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Tesco, a yellow jumper, and social media cops and robbers

Web theft is on the rise, but the web police are catching up.

By Martha Gill Published 06 March 2012 18:25
New Statesman
Tesco used an image without permission, Getty images

 

It's fairly easy to steal someone's pictures online, but then it's also fairly easy to spot the culprit. The most recent back and forth of this nature has involved Tesco, and the theft of a student's face.

Nicola Kirkbride, a fashion management student from Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University, was surprised to find her face on a Tesco jumper. The image had been taken from her blog, which she had been running as coursework. Tesco were using it as part of a design on a girl's sweater - without permission, and without credits.

This has happened before. Last year Jelena Lecic, a Croatian woman who works as an administrator at the Royal College of Physicians in London, found her face on the profile of “Gay Girl in Damascus” – a fake blogger who had used the image without her consent. It was a simple steal - the blogger just downloaded it from her facebook page.

But as social media makes image poaching ever easier - it also acts as an ever more vigilant watchdog.

Leicic discovered the poached image via Facebook, when a friend spotted her picture being used in someone else’s profile. Kirkbride, on the other hand was alerted by twitter, after a Tesco worker tagged her in an image of the jumper. Instant-stealing may be on the rise, but instant-policing is catching up.

Social websites which rely on image sharing are starting to worry about these problems - and it's showing up in their copyright law. Last week Business Insider ran a piece on the website Pinterest: according to Pinterest’s terms of use, all responsibility for copyright issues are placed on users’ shoulders. Yet the website actively encourages users to ‘re-pin’ others’ images – despite the risk. Those who spot the paradox are starting to leave the site.

As for Nicola- an aspiring designer - the controversy has generated some handy free advertising which may be mitigating her anger. Earlier on Tuesday she tweeted:

 “Im not annoyed like some of the papers are trying to make out. Just intruiged!” [sic]

With her designs all over the Daily Mail, it’s not surprising. But whether the victims are outraged or secretly pleased, those who steal images are not likely to get away with it for long.

 
 

4 comments

Do You Know the Ethernet Cable Wiring?'s picture

Mon, 2012-06-25 05:56 — Do You Know the Ethernet Cable Wiring? (not verified)

The primary Ethernet cable wiring regular may be the Cat -5, or Category 5, standard. The initial Ethernet cable, acquainted to those who have invested any period of time messing about with pc systems, is really a cable that leads to a pier that appears somewhat heavier than a regular phone jack port, and simply card inserts into system plugs on other devices. Ethernet cable wiring is really a all-pervasive business regular, and includes 4 sets of cables of various colours garbled about their double wires and protected from one another.
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Do You Know the Ethernet Cable Wiring?'s picture

Mon, 2012-06-25 05:56 — Do You Know the Ethernet Cable Wiring? (not verified)

The primary Ethernet cable wiring regular may be the Cat -5, or Category 5, standard. The initial Ethernet cable, acquainted to those who have invested any period of time messing about with pc systems, is really a cable that leads to a pier that appears somewhat heavier than a regular phone jack port, and simply card inserts into system plugs on other devices. Ethernet cable wiring is really a all-pervasive business regular, and includes 4 sets of cables of various colours garbled about their double wires and protected from one another.
Ethernet cable wiring is garbled in house, and also the garbled sets protected, simply because this sort of inner settings stops disturbance and transmission seapage between your various lengths. Every cable inside a cable television is just one of 4 various colours: lemon, dark brown, azure, and eco-friendly, every twinned having a partner that’s a stripy edition of this cable television. The different cables are protected from one another so as, as stated before, to prevent transmission seapage, and that’s why when eliminating and calculating your personal cable television cabling it’s important to make sure that just the final fifty percent – in. of every cable television is reduce. Jetski from the different lengths combining and leading to disturbance.

Do You Know the Ethernet Cable Wiring?'s picture

Mon, 2012-06-25 05:55 — Do You Know the Ethernet Cable Wiring? (not verified)

The primary Ethernet cable wiring regular may be the Cat -5, or Category 5, standard. The initial Ethernet cable, acquainted to those who have invested any period of time messing about with pc systems, is really a cable that leads to a pier that appears somewhat heavier than a regular phone jack port, and simply card inserts into system plugs on other devices. Ethernet cable wiring is really a all-pervasive business regular, and includes 4 sets of cables of various colours garbled about their double wires and protected from one another.
Ethernet cable wiring is garbled in house, and also the garbled sets protected, simply because this sort of inner settings stops disturbance and transmission seapage between your various lengths. Every cable inside a cable television is just one of 4 various colours: lemon, dark brown, azure, and eco-friendly, every twinned having a partner that’s a stripy edition of this cable television. The different cables are protected from one another so as, as stated before, to prevent transmission seapage, and that’s why when eliminating and calculating your personal cable television cabling it’s important to make sure that just the final fifty percent – in. of every cable television is reduce. Jetski from the different lengths combining and leading to disturbance.

Do You Know the Ethernet Cable Wiring?'s picture

Mon, 2012-06-25 05:55 — Do You Know the Ethernet Cable Wiring? (not verified)

The primary Ethernet cable wiring regular may be the Cat -5, or Category 5, standard. The initial Ethernet cable, acquainted to those who have invested any period of time messing about with pc systems, is really a cable that leads to a pier that appears somewhat heavier than a regular phone jack port, and simply card inserts into system plugs on other devices. Ethernet cable wiring is really a all-pervasive business regular, and includes 4 sets of cables of various colours garbled about their double wires and protected from one another.
Ethernet cable wiring is garbled in house, and also the garbled sets protected, simply because this sort of inner settings stops disturbance and transmission seapage between your various lengths. Every cable inside a cable television is just one of 4 various colours: lemon, dark brown, azure, and eco-friendly, every twinned having a partner that’s a stripy edition of this cable television. The different cables are protected from one another so as, as stated before, to prevent transmission seapage, and that’s why when eliminating and calculating your personal cable television cabling it’s important to make sure that just the final fifty percent – in. of every cable television is reduce. Jetski from the different lengths combining and leading to disturbance.

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