So, I was on good ol' FB checking things out when I noticed a new cake decorator in my area.  (Have to check out the new competition) so I wandered over to her page.  All but one of the pictures posted were all cakes I have seen..... on google searches!  All different sites.  SHE STOLE THE FREAKIN' pictures!! It was obvious that the cakes were not created by the same person because the hand piped message was different on the ones with writing.  As simple search of "Wedding cakes" and I found all three pictures she had posted on the first two pages that came up with google and a search of elmo cake and birthday cake brought up the rest. WOW!!

It gets better!

Someone called her on it! (eg. I am so confused.... I was googling to find ideas for cakes and found everyone of your cakes on different sites.... so either all these people are stealing your pictures or you are... <not word for word but you get the drift>)   very soon after that the pictures were all deleted and there was a posting saying that she had to remove them because someone was stealing her pics.  huh?!? The comment that was posted basically calling her out was deleted as well. 

this is one of the cakes in question..... did you make this cake? 

Well, that's my vent for the evening.  Has anyone else seen this happening?

kvand, it's not the first time this has happened and it will not be the last. There was a thread on it about a month ago and what to do it your cake pictures get stolen.  Good to see that someone called her on it.

Can you post a link to the FB page, pls?  Or private message me with it??
 

That is why you should watermark your pic's   www.ribbet.com
 

AI have a folder on my personal Facebook page that has pictures of cakes I love, and did not do, but I would never try to pass them off as mine! I see the lure that the Internet has on bakers just starting out, with a thin portfolio, they think 'i know i can make this cake, if given a chance' but I would never have the guts to say, "I made this cake," if it wasn't true. It is really sad!

Someone in my town does it too . . .  they just posted a picture of a "breakfast cupcake" last week.  I was eating at a diner across the street when the photo came across my FB feed.  After breakfast I walked over to take a look, and the finished product and the photo bore no resemblance to each other.  The one in the photo was a hash brown cup, filled with scrambled eggs, a dollop of sour cream and some caviar on top.  I think one of her FB fans caught this, and asked "what is that red stuff on top" and the baker answered "salsa". :)  And the ones she made had no sour cream or "salsa" on top, and looked nothing like the photo.

Same baker does copyrighted cakes ALL the time, so she must not think there is anything wrong with grabbing a photo off the web and broadcasting it as her work.

Liz
 

I haven't seen any decorator on my FB do this, but I've seen it done on websites and the like.  I've also seen people pad their portfolios with such photos.  They get hired and then are unable and utterly lost when it comes to executing anything in said portfolio.
 

A

That's why most interviews will ask the candidate to decorate a cake during the interview, to judge both efficiency and precision.

Regarding copyright infringement, here is some info on how to report it on FB. Note that you are only allowed to report infringement if your copyright is being violated, which is why it's important to notify the copyright owner (if you know who they are). https://www.facebook.com/help/400287850027717/

Thanks for the responses everybody!  I have definitely taken away from this that I need to watermark my pics. It's really  sad that a person feels they need to do that.  If they don't have enough cakes to represent their work they should probably be working on building their portfolio (the legit way) like the rest of us before jumping into business after their first couple of cakes.  When I get to the point of hiring my first employee I will definitely be asking them to decorate a cake for me!

Annabakescakes - I love your work! I think it is totally one thing to put a folder on your PERSONAL page of Cake I'd LIKE to make.... but to set up a business page with nearly all photos of other people's work is so wrong.

I'd post a link to the page but she deleted all the pics so its really not anything worth looking at..lol.  The one remaining picture appears to be someone's wilton fondant class cake.  It's a great first try but the bow is floppy and the fondant is ripply... like I said... great for a first time but not sale-able quality.

AThank you so much kvand! Like most others on here, it is truly my passion!

There's no reason to put them on your personal page either....I am a big ole grouch about this! With the share option, or just plain old fashioned linking, there is no need to physically save the picture to your computer, give it a file name, and upload it. There isn't. It's just a slippery slope, and easily avoidable. Since I got my nice watermark/logo, I haven't found my pics anywhere they shouldn't be either.

AThat's what Pinterest is for, saving photos of cakes you like!

A

I know darn good and well that is not my house, that is not my yard, those are not my walls, furniture, or cake.

A

If the copies of pictures are saved on your own computer for personal use that should not be a copyright violation.

AI've shared a couple of cool cakes on my personal Facebook page, which is so private my own mother can't even see it, and made it clear that they are not mine. I think most of us have done that.

I've had people steal photos from my website that were watermarked and put them on their sites with the watermark still on them. People are dumb.

An FYI about pinterest...their terms of service say that if you pin anything you're saying that you have the right to use that photo. So if the copyright holder sues them you've basically agreed that you'll take the blame for the copyright infringement, which pinterest is basically a playground for. Even linking back to the original source isn't enough, I know of a blogger who is being sued by a photographer whose photo she used with attribution on her blog. WIthout the permission of the original copyright holder you're really not supposed to be posting anything regardless of whether the website (pinterest) makes it easy to do or not.

How do you watermark the photos? I am like Annabakescakes and have a folder of cakes I wish I was good enough to make, but I make sure I give credit whenever possible and make sure I have the artist permission.

Also, I think it is important when you are watermarking, that you plaster that watermark right over the front of your cake, in an area that it can't be photoshopped out without distorting the image.

I too often see cake photos that have "watermarks" on them, and the watermark is in a remote corner.

Which is very easily cropped out.

ATotally agree with plastering the watermark right smack across that cake.

AI saw something on Facebook today where a very popular baker had their photos stolen and the watermark was so easy to just cover up with another (what the pic thief had done).

It is absolutely the same photo. Unfortunately, especially in another country, there is not much you can do. It looks like a lot of variance in skill level among their cakes. Perhaps yours is  not the only one they have appropriated? You would think that after "100 years of baking," they would have plenty of pictures of their own.
 

AYes,it's the same photo. You can send a DMCA takedown request to their web host if you want to really get them to remove it. You have to find the web hosting information form whois.com then contact them with th right forms, but most ISP sites have a section on what information they need. It will seem like a lot but it's a legal thing and they have to have everything in a certain format.

A