A little matter of ethics....
Some months ago, browsing over PBase galleries I stumbled upon a gallery
composed of various photos taken from Internet, you know that presumed “silly” and “funny” stuff
which one keeps on receiving by email from work colleagues.
Among those bad quality web pictures there was also a series of good pictures,
which I recognized immediately, because they were of an Italian artist I know.
Of course there was not any slight mention of the real author.
I wrote privately to the gallery owner telling him that one of PBase rules
is that PBase members are supposed to post only photos they have really taken by themselves
and that there is something called copyright to respect.
I wrote simply like that, privately, without any other expression which might sound less than polite.
The guy wrote me back by PBase mail with offensive and rough words,
which translated in a more civilized way might mean that
he could do what he wanted and I had to not poke my nose in his business.
I had not reported him to PBase management,
I had not done anything, and I had simply told him privately that his attitude was not fair.
I didn’t answer his raving PBase mail. I don’t look for nasty discussions with anyone.
Then, a few days later I checked for the Italian artist’s I know sake and I found out the guy had deleted his gallery.
I forgot this irrelevant matter.
Today, browsing casually over the last updated galleries page I found out that
always the same guy had posted a similar gallery again.
I checked to see if among his “jokes” he had posted any photo under copyright
and this time I found that he posted, as his own,
a photo taken by a respectable and talented member of PBase, Marcel de Jong.
I wrote again to him privately to ask him to stop posting others’ photos without mentioning the credits either,
but I discovered that he had put me in his blacklist to not allow my comments (bad conscience?).
So I decided to post that in the forum instead
Here is the link to the original by Marcel de Jong
http://www.pbase.com/image/34563718
and here is the link to the photo the guy posted in his gallery
http://www.pbase.com/monminou/image/106945588
I know it’s just a little matter of principle without importance, but....
Best regards to all
Marisa