UPDATE, 9/15/2010:
BLOGGERS PAMELA D. HART OF "THE ORACULAR OPINION" AND LES CARPENTER, III OF "RATIONAL NATION USA," HAVE JOINED ME AWELL AS INFIDEL753 AND (O)CT(O)PUS OF THE SWASH ZONE IN BRINGING THIS UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR TO THE BLOGGING COMMUNITY'S ATTENTION.
Thanks, Pam, Les, Infidel753, and (O)CT(O)PUS.
UPDATE II:
ANOTHER CASE OF PHOTO ID THEFT. THIS TIME THE BLOGGER, "MATT ROSE" WHO CLAIMS HIS INDUSTRY IS "THE LAW" STOLE THE PHOTO OF A FORMER ROLLING STONE CONTRIBUTOR, MATT HOYLE, A PHOTOGRAPHER, AND PLACED IT ON HIS/HER BLOG, MAKING UP LIES ABOUT THE REAL MATT HOYLE IMAGE.
I will try to contact Mr. Hoyle and let him know about this unauthorized use of his image on a blog.
I have more to report on photo ID stealing by bloggers, but first I want to state very clearly:
This is not about censorship, bullying, or any other label some would place on what I've found out.
This is about DECEIT.
This is about taking someone's photo from the internet, pretending to be that person, and inventing a background for that stolen photo. I have found many blogs that have put up famous and almost famous film, teevee, and musician celebrity photos as their avatars. [Examples of this below.]* That's not as offensive, since most intelligent people would recognize that someone in the entertainment industry wouldn't be wasting his or her time ranting on a blog--IOW, no one who recognizes the celeb's photo would believe that person is behind the blogging. It's still a dishonest thing to do, for even a celeb is entitled to not have someone hijack his/her image and place it on a blog he or she would find offensive.
When a blogger steals a photo from the internet:--facebook, sodahead, or other social networking sites, that's more insidious. Because that person is not a celebrity, his or her photo will be identified with the blog to which it is attached, whether or not the blog agrees with his or her political philosophy.
Think of your own photo, say, being copied and stuck onto someone's blog and YOU are identified as the writer of vitriol and hate-speech, not to mention atrocious spelling and grammar. Now imagine your photo being pasted onto other like-minded political blogs with your image announcing to the blogsphere that you are a follower of all those other blogs--blogs that are the polar opposite of your political views.
That's exactly what happened to two of the people whose photos have been stolen and whom I've written about in two blog posts, HERE and HERE. I've found a third and notified her. Here's the blog that stole her image. And here is the woman's bio on a site that explains who she is and what her interests are--they do not match one thing that is listed in the profile of the blog that stole her image.
We have a pretty good idea of who is behind this petty larceny, and we've asked that the stolen photos be taken down. So far, we've been ignored.
Will the decent bloggers out there stand with us against this shameful deceit?
*Examples of stolen celeb photos on blogs:
)O( is a blog with the image of rocker Karen O as the "profile" of the blog. Does anyone believe that the rocker, Karen O, gave her permission for the blog ")O(" to use her image for this highly political blog?
Imagine The Impossibilities is a new blog, started this month with a photo of an actor, Sebastian Spencer as the profile of the blog owner. Again, is it fair to place Spencer's photo on a highly political blog with a post on President Obama backing the "masque?"
Frank the Thinking Man's blog is also known as "Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full" and his profile photo is actually a photo of Dana Delaney's husband. Who is Dana Delaney? Oh wait. Here she is. And does she know that her husband's image has been pasted into a rightwinger's blog?
That's just a sampling of photo ID stealing rampant on these blogs. Sadly, there is more--plagiarizing articles from news sources and comments on websites--and that, in addition to stealing photos, is a common practice on these fake blogs.
I think we bloggers need to stop supporting blogging dupery and chicanery. Debating issues and strongly expressing our opinions are what blogging is about.
Stealing other people's photos and plagiarizing other people's material is not.
Let's stand for something instead of accepting this sorry subterfuge.
46 comments:
I hope you hear from the con man soon! It's a dirty job Shaw and you are doing a masterful job!
I really don't want to hear from any con man, Sue.
I only ask that whomever is responsible for photo ID stealing that they take down the images.
If those who run the blogs want to continue them, so be it. They just don't need to steal people's images to do so.
I'm a bit concerned that something may happen to my blog or my image.
Those people play dirty.
My, my, my....
The supporters of "RESTORE HONOR" and so dishonorable.....
Not one word, outside of Pam, from one single conservative....
Shaw - I'm a bit concerned that something may happen to my blog or my image.
A word of caution. Please be extra careful with email and comments from anonymous or unknown persons. My concern is that there may a hidden virus that captures keystrokes (including passwords) and returns the data to sender.
A decade ago, AOL was the victim of a similar scam. Email recipients received what appeared to be a notice from AOL asking users to resubmit their credit information. The email contained an exact reproduction of the AOL logo and appeared to be official, but the data didn't go to AOL.
If you receive an unfamiliar or unexpected screen asking for your login info, my advice is to back out and log in normally.
I have reason to believe liberal bloggers will be targeted and victimized during this election cycle.
"Not one word, outside of Pam, from one single conservative...."
Bluepitbull has blogged it and linked to my posts.
Thanks (O)CT(O), I never open anything that I'm not sure of, and I'm very careful about giving any information over the internet.
Shaw you sound nervous, why are you so moved to continue this search if you feel that way? Now I'm gonna be nervous for you too. Be careful!
Interesting development:
The "Just Sue" blog administrator has closed it down to only invited readers only.
This blog is open to invited readers only
http://suethedumper.blogspot.com/
It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.
This happened a few years ago when I caught another blogger commiting fraud. He shut down his blog to invited readers only, then after a while, opened it up again, once the shame of being caught passed.
Well at least the REAL Sue doesn't have to see her photo on that blog, but the people who visit it still can.
It's quite a coincidence that the "Just Sue" blog shut it's viewing to invited readers only just as our friend "the malcontent" put up a new post.
"Curiouser and curiouser..."
While it's not likely to happen, this kind of thing could really cause harm to the victims - job loss for example.
People use logos of entertainment and political celebs all over the place but they are public figures and I suppose that's something they just put up with. Don't know about sports figures, though. I believe professional teams have very strict CR and Trademark restrictions re how their athletes and emblems can be used. Not sure about that, however.
I guess there's no law to protect these victims but it is definitely deceitful and an indication of how low these people can sink. We've all suspected that some of the right-wing trolls are getting paid for their efforts. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that the people who are doing this are also getting paid. Sick. It is fraud.
Shaw, you're doing a good job with this and I hope you can keep it going, frankly. We need some investigative blogs. Just be careful.
Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...
"Not one word, outside of Pam, from one single conservative...."
Bluepitbull has blogged it and linked to my posts.
Hey, it's only fair to give props to those who do the work. Good job I might add. Now that I know that people aren't leaving Pam's, Red's, and my blog in droves but rather one person who needs help, I really hope this person goes away permanently. I know that they wont, but I can hope.
Mr. MalC is looking for photos in all the wrong places. One more suitable for him would be here ...
Yes BB, Feldman is a classic, especially when he workrd his eyes...
Shaw: Regardless of political views this type of behavior is wrong and unacceptable. I totally understand if people don’t want to use their real pictures on their blogs but to steal the identity of another is a crime. To use the pictures of celebrities or pictures from a German Advertising Site , as in Mary, Mary Quite Contrary , an Australian computer expert Eric McCreath , as in Eric’s Eyes and Jason Castriota , the Italian/American Car designer, as in A Right American , is just plain deceitful because these people are trying to pretend they are real when they are not. If people don’t want their real photos in cyber space, fine, use a picture of a pet, or a cartoon, etc., don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t.
Here are a couple more blogs: The Saint’s blog picture stolen from this legitimate blog and
this blog has Ryan Gosling’s photo.
I imagine there is no end to this fraud. I just don’t understand their real agenda. These are the same people/blogs that attacked/banned Blue Pitbull and me. They are against Liberals AND Conservatives—makes no sense—they are LOONS!
Shaw: Regardless of political views this type of behavior is wrong and unacceptable. I totally understand if people don’t want to use their real pictures on their blogs but to steal the identity of another is a crime. To use the pictures of celebrities or pictures from a German Advertising Site , as in Mary, Mary Quite Contrary , an Australian computer expert Eric McCreath , as in Eric’s Eyes and Jason Castriota , the Italian/American Car designer, as in A Right American , is just plain deceitful because these people are trying to pretend they are real when they are not. If people don’t want their real photos in cyber space, fine, use a picture of a pet, or a cartoon, etc., don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t.
Here are a couple more blogs: The Saint’s blog picture stolen from this legitimate blog and
this blog has Ryan Gosling’s photo.
I imagine there is no end to this fraud. I just don’t understand their real agenda. These are the same people/blogs that attacked/banned Blue Pitbull and me. They are against Liberals AND Conservatives—makes no sense—they are LOONS!
Shaw: Regardless of political views this type of behavior is wrong and unacceptable. I totally understand if people don’t want to use their real pictures on their blogs but to steal the identity of another is a crime. To use the pictures of celebrities or pictures from a German Advertising Site , as in Mary, Mary Quite Contrary , an Australian computer expert Eric McCreath , as in Eric’s Eyes and
Jason Castriota ,the Italian/American Car designer, as in A Right American , is just plain deceitful because these people are trying to pretend they are real when they are not. If people don’t want their real photos in cyber space, fine, use a picture of a pet, or a cartoon, etc., don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t.
Here are a couple more blogs: The Saint’s blog picture stolen from this legitimate blog and
this blog has Ryan Gosling’s photo.
I imagine there is no end to this fraud. I just don’t understand their real agenda. These are the same people/blogs that attacked/banned Blue Pitbull and me. They are against Liberals AND Conservatives—makes no sense—they are LOONS!
I imagine there is no end to this fraud. I just don’t understand their real agenda. These are the same people/blogs that attacked/banned Blue Pitbull and me. They are against Liberals AND Conservatives—makes no sense—they are LOONS!
Here are a couple more blogs: The Saint’s blog picture stolen from this legitimate blog and
this blog has Ryan Gosling’s photo.
I can tell you this: He/she/they didn't have any successful blogs, but dozens of crappy ones. malcontent's blog is one of the lamest I've come across since Right is Right/Zena sidekick. The nice thing is he/she is very, very easy to rile up.
Get them wound up and it's a string of cuss words and misspellings. He/she attacks Shaw and I as loons. They don't seem to understand, I don't care anymore. So malcontent can go ahead and fire away with the ban emails again. What he probably doesn't want are those emails he sent me getting out. They are too funny.
Good work Pam. I'll include that information in my final report.
BPB, I don't understand why the person/people who run those fraudulent blogs take other people's images. As I've said they could use animal photos or cartoons or any non-human avatar.
I think they steal people's images to lend legitimacy to the fake blogs.
I am interested in comparing notes. Has anyone received hate mail from 'chuckecheeze' at a hotmail address?
Responding to Pam's comment about these attacks not making sense, these appear to be partisan in nature but only on the surface. What drives this sort of behavior is not politics but a character disorder whose dominant sign is extreme aggression.
Perhaps Pam or TAO may recall a blogger with the moniker 'Time' (perhaps 18 months ago) who viciously attacked the author of Palace for a Princess (no longer on the web); not just against the author but against her children. The attacker in this case was a self-identified liberal who literally decompensated (i.e. to have a nervous breakdown) and unraveled on the Internet.
No, it is not always about politics or partisanship. The Internet also brings out a loony element, and we should keep this in mind before jumping to conclusions.
A minor clarification to my last comment. Some discussion threads may start out as partisan but quickly degenerate because some participants have anger issues, or low impulse control, or low self-esteem.
To some degree, all of us are guilty of being thin-skinned from time to time. Perhaps this is what makes it difficult to separate out the hotheads from the really crazy people.
What I could never figure out is why this community?
There are countless political bloggers out there in communities just like this. I rarely visit outside my link list but I've never noticed this type of thing anywhere else.
My former local blog community had idiots that post as, and still do as "anonymous" to make their blogs appear to have several commenters or more traffic than it really gets.
Maybe this kook is just incredibly lonely. Or thinks he/she's serving a cause. Who knows?
Good writing, right or left leaning impresses me. Not a horde of phony followers.
Octo: I do remember Time. He did start out very nice but turned vicious all of the sudden. It was appalling when he brought the children into the fray—that was totally unacceptable. What was scary was he wouldn’t stop either, even when we all ignored him. It took us reporting him to Blogger and I believe someone reported him to the police. Sigh…my goodness, some people are truly disturbed.
Shaw: How about these for your report:
Mary, Mary Quite Contrary using a German Advertising Site for her profile picture. Eric’s Eyes is using an Australian computer expert,Eric McCreath as his persona. A Right American is Jason Castriota, the Italian/American Car designer! And Sarah G hasn’t been blogging lately, probably because she’s too busy as a tennis pro! And wow, The Red Headed Sister has some sassy sunglasses!
But in all seriousness…this could go on forever! Are ANY of them REAL? PLUS the “About Me” of many of them are the same —they use asterisks in between the words—how many people do that AND follow the SAME blogs?
Anyone remember the lady who called herself "Loves to Debate."?
I traced her to the LB NY location a long time ago. She had the bald headed chick with the tuft of hair coming out the side. I told her I liked her hair and her "friends" jumped all over me for being judgemental. Strange how all her friends came from LB NY also and shared one of two ip numbers.
Huh.
Truth: Here is Loves to Debate. Check out her About Me and the asterisks. I swear there are dozens of blogs that use the asterisks.
I wonder why our community too. I have surfed the net and found other blogging communities that don't seem to have "issues" between Conservatives & Liberals, why do these trolls have a problem?
And I'm with you on having a few LOYAL followers rather than 120 fakes ones.
Pam,
Re: "The I Love to Debate," "Do We Still Believe in Liberty," "Therightwingpolitics blog."
The most recent post is April 1, 2009 in which the blogger states:
Do I Hate the way Obama is running America? Let me count the ways!
This is on the sidebar:
Welcome to the American Values website, for those who believe in the Constitution of the United States of America.
We are fast losing our freedoms as American citizens. Never before has there been such a threat to America's very existence.
The Onion could learn from this parody. I can't believe the person behind this blog is serious.
This post was written 2 months and 11 days into the Obama administration.
Found in the comment section of a blog:
Silverfiddle: "What I found funniest at that blog that accused Just Sue of using a fake picture: One of the commenters leveling the charge is using a picture of a sea creature!"
Silverfiddle is woefully wrong.
I did not accuse "Just Sue" of using a "fake picture." I accused the blogger who calls itself "Just Sue" of using a woman's REAL photo without her permission and then making up a profile full of lies to attach to that photo.
The second part of that comment shows that Silverfiddle doesn't understand the difference between stealing a REAL human being's image from the internet and making up a profile to attach to it and a harmless cartoon of a non-human image.
In SF's mind they're the same thing. No rational person would agree those two things are the same.
But in a certain parts of the blogsphere, there is no such thing as rational thought.
Shaw: Loves to Debate joined Blogger in February 2009 but began posting in October of 2008—how the heck did she manage THAT? Is she a Magician along with being a Singer, Model, Fitness instructor and Mother? Geez, I barely have enough time being a Mom and working 15 hrs a week! This chick is wonder woman!
P.S. I know how she posted, I was just making a point that again DECEPTION is alive and well. And if you notice she used asterisks in her About Me.
I’m so disgusted. To actually think I believed some of these people were real! UGH!
Shaw: I emailed Les to let him know what was going on and to also ask him if it was okay that I cross-post at RN USA. He got back to me right away and gave me the thumbs up, PLUS added an Editor's Note (at the end), you can read it here. I knew Les would be appalled at this behavior too but might not be aware of it and might not have enough time to post about it, and I was right. He's on board as I knew he would be.
When Obama was elected all of sudden you had all these new blogs pop up and they all said relatively the same thing...
But what you noticed was that they all started blogging the same month....
You would go for a month or two and no one new, then all of the sudden you would have all these newbies all with the same start date...
I figured Pam's blog was their training ground....and thats why I used to ask them about their new job, what was the probation period, were they paid by the hour or by the post....
I am sure that a lot of you did not understand what I was saying and probably thought I was nuts.
You will also note that there is no activity on their blogs on weekends and they never venture out of a very small circle of blogs....
Mal sits behing his blog, Heil Helga does the same as does the Wordsmith and they write posts about me, which all of these trolls then line up to add their stupid two cents to....
But I have never deleted a comment on my blog and not one of them have ever ventured outside their little caves to comment on my blog.
But I notice where my visitors come from so they are reading me....
So, now this whole wall of conservative bloggers comes tumbling down and the reality is there are less of them then there are of liberal bloggers...
Blogger should charge a small, one-time fee for setting up a blog - that would reduce some of these phony blogs.
If you REALLY want to "hit them where it hurts" how about charging fees for post misspellings and grammatical errors...Mal's posts would then certainly become rather expensive.
J Mopper, I don't think charging a samll fee of any kind would deter these unethical types because I think they are paid whores in the first place.
Updates: From your original post, )O( hasn't updated in over 2 weeks.
From Pamela Hart's submissions, one (the Saint's view) is gone, the other hasn't been updated in a yeaar.
Mary, Mary Quite Contrary is gone, as is
Eric’s Eyes. A Right American hasn't posted since March, Sarah G (as you mentioned) since May, The Red Headed Sister since May 2009.
If they were just trolls, they seem to have lost interest. (I guess )O( might just be busy.)
Cynic,
If they were trolls they moved on....
Or, maybe they created so many false blogs that they no longer can maintain all of them...
Maybe they suffered a funding shortfall and had to let a few people go...and now find themselves with more blogs than staff...
Ever read all the ads in the papers for jobs that you can do from home?
Truth and I used to monitor where our readers came from....and there were always a whole bunch of different readers all coming from the same town...
Nameless Cynic said...
"Mary, Mary Quite Contrary is gone, as is
Eric’s Eyes."
Well someone must be reading this blog because I checked those two yesterday and they were up.
Good riddance. They contributed nothing to rational discourse.
Nameless Cynic wrote: "A Right American hasn't posted since March, Sarah G (as you mentioned) since May, The Red Headed Sister since May 2009.
If they were just trolls, they seem to have lost interest. (I guess )O( might just be busy.)"
Yes. )O( is busy pretending to be the rocker, Karen O. LOL!
I think TAO and TRUTH got it right. These blogs are run by hired hacks. I've found that some of them keep their original URLs but change the look and the name of the blog.
Many of them are written in the same invective--the same voice. The profiles are hilariously always about being a loving wife, mother, loving husband, father.
One of them, "Professor of Life," who brags on his profile about being a loving husband and father, has his photo on a sexual dominance site where he says he's gone through a divorce and is now enjoying all the things he's learning there and using the techniques on his new "friend." LOL!
Well, the culprit is reading this comment section because those blogs were up and running last night when I posted the links and now they're gone. And maybe the culprit read my post: And any blog that has been set up or used in a deceitful manner should SHUT DOWN IMMEDIATELY.
Do we dare think the culprit has a conscience? In any event, I'm glad we've gotten rid of at least a couple of these fake blogs and maybe there will be more to come as I'm not through with my investigative work.
Tao: I remember those times when you asked if they were getting paid or if they were on OT, etc. I knew what you meant but still didn't realize it was only a few people. I guess I just couldn't imagine a few people setting up so many blogs!
Pam, I remember how you used to chastize me for not being polite and I would just laugh to myself and say, "but they aren't real"
I have one blog, I have very few links and I never use keywords on my posts BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO BE FOUND!
Then when my blog starts getting too much traffic I shut it down and start all over...
I am not interested in playing war games on the internet....no one needs to "cover my back" and I don't need "reinforcements"
Now, if someone was willing to pay me....then I just might be willing to change!
Real people cannot sustain the hate that some of these bloggers profess day in and day out.
Its fake.
People who profess how religious they are one minute and then start hurling cuss words the next...well, they ain't real either.
I will admit that there are a couple of liberal bloggers that scare me...because they seem to be one screw away from a meltdown....but truthfully, I could name over 20 conservative bloggers that are either fakes or have lost that last screw....
I give them a benefit of the doubt and say they are fakes because if they lost that last screw their families would have had them committed by now...
If you want I can get you a list....
Here's another stolen identity and it's disgusting. The Thin Blue Line has stolen the identity of a dead police officer. What a scum bag.
Someone stole a police officers photo an officer who died doing his job on 03/09 and they start blogging under his photo on 07/09...
THAT is so wrong....so vile....
So void of any sense of decency...
Someone stole a police officers photo an officer who died doing his job on 03/09 and they start blogging under his photo on 07/09...
THAT is so wrong....so vile....
So void of any sense of decency...
Someone stole a police officers photo an officer who died doing his job on 03/09 and they start blogging under his photo on 07/09...
THAT is so wrong....so vile....
So void of any sense of decency...
How did he serve in Oakland for 17 years and NYC simultaneously? Perhaps he had to get the DeLorean up to 88mph.
Seriously, it is sick.
Hadn't thought about astroturf groups setting up a string of fake sites, but it makes as much sense as anything else they do.
Explains why a lot of the comment sections on some of the more obscure sites seem to not be monitored. (I like toddling around the Dark Side now and again - it's good to keep an eye on the mouthbreathers...)
Pam,
I wrote my blog post before reading the comments here. I need to talk to you because we working on the same blogs!
Thanks to you and the information you gave me months ago, I can find these fake blogs thru a special site you clued me onto.
You are using it as well.
When I checked The Thin Blue Line, I used the site you gave me and found what you found and began a post immediately.
This blog is especially heartless.
I can't tell you how angry I am that someone would use this deceased officer as a "beard" for his/her fake blog.
It is unforgivable!
Again, thank you for all the help on this.
It — is impossible.
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