Yet another dishonest use of stolen photos...

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 25th July 13, 05:08 PM

It was brought to my attention today that one of my own photographs was being used to advertise goods from.... well I don't really need to tell you where they are from, do I? The same location that always is the culprit when people report stolen photos being used for false advertising.

In this case the company's name is D. Z. Music and the image in question is one of my in my Harris Tweed sherrifmuir doublet. Here is the offending page:
http://www.dzwmusicco.com/index/sher...l-doublet.html

The doublet in the photo is my own, hanging in my closet as we speak. It is made from Harris Tweed cloth. I had a tailor in Glasgow make it to my specifications. Same with the waistcoat.

The buttons have been photoshopped, presumably to match the description of "arounded nickel plated chrome thistle buttons" on the web site. But the image is most definitely mine.

Here is the original.

Here is their version.

Note the link below this doublet is to a velvet doublet, the image of which is one I believe JSFMCLEANJR has posted on here before.

While there is very little I can do about this other than to email them demanding they remove the image (which I have done), I decided to post here just as a warning.

Folks, these producers of cheap imitation Scottish Highland Dress items from Pakistan do this all the time. The not only rip off designs from other companies and individuals, they happily use stolen photos they find while surfing online. I believe they troll sites like this and use Google image searches to find the images they use for their web catalogs. Why? Because if they showed images of their own products they would never sell.

I know plenty of people like to give their business to these companies because they can offer such a low price for their goods. I can only encourage you to think twice before giving your money to companies with this kind of business ethic.

**artificer** · 25th July 13, 05:18 PM

Sorry to hear this, Matt. But at least you're in good company

- You and Sandy are right there with images stolen from Kinloch Anderson and the now defunct Highland Clans.
They were kind enough to slap their watermark all over Sandy's pic, too.

Thieves suck.

ith:

**Hopper250** · 25th July 13, 05:24 PM

That really sucks, but you did point out a way to spot that they might be stolen images.

**unixken** · 25th July 13, 05:40 PM

In this case, it's easy to spot the photoshopping of the buttons. The buttons on your original photo don't all face "eyes front", squarely at the camera. Several of them show as eliptical in shape, due to perspective.. where as every button on the copy are all front-facing perfect circles lacking any perspective. Just copy/paste jobs. Sloppy.

**OC Richard** · 25th July 13, 07:06 PM

bummer!

I had one of my photos stolen recently. It's a photo of three of my Highland pipes, Highland pipes in three different sizes (Great Highland Bagpipes, "Halfsize or Reel pipes", and Highland smallpipes). It was used by some guy in China (not, in fact, Israel) for a fake Ebay listing. It was hilarious, he had no idea what the photo represented and had a goofy invented description. I and several other pipers contacted Ebay that it was a bogus listing and Ebay pulled it, to their credit. Here it is

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Scottish-Mil...51307690458%26

Here's the original photo, taken (like so many of my photos) on a piece of handwoven Welsh fabric. The Ebay scammer didn't bother to alter the photo at all

**creagdhubh** · 25th July 13, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by artificer

Sorry to hear this, Matt. But at least you're in good company

- You and Sandy are right there with images stolen from Kinloch Anderson and the now defunct Highland Clans.
They were kind enough to slap their watermark all over Sandy's pic, too.

Thieves suck.

ith:

A big plus one!!!

**Father Bill** · 25th July 13, 07:27 PM

Scum always smells.

**RockyR** · 25th July 13, 07:40 PM

I just looked through their site, Matt. I see 5 of our suppliers I can identify quickly that have their products ripped off. They also copied our firefighter kilt pin (poorly). No ethics. No innovation. Simple rip off artists and they're proud to be. I just don't get it.

**seanachie** · 25th July 13, 08:15 PM

Hopefully some of this will spark a bit of conscience. I do not believe all Pakistani merchants are unscrupulous nor all merchants in Scotland pillars of virtue. Nonetheless I have seen many threads over time showing people giving their custom to these less than stellar merchants. My wardrobe has increased slowly over time but I feel reasonably confident that their are no items whose pedigree would bring me shame. I try to frequent merchants who are members here as much as possible.