Flickr-Deep in Thievery
Many thanks to Elysium Eilde, a RESPECTED and talented SL photographer, fashion designer and blogger, for pointing this person out to the SL community. This kind of thing should not be tolerated; least of all when it is being paid for by an unsuspecting public.
There is a new Flickr thief in town tonight and her name is Alyana Ying.
Miss Ying, hereafter known as “the thief”, was discovered today by Elysium Eilde to be ripping a good bit of her client work from Deviant Art and Renderosity artists. A few examples of the theft (more examples can be seen here and here):
All of these examples are what are called “morphs” in the SL Flickr community today: the pasting of an avatar face onto another photo/body. While that’s all well and good (despite how awkward it looks), these particular morphs are done on copywritten works, with neither permission by NOR credit given to the original artist. And to add insult to injury: the thief has been paid for these pictures, by SL models who unknowingly accepted her “photography” services.
The current pricing of the thief’s photography (direct from her profile):
- Individual 3D Pictures (profile, etc) —> 1000L per picture
- Individual Pictures (Not 3D style.) —> 800L Close ups and 1500L full body
- Couples Pictures —> 2500L
- Groups Pictures —> 1000L per individual in picture
- Contest Entry Pictures —> $1500
- Portfolio Pictures (Not a set) —> 1000L – per picture Full SL/1500L per picture 3D style.
I would strongly encourage all of you who PAID for these pictures (and any of you who KNOW people whom have paid for these pictures) to not only request a refund but also AR this person for scamming you out of your Lindens by selling you work she legally had no right to sell.
If you are friends with any of these people, they have unfortunately been scammed by this so-called “photographer”:
Removed
Meghindo Romano
Sariella Ashton
Tempest Rosca
Lovena Allen
Removed
Malika Marville
Gerry Susanowa
Removed
And again, thank you to Elysium Eilde for her endless efforts in bettering the SL photography community and continuing to make SL beautiful with her work, both photography and design. If you are going to pay for SL photography, be sure you are getting what you pay for. Originality, hard work, and unique beauty. Check out Ely’s flickr stream here.
On a closing note, I will say one more thing: ignorance of the law does not make it okay, and someone will ALWAYS notice. Don’t be an idiot. You are belittling yourself, you are insulting the artist, and you are pissing off the REAL SL photographers that work hard at what they do well. And with how competitive this industry is, believe me – you do not want to make enemies. Kthxbai.
I’m so glad you blogged this, you know I like to keep my own fashion/photography blog pretty neutral.
I do want to mention that although I had seen this “photographer’s” theft before, this kind of thing is so prevalent that after one comment of mine got deleted, I pretty much forgot about it. Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t just go looking for trouble ;)
…but today, this “artist” had the nerve to message me in SL to ask me where I got the background images I use in my photos. I noticed who she was and I could not contain myself, replying “all of the content of my photos comes from within SL, unlike you, who steals from Deviant Art”.
She then logged off and blocked me from commenting on her flickr. Yeah, I went to plurk, and I made it as public as I knew how. This is totally unacceptable and the SL photography/fashion community needs to know.
-ely
p.s. <3 Ryker for linking to all my stuff!
OMG thats disgusting :0
Tempest Rosca has she been notified? If not i will do so…geez…
Ty for blogging this!
Oh bloody hell. One day, I cant extactly remember when, she just IM me (I didnt know abt her or was in my friendlist) asking if I like a picture made. First I thought that it was strange to just IM me and ask if I need a picture (I then later realised thats what she does). I said humm..am a photographer myself and why should I need a picture. But okay, since you asked, then why not. She showed me few examples and as naive as I was, I said “wow” and she tp me. Then she took some pics but said then that it cost 500 L per picture, then I said ohh..I thought u did for free..humm..errm…let me think abt that and I left. Then again later she asked me if I need picture, I said no not atm and I start to feel that there s something smelling abt it especially when she dropped a nc with her new pricelist. I deleted it and now omg I think damn why did I not suspect before…Thank you Ryker and Ely for this and stop her!! This is my story how she does and am sure she did same to many other who has paid her – damn it.
Amen, finally someone has blown the cover on these so called photographers. I have been saying this to a few fellow photographers I know that is just disgusting and wrong. It is just down right cheating and the amount they charge for these type of pictures are ridiculous, I was contacted by Alyana Ling once asking if I wanted a picture done by her. I politely told her no, guess she doesn’t realize that I am photographer in sl and am very much against morphing. This to me just means that these photographers don’t have skills much past cutting and pasting onto someone’s work. This type of work gives us decent and honest photographers a bad name, I am glad she was finally exposed. Kudos to you Elysium.
Good news! Fygomatic says he’ll be reporting her for copyright violation. :) http://tinypaste.com/65b63
@Sysy: Yes! All the models have been notified. :D
i have for a while wanted to start up a wall of shame blog for these sorts of people plaguing our photography community… maybe we should… i’m really disgusted to see that this one not only was a thief of art, but a thief of money, as she scammed these poor folks out of their L$…
Thing is all stuff on deviantart is usable as stock options unless of course mentioned specifically by the artists. And in most cases, the artists’ creation is also using the stocks of other users. So when u use deviantart stocks it is best to credit back. and not steal outright.
@dittany that is totally INCORRECT… not everything on deviant art is stock! only things posted in the resources>stock photos are concidered stock and free to use within the original providers limitations. you cannot just take someone’s artwork and claim it as stock because its on deviant art. deviant art is not a stock photo repository it is an art gallery website.
I think that taking a pic out of a magazine and putting your sl face on it is totally wrong. Do any photographers in SL actually write to playboy, maxium or any other magazines and ask for permission to use these pics? I do not think so. But this is just my opinion, I know there are several very talented people in SL and they do not need to use anothers pic to make there work better, it stands out all on its own.
Hi! I just got word back from Flickr.
“Thank you for contacting Yahoo! The reported material appears to have
been removed or disabled.”
It looks like she wiped out her site before the law arrived. I’m sure she’ll be spotted if she tries to pop up under a different name.
And as noted, dittany’s comment is completely wrong.
Thanks guys!
I am totally upset about finding my name on your website without being contacted first. A notecard advising me of what you had found out would have been nice, instead of me finding this on here on my own accord. It is unfortunate there are people out there doing this, but I am sure none of the girls listed had any idea at the time their photos were taken. I will be deleting these from my collection of photos on flickr. It is great to advise everyone about this, but please….next time you find something out, please, please, send a notice to them before posting. TYVM ;)
30 1907259798
Date: 09/09/2009 21:24:30
Give Inventory
Destination: Melonie Romano
L$0
You were contacted, along with the rest of the models. Perhaps you discarded the note card. :)
Thanx Ryker and Ely for the heads-up and the notecard advising us of the situation. All pictures have been removed and I’m disgusted that I (we, even) have all been part of this! I was approached the same as manner as Aleida but Aleida was smart – I paid the for the pics!! You live and learn but I’ll certainly be on my guard in future! Thanx for your support x
Temp x
Im sorry but I am not the only one who did not receive a notice, I also did not give approval to list my name on your website, Please immediately remove my name and photo from here. tyvm
I was only aware of this when Melonie Romano, another girl on the list, IM’d me AND send me a notecard about it. I am a business owner and getting notecards is part of the job so I don’t delete any notecards. This would have been nice to know BEFORE I see my name on a list of people scammed. I’d appreciate it if you’d take my name off the list as well but the thought was appreciated.
Thank you very much for letting us know about this. I received the notecard just fine in SL, and have already deleted my photos from my flickr account…did that immediately. I am very discouraged to find out she is a theif, and appreciate very much your letting us know. You’re more than welcome to leave my name on the list, it isn’t doing any harm by having it there…not like we did anything wrong at all. Thanks again for letting us know!
sorry if I came across as yelling, but I just cannot believe people do this on SL causing trouble… thank you for finding this out.
Вообще, честно говоря, комментарии тут гораздо любопытнейсамих постов. (Не в обиду автору, конечно :))