Rockwell's image of M3 is 1K$ worth!

[dmr]

This is making the rounds, and I'm somewhat surprised it has not made it here. Sorry if this has been posted before.

Surf here:

https://petapixel.com/2018/04/05/ado...-stolen-photo/

[xia_ke]

My favorite part is that the author had previously written about steps Google was taking to protect image theft...lol

https://www.adorama.com/alc/google-r...protect-photos

[BLKRCAT]

My favorite part is that they stole from ken rockwell. LMAO

[dmr]

Update: Looks like Adorama posted an apology. They also paid Ken a kilobuck for use of the photo.

https://www.adorama.com/alc/we-are-sorry

[majid]

Originally Posted by dmr

Update: Looks like Adorama posted an apology. They also paid Ken a kilobuck for use of the photo.

https://www.adorama.com/alc/we-are-sorry

That’s not even one percent of what they pay him in affiliate commissions.

[Ko.Fe.]

Resnick used Rockwell's site picture without permission and even told it was his Leica but under different angle.


"Adorama tells PetaPixel that it is paying Rockwell $1,000 for the brief use of the photo".

[Peter Wijninga]

Yawn: involuntarily open one's mouth wide and inhale deeply due to tiredness or boredom.

[Robert Lai]

His arguments are meant to inflame, and the fact that he stole Ken Rockwell's picture (after removing the watermark), etc... this is just bad. I'm surprised that Adorama is still keeping the article up on their site. However, it won't win them any business, and by the comments, they are losing business.

I tend to buy my film from B&H or freestyle. I haven't bought much from Adorama in ages.

[Huss]

I never thought I'd see a cause that unanimously unites photogs around KR!

[Steve M.]

It's a dumb move on Adorama's part, even if you ignore the stolen image (which I don't). They are basically speaking ill of the very same film products that they sell. What marketing genius came up with that approach? I stopped buying from them and B&H many years ago for their hiring practices and a host of other reasons, and find Freestyle a breath of fresh air. Great customer service, a very ethical company to do business with.

[Timmyjoe]

Weird that they're bashing film, especially since Adorama is the only company in the US where I've been able to still buy Ilford FP4+ in the old 6.5x9cm sheet size. It's the ONLY thing I buy from them, maybe I'll have to find another source.

Best,
-Tim

[Doug]

Seems to be Resnick's personal opinion, controversial to attract attention. Would have been good to include a disclaimer to that effect, and that it doesn't refelect Adorama's position on the subject.

[Hogarth Ferguson]

My issue with the article wasn't the opinion. It is wrong, as far as I am concerned. What bothers me is the image theft, which would be bad enough, but to then double down on it, after erasing the watermark, is reprehensible for me as a photographer, even worse for a photography store to allow that to happen. For what, a few extra clicks? There is not an M3 somewhere to photograph, did the piece have to be out that quickly?

[Emile de Leon]

This is why I buy from B&H..

[farlymac]

You know, over on Peta-pixel they did a thing where one day someone wrote a piece about why he was ditching film, and going all digital. The next day an article appeared with just the opposite drift of ditching digital, and going back to all film.

My first thought when I saw the article from Adorama was if they weren't about to do the same thing. Too bad it all blew up in their faces.

PF

[Brian Atherton]

I’m wondering why Adorama didn’t fire Mason Resnick for image theft and lying.

Resnick’s opinion I can live with…

As Adorama’s ‘Senior Contributing Writer for the Adorama Learning Center’ did he really think he’d get away with it, especially after being rumbled? Then he attempted to bluff his way out of it.

What a cretin.

[HelenOster]

There will be a Management review tomorrow - Monday. From a brief conversation with the Sales Director last night, I absolutely believe this is being taken very seriously at the highest level.

I hope you will all accept my sincere apologies on behalf of Adorama for this series of mess-ups, the result of which - leaving a part of our loyal customer base feeling insulted and disrespected - is a situation that I'm certain was not anticipated or intended.

[Pioneer]

Originally Posted by HelenOster

There will be a Management review tomorrow - Monday. From a brief conversation with the Sales Director last night, I absolutely believe this is being taken very seriously at the highest level.

I hope you will all accept my sincere apologies on behalf of Adorama for this series of mess-ups, the result of which - leaving a part of our loyal customer base feeling insulted and disrespected - is a situation that I'm certain was not anticipated or intended.

Thanks Helen. Image theft is a very serious issue and I am glad to see that Adorama is taking it seriously.

[Hogarth Ferguson]

Originally Posted by HelenOster

There will be a Management review tomorrow - Monday. From a brief conversation with the Sales Director last night, I absolutely believe this is being taken very seriously at the highest level.

I hope you will all accept my sincere apologies on behalf of Adorama for this series of mess-ups, the result of which - leaving a part of our loyal customer base feeling insulted and disrespected - is a situation that I'm certain was not anticipated or intended.

Helen,

Thanks for your reply. Personally, as I said before, his opinions are just that, his. It is the image theft and the failure to own up to it after being called out; stealing from your customer base is especially bad.

[charjohncarter]

I guess he couldn't do a good photo of an M3 with his digital camera.

[jarski]

Of all the M3 images online, the dude end up stealing KRs. A proof of Kens SEO skills

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

Originally Posted by HelenOster

There will be a Management review tomorrow - Monday. From a brief conversation with the Sales Director last night, I absolutely believe this is being taken very seriously at the highest level.

I hope you will all accept my sincere apologies on behalf of Adorama for this series of mess-ups, the result of which - leaving a part of our loyal customer base feeling insulted and disrespected - is a situation that I'm certain was not anticipated or intended.

Hi Helen,
Having many years ago had a not good experience with Adorama I found you were, and probably still are, the single best thing about the company—so this comment is certainly not directed at you in any way, but I do have to query the rationale behind publishing the piece that has caused so much fuss.

I should lay my cards on the table here and mention that other than a few digital images of various classic cameras or the occasional phone pic for my friends on social media I do *not* do digital imaging. My preference is for film, the reasons why are not really important to this discussion.

That said: I accept that the author of the article in question has moved on from film and is content with his digital workflow. Good for him. Not to beat around the bush but, given the image use issues that have arisen I’m personally glad he doesn’t use film.

But what I cannot fathom, here, is why the piece was put out in the first place? I don’t have any issue with the author’s preference for using digital even if I think some of his costings are dubious. It works for him, he’s happy—great.

But it’s so 2010. Or even 2005. What new perspective on a preference for either medium has he delivered? What aspect of reasons for using digital that we’ve not already read and heard ten thousand times before is he ventilating?

I stress that I’m in no way disputing the author’s right to his opinions or to express them. I simply cannot conceive how, in 2018, these would be considered interesting, useful or original enough to warrant Adorama associating itself with them. I think the outcome of the exercise speaks for itself.
Best,
Brett

[aizan]

looks like a tempest in a teapot. resnick replaced the kr placeholder image with his own photo when the mistake was found. he didn’t lie about it the way that one jch screenshot implies. all he did was overlook a detail in editing a blog post. whoop-de-doo! no real bad behavior, just everyday mild sloppiness. nobody will care in several days.

i wonder what ken will buy with his $1k....

[x-ray]

Originally Posted by aizan

looks like a tempest in a teapot. resnick replaced the kr placeholder image with his own photo when the mistake was found. he didn’t lie about it the way that one jch screenshot implies. all he did was overlook a detail in editing a blog post. whoop-de-doo! no real bad behavior, just everyday mild sloppiness. nobody will care in several days.

i wonder what ken will buy with his $1k....

I'm with you here. Everything is overblown now with so many people carrying a chip on their should looking to destroy someone for little to no reason. Honestly the attitudes of some folks from various forms make me sick. I certainly have made stupid blunders and I'd guess everyone he has too. Is trial and execution by form the way you'd like to be treated? No one died and no money was lost. The error was corrected and the sun will rise tomorrow. Let KR deal with his problem and you and I will deal with ours. Get the chip of your shoulder and show some compassion. Humans make mistakes and they also forgive.

And yes I've been dealing with Chinese theft of several of my images for the past seven or eight years so I know what its all about on a much larger scale where I've lost money.

[Emile de Leon]

Stealing ..is stealing..pure and simple..there are no 2 ways around this..
If you have ever had your original stuff ripped off..to the tune of a lot of lost bux..then you probably wouldn't take such a nonchalant and cavalier attitude to it..
Esp if there wasn't a thing you could do about it w/o major time and legal expense..
And..if you are doing stuff for a major nyc business..you make damn sure to do it right..and not make feeble excuses afterwards...that aren't believable..

[Hogarth Ferguson]

Originally Posted by x-ray

And yes I've been dealing with Chinese theft of several of my images for the past seven or eight years so I know what its all about on a much larger scale where I've lost money.

hmmm, interesting

[plummerl]

Originally Posted by aizan

looks like a tempest in a teapot. resnick replaced the kr placeholder image with his own photo when the mistake was found. he didn’t lie about it the way that one jch screenshot implies. all he did was overlook a detail in editing a blog post. whoop-de-doo! no real bad behavior, just everyday mild sloppiness. nobody will care in several days.

i wonder what ken will buy with his $1k....

A placeholder image? An image with Ken's watermark mistakenly removed? This was a touch beyond a simple mistake. Clipping the image was one step, second step was removing the watermark. This was not a simple mistake. What he overlooked was that someone would recognize the image.

[Bille]

What an overblown story. I guess "win win" for Adorama and Ken Rocksell...

[Richard G]

Originally Posted by charjohncarter

I guess he couldn't do a good photo of an M3 with his digital camera.

I enjoyed that.


My two preferred digitals for photographing film cameras are a very old Nikon Coolpix 4500. Or my current iPhone 6S.

[Chuffed Cheese]

Originally Posted by plummerl

A placeholder image? An image with Ken's watermark mistakenly removed? This was a touch beyond a simple mistake. Clipping the image was one step, second step was removing the watermark. This was not a simple mistake. What he overlooked was that someone would recognize the image.

people will always make excuses. it's an inevitability that they will ignore basic facts and rules of the trade.

[css9450]

Originally Posted by plummerl

A placeholder image?

Fortuitous, I suppose, that he didn't just use a picture of his cat, or something, as a placeholder. Than we'd really think he'd gone nuts!

[dmr]

Originally Posted by HelenOster

There will be a Management review tomorrow - Monday. From a brief conversation with the Sales Director last night, I absolutely believe this is being taken very seriously at the highest level.

I hope you will all accept my sincere apologies on behalf of Adorama for this series of mess-ups, the result of which - leaving a part of our loyal customer base feeling insulted and disrespected - is a situation that I'm certain was not anticipated or intended.

Thanks Helen!

It's good to see that the Adorama management takes this and their reputation seriously.

A placeholder image? An image with Ken's watermark mistakenly removed? This was a touch beyond a simple mistake. Clipping the image was one step, second step was removing the watermark. This was not a simple mistake. What he overlooked was that someone would recognize the image.

Yeah, it doesn't pass the smell test!

Almost sounds like the oh-too-common-lately back-pedaling of sleazy politicians when they get caught with their, uh, hand (LOL) in the cookie jar!

[Ko.Fe.]

Originally Posted by Bille

What an overblown story. I guess "win win" for Adorama and Ken Rocksell...

So stealing of intellectual property from one American by another one isn't big deal?

[ptpdprinter]

What about the other images in the article? I don't think they were all taken by the author.

[Faintandfuzzy]

Originally Posted by aizan

looks like a tempest in a teapot. resnick replaced the kr placeholder image with his own photo when the mistake was found. he didn’t lie about it the way that one jch screenshot implies. all he did was overlook a detail in editing a blog post. whoop-de-doo! no real bad behavior, just everyday mild sloppiness. nobody will care in several days.

i wonder what ken will buy with his $1k....

Rubbish. It was no place holder. He removed the watermark...one does not do that with a simple place holder. Then he lied and said the image was his. When it was making the rounds...including JCH bringing it to light, he then removed the image.

Do not for a second think we are so stupid that we are going to fall for this. The author of the article stole the image. He made the effort to remove the watermark. Then he lied about it stating it was his camera...and then finally removed it.

You are pretty naive if you can't see this.

[rbiemer]

So Rockwell's image was "a placeholder"?
Well, in the interest of being... "helpful", I will offer this photo as a placeholder image for anyone who wants to use it as is.

If you need a different size, file type, resolution, or color scheme, please contact me and we can work out a deal.

Rob


PLACEHOLDER image by rbiemer, on Flickr

[Sumarongi]

*My trusty, beloved, old Leica M3, which I used for nearly 30 years.*

It's easily to see: a bottom loader.

[Ko.Fe.]

Originally Posted by Faintandfuzzy

Rubbish. It was no place holder. He removed the watermark...one does not do that with a simple place holder. Then he lied and said the image was his. When it was making the rounds...including JCH bringing it to light, he then removed the image.

Do not for a second think we are so stupid that we are going to fall for this. The author of the article stole the image. He made the effort to remove the watermark. Then he lied about it stating it was his camera...and then finally removed it.

You are pretty naive if you can't see this.

Or just as fresh digital convert as Chief Writer at Adorama Learning Center.
Only if you are fresh into digital world, you would make incompetent lies like he did and believe in it. While image like he used is searchable with 100% return by Google Image search engine.

Learning Chief in writings at Adorama.

[css9450]

I wonder what was the clue that gave away that the photo was not Resnick's? The lack of patina one might see on a 30-year-used Leica?

[objectowcer]

Originally Posted by css9450

I wonder what was the clue that gave away that the photo was not Resnick's? The lack of patina one might see on a 30-year-used Leica?

I think someone noticed the strap lugs, which don't match up for the year he said his camera was. From there, the first google image search for leica M3.

I don't know if he could've picked a worse camera to steal a photo of, given how well people know the little differences.