Imagine My Surprise

[EssOne]

A couple of weeks ago I posted four photos of my new Hogue checkered rosewood grips down in the Gear and Accessories Forum. Yesterday I went looking for some more of these grips on Google, so I entered "Hogue Checkered Rosewood Grips for Browning Hi Power" and guess what? When the internet page opened up their were four small photos of said grips on said gun, but wait........what's this"? Yep, one of the four photos looked exactly like the ones I had posted here on TGO. I clicked on it and a page of a gazillion Hi Power pistols with various grips on them came up, and among them the four photos I posted here were splattered all over the page. When I passed the cursor over the photos, "tngunowners.com" came up on each of them.

 

It isn't a big deal to me, the photos weren't copyrighted or anything like that, and I sure wouldn't object to the forum admins posting them somewhere else if it would help advertise the forum.  BUT, it's another reminder never to post gun photos with serial numbers or names and addresses on any internet gun forums. They obviously don't stay there. I've even had a few copyrighted ones bootlegged off of a blog I used to operate. I know of one fellow who was looking through a gun auction and came upon a very nice gun he recognized...........it was his, right down to the serial number.!! And the seller was advertising it as his own. The bottom line is that the ad was fraudulent and the seller was a scam artist. The gun auction shut down the ad ratnow, but that's what can happen when you publish photos with serial numbers on the guns depicted. FWIW.

 

 

[Trekbike]

It isn't a big deal to me, the photos weren't copyrighted or anything like that, and I sure wouldn't object to the forum admins posting them somewhere else if it would help advertise the forum.

TGO admins don't do that, it's the world of the interwebs and search engines working.

[10-Ring]

I always thought that it was overly prudent when people scribble over serial numbers when they post pics.  Even though, I make it a practice of not posting serial numbers.  What you have presented is a very good reason not to so I for one will certainly not be posting any in the future. 

 

Working as a photographer both professionally and as a hobby I generally don't mind sharing my images as long as I get credit for them.  Not giving the owner credit is akin to coming over to my house when I'm not there, making yourself a sandwich and leaving me a mess to clean up. 

Edited April 12, 2015 by 10-Ring

[Oh Shoot]

TGO admins don't do that, it's the world of the interwebs and search engines working.

 

Yep, sounds like Trek wound up on a Google Images page. Majority of photos I've ever posted on a forums can be found there if you look far enough.

 

And sure, folks will use them for their own sales sometimes too, which is the only truly unscrupulous aspect of all that.

 

Geek tip: you can find places where your pic may have been linked or copied by dragging it into the box for an image search at:

 

http://images.google.com

 

- OS

Edited April 12, 2015 by Oh Shoot

[EssOne]

I now have a scanner with a Photoshop ap on it, and that ap has a really neat brush that will remove any markings on a gun you want  to remove. After brushing the numbers off you can't tell they were ever there. I'm going to post some photos of the actual guns after I get them finished and I'll be sure to do that beforehand. I wouldn't mind if someone used one of the photos to illustrate a gun they're selling, as long as they put a disclaimer in the advertisement and didn't represent the gun in the photo as the exact one they're selling. i.e. I wouldn't object to good faith use of the photos. Besides, like Oh Shoot said, if you post it on an internet forum, it's no longer within your control. So if that's a problem for you, I wouldn't post them.

 

I posted the photos for the good of the guys who may be interested in some nice Rosewood grips and I really didn't mind the photos getting rerouted, it just surprised me. At least they gave TGO the credit.

[zybysco]

Isn't that exactly what a search engine is supposed to do? If you clicked on it, then it would have taken you to this site. That's the purpose of the search engine.

[vontar]

 I know of one fellow who was looking through a gun auction and came upon a very nice gun he recognized...........it was his, right down to the serial number.!! And the seller was advertising it as his own. The bottom line is that the ad was fraudulent and the seller was a scam artist. The gun auction shut down the ad ratnow, but that's what can happen when you publish photos with serial numbers on the guns depicted. FWIW.

 

The seller might have had a similar gun but lifted the picture from the internet to save time on getting his own pictures and over looked the serial number.  But I don't post any gun pictures with the serial number.

 

Also I turn off GPS tagging just n case so the meta data isn't sent out as well.

 

 

With that photoshop app, add a water mark to your important pictures.

Edited April 12, 2015 by vontar

[john455]

Just take a file and remove the serial numbers from the gun....... problem solved LMBO (just incase THAT WAS A JOKE DON'T DO THIS) LMBO again