Dear Vikas at BloggingPet,

While it’s great to read rat information in your article, I’m rather surprised to see one of my images (Bramble in a hat) being used without permission here. This image is copyright and my copyright splash has obviously been deliberately erased from the image for your use.

I’m usually happy to give permission for my images to be used for pet rat articles, as long as I am asked first and my copyright information is included. However, this particular image is the logo for my website and my Australian registered business, and as such I do not allow it to be used by anyone for any purpose.

Please remove my image asap. I’d appreciate a reply to let me know that this has been done.

Thanks,
Robyn
The Dapper Rat: http://www.dapper.com.au

Very nice article but not considered good etiquete to steal someones elses photo without permission and erase their copy write. the rat is a dapper rat

Hi - Yes, unfortunately for you, the picture you stole is from about the best, most comprehensive rat Web site ever. Please stop violating Robyn’s copyright! The photos on her site are fabulous, and I would be *very* upset if she stopped sharing them based on this kind of abuse.

Hi Vikas,

I too would be very upset if you had used a picture of mine without permission. Please remove Robyn’s stolen picture from your site. And please ask permission before you just pick a picture from anywhere. This is not good netiquette.

I agree with the others. It’s in very poor taste to do what you did.
if you had asked Robyn I’m sure you would have had it with her blessings..But oh no,you had to steal it and manipulate it to your ends.
Because of this,I have no intention of coming here again.
Shame on you.

M

I am happy that you are giving rats their due as pets... but the image of the rat wearing the hat is a very good friend of mine and I see her copyright has been removed... big mistake!

There is a LARGE pet rat culture out here...and we are ALL very upset at this infringement on our friend.

I do believe you have lost alot of pet rat enthusiasts because of your illegal use of that particular photo.

ASK first.

Thank you for promoting rats in a positive manner, but please remove the Dapper Rat picture. It’s a shame you chose to use this image without permission - very bad netiquette on your part.

I also know the owner of this rat. Please remove it immediately. Internet image theft is not good for your business. Two THOUSAND people worldwide now now that this has happened.

As I understand it copyright theft is a very serious - and expensive - business.

Let me quote you from your own Terms of Use link at the top of the page

”Do not post material that infringes copyright.”

Don’t you think it’s time you put your own house in order?

I would suggest you remove this photo before Robyn starts to think about consulting a solicitor.

Artists beware! This site steals copywrited graphics!

Good grief! How could you do this! AND delibretly erasing the copyright! (you missed a spot, bozo) You’ve made VERY bad career move here

The totally adorable rat photo belongs to someone else whose permission you did not ask. You ought to make amends pronto. Because you have violated your own terms of use, how then can anything else on your site be trusted?

The rat world is big, but small enough of a community to be aware of your copyright infringement and poor judgement. Nearly 2000 people have been immediately notified of your wrongful use of this photo. Did you think that no one would notice?

Your taste in photographs is excellent. It’s obvious that the same cannot be said about your ethics (or your editing skills).

Try asking next time.

Please remove the picture and apologize. Rats need ALL the positive public relations that they can get, and this definitely doesn’t help. There are tons of rattie folks out there that would be willing to let you use a picture, but ASK first, and give credit for the picture where credit is due.

Please remove the pirated image from your website and make amends to its rightful copyright owner, Robyn Arthur, of The Dapper Rat. Rattie owners and lovers are a fair minded, kind community, and will support you when you become fair minded and kind yourself.

Until then, you are leaving yourself open for complaints to your domain and any sponsors you may have, (which can cause your site to be closed,) as well as lawsuits and really bad karma.

Please keep your website honest and helpful- it’s better for you, it’s better for the community, and it’s better for the ratties.

Thank you.

Hummm, you took this photo of Bramble without permission. fits the definition of stollen to me. I wonder what else you have stollen.

hummm, there goes your credibility; maybe you’re really a snake person.

It was very wrong of you to steal that photo. Rats need all the GOOD PR they can get, but not from someone who’s ethics are severely compromised. Please take the image down and apologize to Robyn. She is dead serious about protecting her copyright...

Is it your normal practice to steal other’s work? Did you not think that people would see this and not comment? OH, obviously you didn’t THINK!

I can’t understand what is the ruckus about copyrights here. If the image used was copyrighted, then it should have been explicitly mentioned.

As I see, the image in your homepage doesn’t carry any such message.

I would also like to know the details of your image’s copyright. It would be very interesting to see if at all the image is copyrighted or not and if it is so, was it copyrighted before the posting of the picture here in BloggingPet.

Hi.

Again, thanks for the nice little article.

Unfortunately, many of us pet rat lovers are upset because Robyn’s pictures and website are a great resource for us and an excellent example of why we all love ratties. As such, please do as she asked and take that photo down.

I know you’ve now acknowledged her for the photograph, but because it is actually her logo, I believe she requested it to be taken down and not used any longer, so please do so. Thank you!

Jonty - the image that was taken wasn’t the one on the homepage of the website, which has a blue outline and no explicit copyright splash, but one from another page within the site that explicitly has (c) The Dapper Rat written on it, and that copyright splash was deliberately removed.

Not only that, but Robyn explicitly states on her website that ”All photographs, graphics and text on this website are Copyright © The Dapper Rat, 2000-2005. All rights reserved.” and asks that people request permission before using any images or content on the website.

Besides, in the Internet, you can never be sure of where the image was taken from. There may be several hundred copies of your images doing rounds here that can be picked up from anywhere. Like, if someone picks up the image from here, what will you tell him. The Internet is a community, everything is shared free (like viewing your image) or there is a price for it (like pay for view as it happens in pornographic sites).

Anyway, if Vikas picked it up from your site, it is like picking up something from a public domain. There is no question of lebeling him as a thief.

The concept of copyrights in Internet, especially image copyrights is a very tricky and ambiguous matter. Merely changing the size of the image or a little editing can defeat all the copyright bounds.

However, I fully appreciate your point here as well, Vikas could have done well by giving you due credits for the image. You MUST get the credits for anything that’s the result of your work

Thanks Vikas for removing my image.

Jonty, I’m not sure if you’re aware but *all* artistic works (including photos) have automatic copyright for their owner. Anyone posting/publishing an image on the internet should be aware of that.

All of the images on my website have a copyright splash on them, except for my homepage logo. In addition, The Dapper Rat homepage and every other webpage on my site also has the copyright information at the bottom of the page.

Usually I don’t mind people using my images with my permission. But with the splash removed from this particular image, it could have been downloaded by anyone and used anywhere without trace. THAT is my main concern. That my image has been used without permission is annoying, but using it without it’s copyright splash is serious.

Robyn
The Dapper Rat: http:/www.dapper.com.au