wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: "One more site with stolen Don's panoramas"
G. Donald Bain 2005-Jan-10 18:14:00
Interesting. I am coming in late on this (Pacific Time, just arrived at
work).
It looks familiar -- the same images were illegally used back on July
30, 2004. That situation was resolved through Alex Makienko's
diplomatic communications with the web site author, who apologized and
took his site down.
The panos were carefully stolen, new thumbnails, new filenames. On my
pages they have some minimal protection through kioskmode. If you
download the movie and open it in QT Player you can still see my
copyright in the metadata. My guess is this is second generation -
taken not from my site but from the first pirate site. No honor among
thieves.
Ironically, these are very old and not very good panos. They were taken
on film in 1997. I am hoping to return to these same locations next
summer to re-photograph in high resolution digital.
This is certainly illegal, and does little good for anyone. The value
in promoting VR is minimal as these are not good examples. It does not
bring traffic to my site, as there are no links or credits. They have
some page counters that show very little traffic on their site.
If I thought someone was actually profiting from this I might try doing
something about it. If I could identify a travel agent or tour
operator doing business in Canada that would be a possibility.
But as it is I just can't see it being worth the effort. A site in
Russia would be impossible to pursue legally.
Thanks for the alert, Alex (again)! For now, we'll just watch and wait.
Don
On Jan 9, 2005, at 8:31 PM, Alex Makienko wrote:
>
> Folks,
>
> Here is a link to the page with some Don's QTVR's. I couldn't find any
> reference or author's permission.
>
> http://www.vtur.ru/country/canada/panorama.htm
>
> Alex
>
>
>
> ------
> The World-Wide Panorama
>
> For more information:
> -Visit the web site at http://GeoImages.Berkeley.edu/wwp.html
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>