So I signed on this morning and noticed that my reputation score had mysteriously dropped 5 points overnight. Looking into why, I discovered that the following post had my image flagged as stolen from the internet.
https://steemit.com/photography/@mattcreate/radioactive-wreck-near-chernobyl
With this message:
(68) · 10 hours ago
Doing a reverse image search, I can see this image is all over the internet and you did not take the photo. You're flagged for plagiarism.
So, what about this specific image. Is it mine? Well, I wouldn’t have gone this far if it wasn’t, now would I?
Let’s take a look first at this page...
https://plus.google.com/photos/+MattShalvatis/albums/5739782233252146561/5763097914539670290
It’s titled, “On the Pripyat River” by Matt Shalvatis. Oh, that’s me isn’t it? And the uploaded date is July 9, 2012.
Don’t agree? Well lets look at this.
Oh, it says Matt Shalvatis and Matt.Create. Together.
from https://www.flickr.com/people/mattsh/
Oh, and there's also my website, which shows both together too.
So now I've established that Matt Shalvatis and MattCreate are one and the same.
So the only way I could have stolen it is if this was something posted on the internet before July 9, 2012.
So now, can you find this exact same posted sometime before that date? Don’t worry, I can wait...
So, is this exact photo posted elsewhere on the internet? Same location, same processing? Well, let’s see.
Oh, here’s one. Here’s the link.
https://lavitauccide.blogspot.com/2013/03/il-cimitero-tecnologico-di-cernobyl.html
Scroll down the page to see it. Translate from Italian and we find out it was posted in March 2013. So he grabbed my photo and used it here. But that’s not a problem, since I released it under a creative commons license. (Though he should have credited me, but didn’t). LIke that doesn't happen a couple thousand times a day on the internet. But hey, let’s look some more. Let’s do a TinEye search.
https://tineye.com/search/e138ba42da1c8b6d9cf26c23f49e738496ee10a3/?page=3&sort=score&order=desc
Unlike Google, TinEye finds 28 images. Let’s see if I can identify them.
Most of those are from my Zazzle stores. Why it’s still showing stuff from 2013 & 2014, I don’t know. I haven’t been paying attention to my Zazzle stores lately.
1 Reddit. Don’t know how it got there, but it’s there. See above for explanation. Posted 2017, so I certainly didn’t copy that one.
2 are Google+ related. Also mine.
The rest are Flickr related. Also mine.
So, where’s the crime?
A final note:
It seems patently outrageous that somebody can just come along and slander your reputation without any proof. So how does that go again? Oh yeah. Guilty until proven innocent. I seem to remember that used to be the other way. I guess that's soooo 20th century. We do things different now.
And, let me explain for the uninitiated just how things go when you visit Chernobyl & Pripyat. You can’t just walk in or drive in on your own. (unless you enter illegally). Duh! It’s a nuclear contaminated area. You can only go with permission and under supervision. Which means you just can’t walk around anywhere you want. Might there be similar images on the internet? No doubt, because this particular wreck can only be viewed and photographed legally from one designated spot. And thousands of people have viewed this wreck from the exact same spot over the years. Yet it seems every similar photo is mine.
And here I am spending a couple of hours, on my wife's birthday no less, dispelling unwarranted charges against me. Gee thanks a lot. LIke I had nothing better to do today. 😠
So if you have real evidence, let’s see it.