Another “News” site has used a stolen photo and this time from Ryan Mack from Jersey Shore Fire Response who is a frequent contributor to MidJersey.News. Ryan was out on Island Beach State Park last night at Area 22 and brought us photos of a search for a missing swimmer. Several of those photos were posted early this morning on MidJersey.News and also Jersey Shore Fire Response. It was later discovered that a photo looking similar posted to MidJersey.News was cropped to remove watermarking and copyright marks to the Facebook site Jersey Coast Emergency News Ryan Mack the photographer and copyright owner sent the site a message that it was his photograph.
Midjersey.News did a comparison and cropped the photo and obviously it was Ryan’s. If another person was the photographer they would have to take the photograph over Ryan’s shoulders and at the exact same second. Ryan said he was the only news media out there at the time of the search and there was no one next to him at the time.
MidJersey.News posted the composite photo below to the Jersey Coast Emergency News Facebook site and after about two hours we received a reply, “we were sent this photo on our tip line.” and my reply was, “Someone stealing Ryan’s photo does not give you permission to use it.”
Since that post we did receive communication from Jersey Coast Emergency News and feel that they were sent the photo by someone who said they took the photo saying it was theirs and that person said it was also ok to use. The photograph was then posted on their Facebook page. Jersey Coast Emergency News said they had no way of verifying the photographer at the time and had to take that person’s word for it.
This is not the first time a MidJersey.News photo was used without permission, a copyright watermark was removed and posted as their own on January 22, 2022 the website Daily Voice.
Also, to add to the confusion some departments share the photos and take screen shots of photos and remove the watermarks, share and post as their own. Other media sites see these photos posted on department websites social media and then use the photos on their news websites and give credit to the department when the department did not even take the photo and had no permission to use the photograph.
It is going to be future MidJersey.News policy to increase watermarking strength and move the watermarking towards the center of the photo. It is going to be an annoyance to many readers but since we keep running across this problem on multiple sites and platforms it has come down to this. Also, in the past we have had to file at least four YouTube copyright strikes against videos that were downloaded then reshared as other person’s work.
We have asked in the past if you do share the photos on your personal, department or other social media, do not cut the watermark off. Since that does not seem to be working out and photos are shared without credit or permission, the watermark strength will be increased, and location will be more towards the center of the posted photographs.
Share links and photos on your own social media or department website, do not crop to cut the watermark off and give MidJersey.News and photographer the credit with at least hyperlink.
Original photo by: Ryan Mack, Jersey Shore Fire Response – MidJersey.News that was posted early this morning.
Photo that was cropped to cut the copyright watermark off was posted to Jersey Coast Emergency News
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