Last month I wrote a detailed post on Image Thieves – Copyright Violations and in that post stated:
Sites that really make me angry? Free W a l l p a p e r sites that steal images from all over the internet and offer them for free download and many of those sites are earning income through advertisements on the pages.
At that time I knew that Palmlix.com had downloaded and used at least nine (9) of my images without my authorization, I had sent in a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) take down notification to the hosting providers and emailed the site owner whose email address I got through a WHOIS on Palmlix.com. At my request the owner did remove all of the images so I didn’t mention Palmlix.com in my previous post on Image Thieves. But I am now because I spotted twelve (12) of my images on Palmlix.com yesterday evening.
Any and all photographers who have images posted on your own web galleries or blogs should do a search on Palmlix.com. Mine were easy to locate because the owner uses “mia-mcpherson39s” for all of my stolen images but a search can be done just using mia-mcpherson as well.
Also since November 17, 2012 the owner of Palmlix.com has added advertisements for which he gets paid on his site and thus is making a financial gain from the use of every “w a l l p a p e r” image on his site which may include your images as well as the ones stolen from me.
You can see my search results on Palmlix.com for “mia-mcpherson” within the sites search engine.
Did I give the website owner permission or authorization to use and redistribute my images?
I certainly did not.
Is the owner of Palmlix.com violating the DMCA and infringing on my copyright?
He certainly is.
I know that the disclaimer the owner has in place at the bottom of each page is difficult to read because the font is so tiny, I don’t wonder why it is so freaking small, but I want to discuss what the owner says in that disclaimer.
All w a l l p a p e r s and backgrounds found here are believed to be in the “public domain”. All of the images displayed are of unknown origin. We do not intend to infringe any legitimate intellectual right, artistic rights or copyright. If you are the rightful owner of any of the pictures/w a l l p a p e r s posted here, and you do not want it to be displayed or if you require a suitable credit, then please contact us and we will immediately do whatever is needed either for the image to be removed or provide credit where it is due. All the content of this site are free of charge and therefore we do not gain any financial benefit from the display or downloads of any images/w a l l p a p e r.
Let’s discuss these sentences:
All w a l l p a p e r and backgrounds found here are believed to be in the “public domain”. All of the images displayed are of unknown origin.
That is a load of crap. The owner of Palmlix.com DOES know where he got my images, he stole them from my blog. So “unknown origin” is a not factual. Period. Each of my stolen images has my copyright on them so they are certainly not “public” domain. Further more I explained that to Muhammad Farhan in an email conversation concerning the first group of images he used without my authorization:
Farhan,
It doesn’t matter if my images show on Google because they are a search engine, your site is not. All of my images are copyrighted and it is illegal to use, download, store on your site, use and redistribute my images without my permission. It is illegal to do that to any copyrighted image.
hi there.
i’m the owner of website palmlix.comi’m sorry to not providing the contact link to me in my site. cause of the site is still on development.
regarding that post, containing your copyright photograph, i will immediately remove it to my post.for your information, i get all that photograph from google images, so once again, i’m sorry for this inconvenient.
regardsfarhanpalmlix.com
There is NO excuse for my images to be stolen by the owner of Palmlix.com after that email conversation.
Let’s discuss this statement:
We do not intend to infringe any legitimate intellectual right, artistic rights or copyright. If you are the rightful owner of any of the pictures/w a l l p a p e r s posted here, and you do not want it to be displayed or if you require a suitable credit, then please contact us and we will immediately do whatever is needed either for the image to be removed or provide credit where it is due.
Do not intend to infringe any legitimate intellectual right, artistic rights or copyright? Horse manure, the owner of Palmlix.com DID know he was infringing on my copyright when he stole this current group of my images.
By the way, there is a “Contact” link at the top of Palmlix.com but it DOES not work. This was the owner’s excuse last month when I filed a complaint:
i’m sorry to not providing the contact link to me in my site. cause of the site is still on development.
All the content of this site are free of charge and therefore we do not gain any financial benefit from the display or downloads of any images/w a l l p a p e r.
This is my Coyote image on Palmlix.com, note my copyright in the upper left hand corner, note the term “mia mcpherson39s”, note the date it was added “2012-12-07” and also note that this screen capture says it has been viewed by 50 users and downloaded this HD wallpaper.
Palmlix.com has NO authority to use my images, they have violated copyright laws plus the owner of this site did this after my first complaint about the illegal use of my images on Palmlix.com.
There is NO excuse for this.
Every page on my site has this copyright disclaimer on the bottom:
© 2012 – 2012 Mia McPherson – All Rights Reserved, all images are protected by International Copyright Law, do not use, print, reproduce or download my images without my permission.
That statement is very clear.
![google-search-palmlix-mia-mcpherson39s[1]](http://onthewingphotography.com/wings/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/google-search-palmlix-mia-mcpherson39s1.jpg)
Every one of the images with a red check mark on it is my copyrighted image found during a Google web search for “mia-mcpherson39s palmlix”. Some of the images shown are images the owner of Palmlix.com took down on November 17th are still indexed by Google but are no longer displayed on Palmlix.com. The fact remains however that the owner of Palmlix.com, Muhammad Farhan, has some of my images on his site without my authorization and he could have yours too.
He is a repeat offender.
What have I done so far about this image theft?
I have taken the time to get the urls to my stolen images on Palmlix.com and the urls to where those stolen images are located on my site. I have compiled, completed and sent the DMCA Takedown Notification to GoDaddy.com, (domain registrant), hosting providers ip-pool.com and plusserver.de and the pass through site, CloudFlare.com. I have given them documentation that the owner of Palmlix.com is a repeat offender by providing the emails the owner and I exchanged with my previous complaint and the DMCA Takedown Notification that I sent last month to the hosting providers.
I hope that the domain registrant terminates the use of the domain name and I also hope that the hosting providers remove my images and terminate the owner’s account through them.
There are legitimate “w a l l p a p e r” sites that provide their own original content or have authorization from the copyright owner to use images to display on their sites.
Palmlix.com has stolen and used my images without my permission or authorization, have they stolen yours? If so, please use my contact page and let me know, I will help you file a DMCA takedown notification.
It is my opinion that “Free w a l l p a p e r” sites like this one need to be shutdown permanently for copyright violations and we have to file those complaints against the copyright violators to do that..
Feel free to pass this post on to other photographers so they can check Palmlix.com to see if their images have been used without their permission too.
Mia
Hi.
I just found your post. I have come across exactly this problem with my own website. I couldn’t understand what was going on at first but, when I clicked on some of the links, I found the advertising opening in a new window. So this weekend will be spent contacting the advertisers and discussing the choice of losing the links or paying me my share of their revenue.
I think I shall add a section to my own website, naming and shaming these morons.
Kelvin,
I can see why the owner of Palmlix.com is stealing your images. I am still working on getting my images removed or having that entire website shut down. The owner deserves that. If you do add a section to name and shame these site please send me the url.
I was just reading over your recent post (Monday) and followed the “google” post to this one and just out of curiosity checked out that palmlix site…your images are still there and I was able to download the lark photo…weren’t they going to stop allowing that? (p.s. I just did it out of curiosity and will not be using the photo for anything; already deleted)
Deb, I’m still working at getting my images taken down from that image scrapers site, he is nothing more than a thief.
Hello.
I was searching for my images (there’s been a rash of art theft as of late involving people posting on and from theOtaku.com, which is the fan art/art site I belong to), when I found a wallpaper I made on that wallpaper site (http://palmlix.com/skydive-by-celestialsushi). As it’s based on a piece of fan art, I don’t know if I can legally file a DMCA (I had the artist’s permission to use her fan art image in my wallpaper), but theOtaku has a policy where we can use other people’s fan art in wallpapers and cards ONLY if they give permission and the work WON’T be posted on any other site except theOtaku. And, like you said, the “Contact” button doesn’t do squat. So I’m not sure what I can do.
Thanks for any help and/or insight.
Hi,
Since you had permission to use the fan art by the original artist I would contact them and let them know about the infringement. I still haven’t been able to find the actual hosting provider for this site through CloudFlare.com and I will be taking steps to report them for not giving it to me. SoftFlare.com is merely a pass through service provider but they are responsible for providing the actual hosting provider. I may have to get my attorney to act on this.
Can you please give me the email address for this website! He has stolen a picture off of my blog (it is of my 4 year old daughter in a bathing suit) I am incredibly concerned, and appalled that people are downloading this image onto their computer!
Hi Mia, I just found a picture of mine on palmlix.com. So far, I think this is the only pic that was used (stolen). It’s timed stamped but doesn’t have my copyright on it. This picture came from my blog posting about my tomato plants being overtaken by tobacco hornworms last year.
Here is the link to my photo on palmlix:
http://palmlix.com/tomatoes-southern-cricut-lady/
Here is the link to my blog post:
http://southerncricutlady.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/tomato-bistro-casual-dining-for-the-discriminating-palate/
Just thought I would share. I ran across your blog by doing a google search for “stolen images by palmlix.com”. Hope you get resolution to this copyright issue. I did feel a bit violated when I saw my photo linked to palmlix. I just ran across this today by doing a google search on my blog name. I am not a photographer, but my blog is dedicated to my handmade paper crafts such as cardmaking. I think I would be a bit more miffed if the photo was of one of my creations. So I definitely see how violated you must feel because photography is probably your passion as much as, if not more than, cardmaking is mine. My photo was just a quick digital shot of a worm on my tomato plant. The photo is vibrant and clear but only thanks to the natural light and my hubby’s camera. I have no skill in photography – guess this was just a lucky shot. Anyway, it doesn’t matter if a person is a photographer or not; any intellectual property taken from a source without permission is illegal. We have both been stolen from and as this sets into my mind, I am getting more and more angry.
~Vanessa
Vanessa, I am sorry to hear that you found one of your images on Palmlix.com too. No matter what the subject is or the skill of the photographer what Palmlix is doing is illegal. I have contacted the hosting provider three times now about this web site and haven’t heard back from them. So I am going to contact my attorney about the matter because this ISP no longer has what is called Safe Harbor, in fact the Hosting Provider can be held liable for damages and since they most likely have more money than the thief I may get more in financial damages and so will my attorney.
It is difficult not to get angry about image theft, the person on Palmlix.com is making money from the advertisements on his pages and the ONLY draw to his pages are the images he has stolen. Seriously, who would visit a site/page that was nothing but advertisements? No one.
I’m going to make the owner of Palmlix pay for his theft. I read that in Indonesia, where this guy lives, that he could go to jail for copyright violation and I think he deserves it.
Thank you for taking the time to write me here. I hope we can get this site taken down permanently.
I have read your posts on the theft of your images with interest. It is overwhelming to just think about the time it takes to track down the culprits and to take action against them. The culture of disregard for the intellectual property that belongs to someone else is out of control. Thanks for the offer to help the rest of us. I have not seen my images anywhere else, but if I do I will definitely use you as a resource.
Julie, it does take time to track these thieves down and perhaps one day that will be easier. It is disturbing how often it happens.
How frustrating it must be to see your images popping up like that. I checked that site, Mia, and while I was there, an ad for a very responsible outdoors company (MEC) that I patronize showed up on the page. I sent an email to the company to let them know that their ad was showing up on a website that was illegally using copyrighted images and asked if they could have their ads removed. Within two days I have received a positive response. They have exempted Palmlix.com from their Google ads so Palmix will not be receiving click-thru revenue through their ads.
Scott, thank YOU for your effort with getting that company to take their ads off of this w a l l p a p e r site, I’m glad that Palmlix won’t be generating income from that company. Maybe I should go back and write more of the companies that are advertising on that site. I appreciate very much what you did.
Sites like this can be shut down if the hosting site receives enough DMCA’s from photographers, The word is being passed, Contact any photographer who’s work you see on there
Joe, thanks for your support and voice in the matter of stolen images. I want this site shut down and will keep working at it.
Mia, thank you — on behalf of all photographers — for the due diligence you’re undertaking against this image thief. It must feel like the proverbial brick wall you’re hitting up against. What a tool this guy is!
Thanks Ingrid, photographers should band together and fight for our rights, one person at a time filing the complaints might make a difference but we should all raise our voices.
Mia, Thanks so very much for posting this. I had something a bit different happen to me. I have done pen and ink drawings for haiku poet friends for years and some of them asked me to put them on the internet so I had some on Twitter as a favor to my poet friends. To my dismay, one day I found that the images had been taken down with a statement that I did not have copyright for them. I was forced to delete my Twitter account to stop the malicious attack on my integrity. There seems to be little recourse in some instances and has taught me that being involved with social media is not as important as my art… I am so glad you share your images with us but have had enough of an experience with what can happen to understand how distracting and debilitating it must be for you. These guys just don’t have any idea of what goes into creating these things!
Merrill, I am so sorry to hear about your problems with copyright issues. I agree, social media isn’t as important as our work. It is very troubling to have your work stolen or in your case have to prove that it was your work when someone claims it isn’t. For me as a photographer I always have one thing on my side, the RAW images that I never share on line can prove that they are my work. It must be harder for your work to prove rightful ownership.
The thieves don’t care.
Resolution is a treat for these kind of thieves. I think you’ve been just too kind to give these w a l l p a p e r s away, and maybe it’s time to step your foot down and start to charge a minimal fee, take hold of your authorship, just how much time are you spending on these investigations? Write a prominent transparent signature right across all the images from your w a l l p a p e r s, they should not be freely available in the first place.
Hi Maria,
I have only allowed the use of four of my images for people to use only as personal w a l l p a p e r and those are gifts to my loyal viewers. I haven’t authorized the use of the rest of my images and shown by my copyright disclaimer on each page and by having my copyright on each image. The problem isn’t that we display our images but that people are either ignorant of copyright laws (still no excuse) or simply don’t care that they are stealing from us. Just because someone leaves there door unlocked when they step across the street to talk to a neighbor isn’t an invitation for a thief to steal from them but there are rotten people that will do that.
By fighting back and filing the DMCA Takedown Notifications I am exercising my authorship/ownership and if more photographers would file the DMCA’s and fight for justice from the thieves perhaps more of them would be less tempted to steal. I plan on continuing to use whatever means are needed to confront the thieves.
Thanks for clarifying this, I admire your tenacity and support you all they way.
My pleasure Maria!
Hi!
Wow! How can they do this?? I hope they get kick of all internet rights. Pay big fines to everyone they stole from. GREED and envy is a poor excuse to steal. Go after them big time.
I’m working on stopping web sites such as this from stealing my images Mom!
sorry you are having such trouble – it seems they may be using bots to generate images from search engines, pretty horrible.
Thanks Dan. They could be using bots.