me! jk
Ooh, I’d be upset, too. Give credit where credit is due! Hope it all works out for you.
Is it Jenny at Picky Palate who I noticed watermarks her photos? Smart idea.
I’m behind you all the way!
Hi Anna,
Sorry it happened to you; I know you put a lot of time and effort in making the rest of us happy with your blog. I have to believe the actions of those who steal/cheat/lie will come back to bite them.
Yes, it is Jenny who watermarks her photos.
Yes, there are tracking systems and ways you can watermark photos. I just don’t want it to come to that
.
wow! I didn’t even know people would do something like that! How Rude!!!!!
It’s one thing to steal someone’s photo, but why would you post it for a different recipe? Doesn’t look like the recipe creator and photo poster are the same. Some people have WAY too much time on their hands!
Bah! I hope they take the picture down!
I really don’t get why people do this things…
Wow, the audacity…I actually took a photo of my rosemary shortbread and was STOKED when All Recipes put it up as the main photo…stealing surely can’t give you the same great feeling. You are defintely right to be mad!
That is truly horrible Anna, I’m so sorry that someone would do such a thing. I will represent you if you ever decide to sue for infringement! (A little over the top, I know..but this is unacceptable).
I’m sorry that happened – and impressed that you caught it! Allrecipes may be in the process of removing the picture, because I keep getting an error when I try to click on the photo to view the photo gallery.
Kimberly, if you posted your rosemary shortbread photo within the past few days, I voted for it!
Fairly recently I had somebody steal about 3 posts (and pictures which even had copyrights on them, visible) and put them on his new blog. He did put a link to my website, but in reading it you would think it was his original piece. I gave him a piece of my mind via email. Because he had links all over the page (to products I mentioned in my write-up) I assume he’s getting paid by some food distributor to “advertise” the food products. So rather than write up something himself, he just took other blog posts. A few weeks earlier I had someone else (a woman) steal one of my posts and reading hers, you’d think her name was Carolyn. She’s stolen a few other posts (other people’s blog stories) too in addition to mine. I let her know it was NOT okay, and I noticed a few days later that her website was “down.”
pretty sharp of you to have caught it.
the cropping she did on it is just god-awful
oh weird: when i looked at the AllRecipes link 2 minutes ago, the photo was there. when i went back 2 minutes later (IE, at 7:50 p.m.), it was gone. pouf!
i think you should leave the rant up. it’s good to raise consciousness about the photo situation
That’s just wrong. I did link to allrecipes and the photo is still there for now. I just recently started working on a food blog, but have not been able to photograph everything yet… I would rather do without a photo (which I hate…usually if there isnt one, I wont even read the post), then to steal someone elses.
What the heck?? Grr..
I’m new to your blog, it’s wonderful, how sad about your photo. Please don’t let it stop your work on your blog