Tag Archives: SJK Photography

Facebook Representative States They Own Uploaded Content

As photographers, we’ve all seen posts online with people wringing their hands worrying about Facebook’s newest Terms of Use saying we’re now going to lose copyrights to our works of art once we upload them to Facebook.  It’s always turned out to be a hoax. Turns out, it wasn’t a hoax – at least according to the email I just received directly from Facebook.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been dealing with an ongoing issue with posts to the Photo Stealers Facebook Page which I’ve documented a few times here.  The tl;dr version is that no matter what I post to the Photo Stealers Facebook Page, it gets deleted and I get banned (currently sitting on a 30 day ban for posting that I had brought the Photo Stealers page back).  I finally got in contact with someone at Facebook directly and she’s been looking into the issue for me over the past two weeks.  I finally received a reply today and my jaw has not left the floor since.

Facebook stating anything posted to it is Facebook's property

While most of the email is not really relevant to anyone but me there is one bit that affects EVERYONE that uses Facebook.

“…once something is posted or uploaded onto Facebook it becomes Facebook’s property. So if the original photographer uploaded the photo first onto Facebook and then others have taken it from there and uploaded it to their pages or profiles, this is legal and within policy, there’s nothing I can do about it unfortunately even if they are taking credit for the photos.”

I replied with “So, you are saying that any image I upload to Facebook is now Facebook’s property and anyone can steal it and so long as they are using Facebook they can do whatever they want with my copyrighted works?”

Mandy replied with the below email with a link to the Facebook policies and highlighted sections she believes were supporting her email but, in my opinion, these highlighted passages contradict her earlier statement that anything posted to Facebook is Facebook’s property.

Facebook copyright email

This isn’t someone who misread the newest TOS, this isn’t a lawyer digging in too deep.  This is a message, directly from Facebook stating that they own property once it’s uploaded to Facebook.  She goes on to say that anyone can do anything with this content and it is legal and within policy.  She also states in her emails she’s been in talks with a supervisor and the help center so this isn’t just from her.  Even if she and her supervisors are misinformed this is a HUGE problem if employees at Facebook not only think they own uploaded property but enforce this policy.

I’m not one to be a “Chicken Little” when it comes to things but this is NOT good for photograhers or the creative industry as a whole.

Update 05/12/15 @ 8:00PM

Facebook has responded on the Photo Stealers Facebook Page.

Matt here from Facebook. Sorry for the inconvenience you’ve had. First, we restored the content that was removed from your page in error.

In addition, as you originally suspected, the information given in these emails is incorrect. Our terms are clear that you own the content you share on Facebook, including photos. When you post something, you simply grant Facebook a license to use that content consistent with our terms, including displaying it to the audience you’ve shared it with.

We also prohibit people from posting content that violates someone else’s intellectual property rights. If a rights owner believes that content on Facebook violates their rights, they may report it to us. You can find more information about this topic here: https://www.facebook.com/help/249141925204375

I’ve also been told that I can start posting to the Facebook Page again for Photo Stealers and my personal account has been restored.  Matt stated in the post that he will look into any bans resulting from posts about Photo Stealers.

While this doesn’t give me many answers regarding everything I’ve been going through, I’m glad to hear that my hunch was right and the Facebook Employee (and her supervisors as well as the Help Center) were misinformed regarding Facebook’s policies on copyrighted works uploaded to their website.

Thank you Facebook!

Dear Facebook: You Suck

Well, that was short lived.

anotherfbban

Every comment beneath the removed post for violating “Facebook Community Standards” was “welcome back” or something of the like.  I immediately deleted any post with anything about the ongoing saga with SJK Photography.  I immediately deleted any post with a link.  I deleted ANYTHING that wasn’t strictly positive, yet here I am, again, with another removed post from Facebook for posting something against Community Standards all because someone allegedly has some kind of inside to Facebook.

Continue reading Dear Facebook: You Suck

Why I Shut Down the Facebook Fan Page

Tears.

This is the first time in three years that running this blog has brought me to actual tears.

Negative reviews, name calling, mocking my physique, “reviewing” my photography skills or lack of  – this is just a tip of the iceberg of what I’ve endured since I listed SJK Photography on this website.   None of this has brought me even a misty eye but tonight for the first time, I’m in tears.

I realize it’s likely because I’m exhausted… and a girl.

However, I’ve had enough.

Continue reading Why I Shut Down the Facebook Fan Page

SJK Photography aka Picture This by Stacie Klein in Delray Beach, Florida

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SJKPhotography2014/timeline

She also likes to tag real clients she’s had in pictures that aren’t of their babies but the parents appear to think they are of their children.  Words fail me right now so I’m going to sourcing because this is beyond fucked up.

Update @ 9:15 PM EST

Just in case there was a shred of doubt in your mind about Stacie’s story about it being hackers I’ve found an ad she placed on a local Mommy group on FB that included stolen images under her own FB account.

Update @ 1:15 AM EST

Stacie, Bill and friends are now attacking my business page reviews.  Those are below.

Update @ 10:30 AM EST 1/22/2014

Well… that was a LONG night.  Stacie, Bill and a couple of their friends left some really lovely reviews on my Facebook Page for my photography business.  Stacie then commented across my page before I banned her.  I shared the kind review to Photo Stealers and the conversation that took place afterwards was quite interesting.  Here’s the PDF.  I’ve added the reviews to the post below along with some other highlights.

Update @ 6:00 PM EST 1/22/2014

Got two interesting emails from an IP that was using an anonymous proxy via my website contact form.  They are below.

Update 1/27/2014

Over the weekend there was a lot of activity on the Facebook Post about this case.  Bill Scott (Stacie Klein’s fiance) came in and commented, along with a friend of Stacie’s whom is a lawyer.  Bill’s comments have been removed but I do have a PDF of the conversation.  Bill also sent a slew of hateful messages to a reader, those are below.

In part of the conversation, Bill mentioned making Ripoff Reports against anyone supporting Photo Stealers and he made good on his threat starting with me.  The lovely thing about Ripoff Report is that anyone can create one but no one can remove one (unless you want to cough up $2000 or more for the CHANCE that they will remove it… ripoff indeed).  However by reading it I think anyone would realize what happened so I’m not losing too much sleep over it.

Yesterday two comments were posted, one to this thread and one to another, stating that any photographer allowing Photo Stealers to list them as an original source would also have a Ripoff Report made about them.  I did not approve them so today they started sending out emails (via the contact form on their websites… sound familiar?) while using a VPN with the same threat to the photographers listed on this post.  This is the email (which matches the comments):

“Hi there, as a professional business person I find it disgusting that you elect to use stopstealingphotos.com free slander service to handle your issues that you should be dealing with. Here is the plan. I will give you one opportunity to ask the owner of that site to delete that entire post or face being listed on ripoffreport.com. The purpose of the report will be noted that you hired and or elected to use stopstealingphotos.com to harass people rather then take the proper legal steps to deal with your own issues. The concept is very simple is that you will face the experience as you put others through by using stopstealingphotos.com service.

Please note that once your web address, name, and contact info is listed on that website, It cant be deleted. That would mean that every time someone googles your business they are going to see that rip off address right below you, along with the story of how you asked stopstealingphotos.com to harass and defame people you feel stole your photos. Its going to make you look like a child.

This is what you will have posted: all your facebook info, pictures of yourself, web address, social media links, phone number and anything else I can collect. The time window to request for this to be done is very small to have this removed. You got those people to speak on your behalf and call names like douche bag have all been screen shotted and will go in your rip off report listing for your customers to see how professional you are hiring cyber bullies to harass a person you claim to have stole your photos. I will be placing that listing within the hours so if I were you i would better hurry up contacting stopstealingphotos.com

Update 02/08/2015

While I was away another Facebook Page was created against Photo Stealers.  The last one created has been deleted.

Bill Scott also decided to take to Twitter since I’ve not allowed his comments through here.  According to some of the posts, Stacie is also using his account since hers is private.

I want to make this crystal clear: I have personally never bullied, stalked, harassed or threatened Bill Scott or Stacie Klein.  I made the listing here about fiance Stacie Klein and they have gone on the defensive.  If you have any questions about what has transpired, feel free to contact me and I’ll show you what has all transpired.

Update 02/16/2015

I’m under a temporary ban from Facebook so I decided to use that idle time to create a timeline of everything that has gone down since the initial post, that timeline is below the images.

Update 9/20/2020

I have put off updating this post about Stacie Klein because I kept hoping that 1) Stacie would stop stealing photos/had learned her lesson and 2) if I didn’t engage with her and Bill they would leave me alone.  She is still stealing images and they never left me alone.  While she is no longer a photographer, she is still trying to use these images for profit as a FinDomme.

Update 5/17/2021

When the Photo Stealers page was hacked I lost the most recent update to this post and some of the linked images went down.  I re uploaded everything after my attention was drawn to the issue.  

Continue reading SJK Photography aka Picture This by Stacie Klein in Delray Beach, Florida