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NEW JERSEY MISCELLANEOUS
Misc NJ Images Alphabetically by Town Mostly
Added October 10, 2006

Below is a copy of an email I received. It never ceases to amaze me that there are people like this in the world. Not only does this person take advantage of the generosity of the people who share these images with the visitors, but they are arrogant enough to email me and brag about it. Sort of like the stupid people who vandalize soemething and video tape it and then get caught with the video tape showing them doing it! Idiots!!

Is what they did even legal? Is there a legal firm who thinks they did anything wrong? I would like to know if this is legal to do when they freely admit doing it. They admit they are taking the images from the site without my permission or the owner's permission and distributing them after they remove the watermark! This alone is proof that they knew what they were doing. If they used them for their own enjoyment, I would not care but they STATE they are giving them away to friends. They state they copied every image and it took a long time but was worth it. I don't personally care but some of the people who have given me images to display here also sell copies of these images and this act is depriving them of money they would have earned if this person bought the images without the watermark on them.

Here is their first email to me:

Alexandre Bénédicte" " wrote:
> nice collection of images ruined by your stupid logo all over them. So basically I went ahead and copied all of them and now am slowly deleting the "Shown at www-family-images.com" label on all of them. Once done I'll distribute them to all my friends. Wish me luck! > Here is a sample: (They then showed me two photos, one with the logo and one with a bad job of removing it.)

I waited a while and thought this over and then replied with this:

Alexandre, I waited to reply to this email because I could not figure out why you would even send something like this. It seems like an intentional attempt to aggravate me.
I have spent a lot of money to purchase many of these items and other items were loaned to me by people from all over the country who are willing to share them with our visitors. However, they still own the copyright on these items and many of them sell copies of these items. By doing what you have done, it is the same as stealing these pictures from a local store. By telling us about it, it is like rubbing our noses in it. Why would you even think to do something like that? Why even bother taking a few thousand items when you have to edit each and every one of them? It doesn't make sense to me and since I notified my contacts, they are hesitant to share any new items.

I wish you could explain to me why you did this.
Mike

To which they replied with this message:

Alexandre "Bénédicte" wrote:
Mike,
Your analogy is wrong. You have misunderstood the whole fundamental of the Internet. It is a world of free information, free surfing, free sharing. Everyone shares. If your material is not for distribution, then either don't display them or sell them, create personalized accounts for interested subjects. As far as I'm concerned, no copyright laws have been broken. Don't put pictures out there for people to see then ruin them with a giant stupid logo all over them. Who's rubbing its nose here? Had your collections not bear the logo, I would have left your site after one or two browses.
Now, your photos have all been "cleaned" (it took a while but was worth it). Hope it teaches you a valuable lesson.
A

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This person could be your neighbor or co-worker!!! Would you feel comfortable with someone like this living in your neighborhood? Their response to me about this was that by placing them on the internet with the watermark I was challenging them to steal them.

Had my images not contained the logo, they would not have bothered to even view more than a few!!! Is this person saying that by locking your money up in a vault, you are challenging them to steal it? If you leave $1,000.00 on your car seat and don't lock the door, this person will not take it but if you lock the door are they saying they will break the window and steal the money because you tempted them and then tried to make it difficult for them to take the money so that is why they stole it? TO TEACH YOU A LESSON! What kind of person thinks like this?

Since they were interested in New Jersey images, could they be from New Jersey? I don't know why they wanted to take every image I had but that is what they said. "Now, your photos have all been "cleaned" (it took a while but was worth it). Hope it teaches you a valuable lesson." Do you know anyone with this name? Do they live in your neighborhood? Do your kids walk by their house?

I would be very concerned living near someone who thinks like this person!

They hope it teaches me a valuable lesson!

It sure does, it teaches me that there are people with no scrupples who then like to brag about what they do.

This hurts you, the visitor, because my contacts are now afraid to share any more of these great old treasures with our visitors. Does anyone have any thoughts on this event? I would like to hear from you and whether you agree or disagree with them.