Al-Qabas newspaper steals pictures from local flickr users
If you turn to page 48 of todays issue of Al-Qabas newspaper (March 27), you will see a lanscape picture of Kuwait taken by Cajie, an extremely talented amateur photographer. The problem is, Al-Qabas used his picture without his consent. They didn’t email him or try to contact him to seek permission to use his picture. Instead of trying to support a local amateur photographer by at least crediting him, they instead resorted to stealing his picture and not giving him proper credit. Here is the original picture [Link]
Also turns out this is not the first time Al-Qabas have stolen a picture from a flickr user, here is another example. [Link]
And thats not all! Here is even another example! [Link]
If any reader knows someone at Al-Qabas please bring it to their attention that what they are doing is wrong.
Picture above taken by Q8e.
Print
Email
Related Entries
Cruise Campus magazine also steals pictures
Al-Rifai Crash Conspiracy
No more KFC for me thank you
Upgrade to Flickr Pro using Knet
Eureka selling iPhone for KD400 and stealing other peoples artwork
37 Comments, add your own...
1. WINGS | March 27th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
cant u sue em? omg i cant belive a local newspaper is doin tht :|
2. ra | March 27th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
well u can go there and talk to them about it, Maybe, im not so sure, find a big shot there and tell them what happened.
3. noony | March 27th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
In our country ethical issues are almost always ignored,but I hope that changes soon .that sort of thing would never happen in europe.
4. rehan | March 27th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
rightly pointed out mark.In a country which is already morally screwed ,then this is simply a drop in the ocean.
5. Holla | March 27th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Wow al qabas is so tech-savvy they have discovered the internet.
they prob have this overpaid kuwaiti faggot shabab or underpaid egggyptian nerdy idiot ‘researshhhhing the interbenet’ to get them this ‘exclusive’ content.
fuck al qabas, it’s just a c-list local paper that ppl use to wipe off bird shit with.
6. EniGma | March 27th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
all of these r stolen from Cajie, I think.
SUE THEIR ASSES CAJIE!
7. Marzouq | March 27th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Thats really screwed up! I can’t believe they are blantantly doing this! Did Cajie contact them yet?
8. Iona | March 27th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
it happens in the UK all the time too because most publications know people can’t be bothered to take them to the small claims court etc. Don’t accept just a credit either or an apology, they pay for every photo in the paper from agencies or staff photographers so demand payment for each and every photo they’ve used in the past. It’s their job to ensure all images are either paid for or copyright free before being used. I’ve worked as a pro photographer in the UK for 6 years and had photos in almost every paper/magazine and this kind of stuff pisses me off so much. They’ll try and say because you’re an amateur you should be grateful for the exposure, but if your photos are good enough to take up a whole page then they’re good enough for them to pay for. You should also all go down together as this would make a much stronger case and more likely to recieve payment.
9. me | March 27th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Welcome to the third world!
10. soso | March 27th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
let him contact them, and they will use his name next time. That’s all he can do. And yaaa it happens all the time.
11. Qaiss | March 28th, 2007 at 2:12 am
one alwatan news paper even edited an image of an audiance to make the place look more crowded, never trust kuwaiti news paper!
12. bo9agr | March 28th, 2007 at 2:14 am
where are you Cajie?? do something !!
13. Q | March 28th, 2007 at 2:43 am
dammit this really pissed me off!
Mark Im going to post about it too on my blog in Arabic hope you dont mind..
14. nQ | March 28th, 2007 at 3:49 am
:O
yaaa 3aaiybo!
15. moocherx | March 28th, 2007 at 5:15 am
Do they have a rival newspaper who would love the opportunity to write a scathing attack on it’s competitor’s theft of photos from the net? This is Kuwait - trying to sue only ends up with someone getting their passport stamped “no entry” on the way out!
But public humiliation by another newspaper might work.
16. carlsb3rg | March 28th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Alqabas is certainly better than the other sheikh ass-kissing newspapers.
and also, if you contact alqabas and tell them about it, they will write a correction in one of the next issues about it in a small column with the titel “Tanweeh”.
17. Frankom | March 28th, 2007 at 7:37 am
:: A good reason why i keep my name on my pictures :)
18. cajie | March 28th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Thanks Mark, for posting this on the blog, and highlighting the issue of respectable newspapers resorting to quick and fast methods of acquiring copyrighted material. Perhaps they are under the impression that whatever is placed on the web is free to use and feedback like this will make them aware of intellectual property rights.
As most of you said, there’s not really much I can do about this, as it can get really messy (mostly for me :))
I have done all that I reasonably could - which is send them an email highlighting the infringement.
19. Anonymous Coward | March 28th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Let me ask you this before you all go talking about copyrights and intellectual property:
How many of you have bought pirated playstation games or pirated movies? how many of you are using genuine windows/office/photoshop?
20. Financy | March 28th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Cajie , i think its an action of few egyptian editors , and not the management and the owner of the newspaper.
go meet the owner of the newspaper and print out ur pictures and show him . maybe he would end up giving u 400 k.d to shut u up
or if you want to be smart , go to Alrai newspaper and show them this , they would be VERY happy to know this
21. zaydoun | March 28th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Yes it sucks… but thanks for pointing out the actual article. I need to read it ASAP!
22. sabah | March 28th, 2007 at 10:49 am
That seriously sucks! I hope you raise the issue with them cajie.
23. Rejoys | March 28th, 2007 at 10:50 am
This is really bad.
My support goes to cajie.
24. Rejoys | March 28th, 2007 at 10:55 am
They shouldn’t have done this to anybody.
Fight Cajie fight
i dont really see a problem of getting this messy for you.
what can they do.
May be this will stirr up and make a turning point in Kuwait copyright rules. which you will be proud of later in the life.
25. Biohazard | March 28th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
I suggest taking the low road and calling a rival newspaper and seeing if they’re interested in such a story, if not, then go to alqabas and just see how things are. Even if they say “DOH! won’t do it again, sowwie!” in the email they’ll probably send you.
26. skm | March 28th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
holla … wayhik yal ghali
27. Slip Stream | March 28th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
It would be interesting to hear everyone’s reply to Anonymous Coward…instead of the standard “oh my god! How Could This BE? You should Sue”…
the A-Coward does have a point….Be morally in-check before giving out advice.
28. HBZ | March 28th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
an email is not enough if you think that they stole it .. u can take an appointment with Mr. waled Alnusif and talk to him about it I’m sure he’ll understand and you’ll find a way to solve it
29. Bashar | March 28th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Very nice proof, not surprised at all. We have seen politicians steal articles from other writers, I know Al-Watan took the same university election results from a website and posted them without any reference credit.
If we were in US, things would have been difference and half those news papers won’t stand court cases.
30. moayad | March 28th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Here is an update for you Mark:
——————————–
Al Qabas released this tasteless announcement few days after publishing the second picture (the one by Creativesam.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/q80ano/427995324/
Al Qabsas are not the only ones doing it..
There is another Bazzar-style magazine called Cruise Campus which constructed the front page of one of their issues with 14 stolen pictures !
http://flickr.com/groups/muslimz/discuss/72157600001845482/
One of the photographers called them to complain, they told him that they got the pictures from a CD they got from Al Watan newspaper! So it looks like there are people making money from others hard work!!
It is a complicated and serious matter, and I thank you for talking about it here.
32. Mathew | March 28th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
This has happened before. Some members have resorted to reducing resolution and slapping ugly watermarks on their pics to prevent theft
33. Tan Go | March 28th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
cajie, i am guilty as well ~ friends who left Kuwait asked some pics of the country and i did download some of yours and send them; but i did give them your URL… how bad does that make me?
lot of pics of Kuwait on flickr but your’s were the more interseting…
34. Cajie | March 29th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Tan Go,
It doesn’t make you bad at all!!! and I enjoy when people like my work and use it for their websites, desktop background etc.
I already responded to a similar query on the forums
http://248am.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2385
All my pictures are tagged under a CC (Creative commons) licence and I encourage people to download and use them. That includes companies & organizations, as long as they are for non-commercial use. It is for this reason you will find my pictures with a high resolution without any watermarks. The idea is to share and learn from each other.
35. sam | March 29th, 2007 at 9:28 am
guys something happen to me also ! i wrote to them regarding the illegal issue and they did say sorry for it :)
check this out
http://www.flickr.com/photos/q80ano/423896157/?#comment72157600033909124
36. holla | March 29th, 2007 at 9:53 am
skm…isal umuk 3anah :D
37. roro | March 29th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Cajie, making the distinction sets things clearly. Non-profit use is awesome. I hope you hear back from them. If they don’t have a photographer on staff, they should at least credit your work in the paper. Especially if this is becoming routine. Follow up, it’s your work :)
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
Commenting Rules: Any comments that are personal attacks towards other users will be deleted. You are also not allowed to post with the name Mark or Nat since that might cause confusion. Finally, no advertising is allowed, you can't advertise your products or websites here unless its beneficial to the topic thats being discussed. One more thing: We are not responsible for readers comments!