Image Theft And Identity Theft In One Fell Swoop

On January 4th I published a blog post regarding this image that had been stolen from my Feathered Photography galleries.  My copyright had been removed and replaced with the logo of someone else and the image was posted on Facebook under the name of Alessandro Pinna  (I’m appalled at the poor quality of this version due to overcompression…)     As I reported before, I filed a DMCA takedown notice with Facebook and the image was removed the next day.  But many other images on that FB account had been stolen and the comment section was brimming with vitriol and extreme anger.  Justifiably so. It turns out that the real Alessandro Pinna has apparently been the victim of identity theft on FB and is innocent in this entire matter.  Yesterday, he posted this police report on his website.  I then posted the link to the police report on a FB group I belong to that is dedicated to dealing with image theft.  At that time I was yet unsure about what was really going on. Then today, I received the following email from the real Alessandro Pinna (quoted with permission).  He had seen both my blog post and the fact that I had posted the police report to the FB group. Dear Ron,    I am writing to you because I just found out you guys are mentioning my name and my website on your blog. I just wanted to confirm it’s my name this guy has stolen and so I had to start the process to defend myself and clear…

Continue reading

Behaving Badly On Antelope Island

Mia and I spend an inordinate amount of time on Antelope Island photographing birds so naturally we run across a lot of other folks out there enjoying that wonderful place too – hikers, photographers, campers, swimmers, educational groups and everyday sightseers to name a few.   Most of the people who visit the island seem to be considerate of others and mindful of the regulations in place that are meant to make a visit to the island an enjoyable experience for all and protect the natural assets of this jewel in the middle of the Great Salt Lake.   There are glaring exceptions though and occasionally (all too often) we see folks doing things that leave us shaking our heads in bewilderment. I decided to post about this issue in the hope that it might be a reminder to some of the “fringe element” who may be considering a visit to the island that if you flaunt the rules you may pay a price. Where recognizable, faces have been blurred in these photos.  If the image file numbers (seen by passing your cursor over the photo) don’t seem to make logical, sequential sense it’s because I used multiple cameras and lenses for the images.     Last Friday morning as we left Bridger Bay Campground we noticed that this guy in a Jeep had decided to go for a cross-country joy ride across the prairie grasses to get a closer look at a couple of bison, despite the fact that they’re nearly always easy to find right next to the road.  In the foreground you can see the…

Continue reading