The stealing of pictures is, sadly, commonplace on the internet today. But you’d have to be especially ruthless to submit a stolen picture to a photography contest. In the case of a monochrome image by photographer Hengki Koentjoro, however, this was exactly the case. His picture of a scooterist driving through a forest had been submitted to Samsung’s “Live in the moment” contest on facebook, albeit in slightly altered form (see screenshot above.) When fans of Hengki’s work pointed out the fraud, he contacted Samsung about the matter, and the contest entry was disqualified. The stolen picture still remains on the fraudster’s Instagram account, however.
In this case, not much harm was done. In fact, the whole thing probably gave Hengki’s name and work much more public exposure than he would’ve received under normal circumstances. But still, this is probably not the way you’d want to become famous. And in other cases, much greater financial harm might be caused to the copyright holder of an image–which is especially true in cases where pictures of amateur photographers are stolen and used for commercial purposes. Which happens much more often than one would like to believe. In the end, what this goes to show is that no matter how careful you are, you’re never safe from your copyright being infringed upon.
Via Photoxels
