Photo Stealers

Thief:  24/7 PROtography / Benjamin Ramalho Photography
Link:  http://www.247protography.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/BenjaminRamalhoPhotography  https://www.facebook.com/247PROtography

This thief was messaged to me by one of the multiple people they’ve stolen from.  

I couldn’t possibly source all images on his site as it is flash and requires a bit of work but here’s just a tiny amount of the work on his site that is stolen.  You may want to peruse the galleries to see if there is anything that is yours or someone you know. 

*** there are MULTIPLE updates to this thread, keep scrolling until the end ***

In the senior portfolio on their website (these images also are featured on the Facebook) the first few images are from Prestige Portraits’ senior gallery.  

The original source of the image, Prestige Portraits.

24/7’s Senior Gallery has quite a few of Prestige’s images to start the gallery off.  Here is another image from their senior gallery.

This image, above, seen here on the owner’s portfolio on their site. 

Another image from the gallery.

These images are of Karly from Connie Riggio Photography.

Another image in the senior gallery that is stolen.

This image and the other equine images are from Peter Demott Photography. 

I decided to hop over to the wedding gallery and see what I could find there and low and behold we open up with a set of images that are also stolen.  

These images are stolen from Matt Andrews Photography.  

This is the next in the series of stolen images in the wedding gallery of a bride in a seemingly southern plantation or mansion. 

This series of images was stolen from Aslinn Kate Photography.  

The following series of images that are stolen in the gallery.

This image - and the others in the series - are stolen from Jamie Lee Photography.

UPDATE 8/21:  Here’s what Benjamin has to say about being caught on his Facebook Page:

I will never understand why when caught, thieves tend to deny and act like they are in the right somehow.  Here’s a tip: if you do get caught, apologize.  It’s that simple.  

So, since he pissed me off with his Facebook denials, I’m going back and screen capping more images to prove my point, he’s a thief.  He removed the images I screen capped but left others that he’d stolen.

Another image from his senior section which should look familiar if you perused Prestige Portraits gallery yesterday.

The original image on Prestige Portraits site, which he has heavily borrowed from. 

The second image in the slideshow on the Senior gallery.

Yet again, stolen from Prestige Portraits.

The third image in the slideshow of 24/7’s senior gallery.

Stolen again from Prestige Portraits.

Fourth image in the Senior Gallery.

It is of course, stolen from Prestige Portraits. 

The 5th image in their slideshow of seniors.

The image on Prestige Portraits website. 

The 6th image is an obvious change of style from the first 5 images in the series. 

Which it would be if you were using a new source to steal from, here is the source from Halberg Photographers.

The 7th image is the same girl as the 6th, which to the normal user would make this photographer seem more legit since there are multiple images of the same people.

It’s the second image from Halberg Photography’s blog above. 

The editing style changes again in the next image in the gallery.

It changed again because it’s another stolen image from Prestige Portraits.

The following image in the senior slideshow is another great image.

Which of course has been stolen as well from Prestige Portraits. 

Low and behold!  FINALLY at image 11 in the slideshow we stumble upon a picture that this photographer ACTUALLY TOOK!  Images 11-16 appear to be his own work as there are not any outside sources for these images and they are also on his Facebook page.

At image 17 we’re back to a different style of photography, which raises flags.

This image is stolen from Photography by Karma Hill, whom is in Maui.  

The next image in the slideshow is again a departure from style.

This image is yet another stolen from Prestige Portraits.

Another image of the same girl above, which we now know isn’t his work.

The sourced image for the above from Prestige Portraits.

Finally the last image in the gallery.

Stolen again from Prestige Portraits.

As you can see, in the senior gallery of 20 images, 5 were 24/7 Photography’s own work (hidden in the middle) with 15 images stolen from other photographers all around the country.

The first image that now opens in the Wedding Gallery is this image.

This is apparently a stock image as it’s all over the photo book sites.  

The following image on the gallery is a lovely wedding image that any bride would be thrilled with.

This image was stolen from Elizabeth Anne Designs and was taken by A Bryan Photo. 

The rest of the images in the Wedding Gallery are his own work, he removed the slew of stolen images that I referenced in the original post and put his own in from a wedding he shot in April. 

Now onto the babies gallery which opens with this lovely image.

I can’t find a direct source but it appears to be a stock image that is pretty much everywhere on the web including this site for wallpapers.  

Second image in the Newborn gallery.

Stolen from Life Focus Photo/Erica Clements Photography.

Fourth image in the newborn gallery.

It is also stolen from Erica Clements Photography. 

Another image in the gallery.

Stolen from Lynn Quinlivan Photography. 

Another image that is a collage in the gallery.

Stolen from AV Photography.

Another image.

Stolen from Mr & Mrs Potatohead Blog which was taken by Pink Paisley Photography but is not on their photography site.

Another gallery image from 24/7.

Stolen from Melissa Hassey Photography.

The following image on the newborn gallery on 24/7 Protography’s site.

The image is stolen from Orange Rose Photography.

Another stolen image in the gallery.

Stolen from Sweet Things Photography blog.  I did two screencaps so you could see the blog since the image is pretty far down and has no watermarks.

The next stolen image in the gallery.

Stolen from Lindsay Horn Photography.

Another gallery image

The image stolen from Michelle Janet Photography.

While I was working on these 24/7 started removing them but luckily I was able to screen capture them all before he removed them.  Thank you to those helping me source these photographers and notify them of their stolen works. 

This is an image in the artistic section, which is made MOSTLY up of Benjamin’s legitimate work.  

This image is also seen on his Facebook gallery.  It is also featured in many of his cover image collages. 

The image is actually from Slinky Genius. 

UPDATE 8/21 @ 3:30PM:  

Running commentary as this updates/changes:

1. If these images were all truly yours, why are you deleting the images that are screen captured and sourced from your website?

2. There are more than 2 photographers work here that has been stolen.  So far I have verified with 5 companies that Benjamin Ramalho NOR 24/7 PROtography are associated with their businesses.  For the record he’s stolen from photographers in Ohio, Maui, Florida, Massachusetts, Tennessee etc. 

3.  Why are you deleting the haters if they don’t bother you?

4.  So to keep you straight, originally he blamed his staff, then he said he was part of a photographer group and the images were examples of those photographers in this group and now it’s that he admired these photos and added them to his gallery (with watermarks mind you) but that wasn’t stealing.  

UPDATE 8/21 @ 4:30PM:  He’s also got some craigslist ads that are chock full of stolen images.  

The first of two ads currently on Craigslist. 

Not a SINGLE one of these image Benjamin took.  NOT ONE.

Which makes the above text somewhat hilarious.

Ad #2 on Craigslist.

Another collage of stolen images.  Most of these should look familiar from the screen caps above. 

I’m starting from the top of the wedding collage and moving down left to right in order of appearance. 

The top three images in the collage are from this post on Elizabeth Anne Designs by Yellow House Photography.

The first image on the second row is from Elizabeth Scott Photography.

The second image on the second row is from Santa Barbara Wedding Style by Melissa Musgrove Photography.

Ok now the images are kind of everywhere so I’m going in the general top to down method.  These images were stolen from Elizabeth Anne Designs (seeing a pattern here?) originally taken by Red Bird Hills. 

This bridesmaid image was taken from Elizabeth Anne Designs and was photographed by Artful Weddings by Sachs Photography.

This is another image taken from Elizabeth Anne Designs by Jennifer Kathryn Photography.

Another stolen images from Elizabeth Anne Designs photographed by Karlisch Photography.

Finally!  A new source!  The Full Bouquet wedding as photographed by Genevieve Leiper Photography.

Another stolen image from Elizabeth Anne Designs photographed by Clary Photo.

UPDATE 8/21 @ 5:45PM: He’s deleted the Craigslist ads. 

UPDATE 8/21 @ 6PM:  I stand corrected, there is still one left.

UPDATE 8/21 @ 6:30PM:

FINALLY!  AN APOLOGY!

UPDATE 8/21 @ 10PM: Ha ha, nevermind.  Apparently the apology is only TWO of the photographers he stole from, not the dozens as seen above.  I’m tempted to tally it up now. 

OK here’s the tally of the photographers he’s stolen from, which far exceeds TWO.  Also, these are just the few I was able to capture and source.  I’m one person and there are a lot there were used in ads and on the site that I didn’t capture and source before he started removing things.  This list has been updated with all images from the photographers in the Craigslist ads included. 

1. Prestige Portraits
2. Connie Reggio Photography
3. Peter DeMott Photography
4. Matt Andrews Photography
5. Aslinn Kate Photography
6. Jamie Lee Photography
7. Halberg Photographers
8. Karma Hill Photographers
9. A Bryan Photo
10. Erica Clements Photography
11. Lynn Quinlivan Photography
12. AV Photography
13. Pink Paisley Photography
14. Melissa Hassey Photography
15. Orange Rose Photography
16. Sweet Things Photography
17. Lindsay Horn Photography
18. Michelle Janet Photography
19. Slinky Genius
20. Yellow House Photography
21. Elizabeth Scott Photography
22. Melissa Musgrove Photography
23. Red Bird Hills
24. Artful Weddings by Sachs Photography
25. Jennifer Kathryn Photography
26. Karlisch Photography
27. Genevieve Leiper Photography
28. Clary Photo
29. Hillary Maybery Photography
30. MQ Photography
31. Kylene and Ryan Studios
32. Grey Photography
33. Hazelnut Photography
34. Laurie Peacock Photography
35. Autumn Burke Photography
36. Souder Photography/Love is a Big Deal
37. Marvin Tsai

UPDATE 8/21 @ 11:30PM:

He’s threatening to sue me for defamation, DMCA and RCW violations.  

Contact from my website contact form:

“XXXXX appreciate you taking the time to do the stop stealing post on Tumblr. We received a pile of emails informing us you had posted it. With the assistance of Tumblr and their IT dept, evidence shows you may be responsible for the post which violates various RCW and DMCA codes. (RCW violation didn’t happen until you changed the link on Tumblr for our Facebook account on 8/21/12). Ironically, our Facebook page was scheduled for change last Friday as we’re no longer operating under Benjamin, rather a combined group licensed under 24/7 PROtography. We now have a DMCA order and docs Tumblr will have to go through evaluating if your account fits criteria set forth in the Users Agreement for termination. We wish to avoid all this and resolve any differences amicably and professionally. With help from others on Facebook including but not limited to Tumblr, Steven Wright from Tumblr IT group, Jackie Kelps of Account Admin, we’ve obtained enough evidence and image property screenshots from the posting which implicates you on violating various RCW codes as well as numerous DMCA statutes and codes. If you’re looking to continue the defamation of 24/7 PROtography for images which were promptly resolved with the rightful owner(s), we’ll be happy to pursue this with both legal action and follow through with all DMCA docs and a court order to have Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook evaluate your account(s) for violating their own User Agreements. We wish to rectify this amicably, swiftly, and professionally leaving out any unnecessary actions. We’ve admitted our faults and openly apologized for using some images found on Google (literally, just googled “wedding images” and found some to fill in new site and Facebook fan page. Forgot they were even on the site and Facebook, but pleased to know they are no longer on there. It was not intelligent on our part to use such images). We’ve deleted them from FB and our site. There is not one left as of 8:05pm (PST). We have done all we can to !

ensure all points that upset any user is resolved. You mentioned another image which you found that was taken by someone else; it too has been deleted and removed from our system. This is not a practice we condone, rather it was simply an action intended to fill in blanks on the site and Facebook with the intent at time to remove promptly upon filling in with our own images. We are at fault for failing to do so previously.

We did not want to post this on Facebook as our goal is not to taint your Facebook page with such a topic. We respect your space in the digital world, and hope we’ve rectified any complaints that you had.

We are asking before any legal actions are made, we formally ask that you to remove the Tumblr posting as here, posted for any purpose you deem notable, we admit fault posting some images found on Google which we discovered we not open source images. We admit no faults on either party, but adhere to make all parties happy. Is there anything you need from our firm to further make a decision on the removal? If we have not resolved this by Friday, August 24th, 2012, 12pm noon (PST), we will presume formal action must be made to have posting removed followed by account reviews.

Please feel free to call me directly or via email. We truly wish to just resolve this as we were out of line and want to fix it whole heartedly in its entirety. ”

About 15 minutes later I recieved the following email:

Dear xxxxxxxxx,

appreciate you taking the time to do the stop stealing post on Tumblr.  We received a pile of emails informing us you had posted it.  With the assistance of Tumblr and their IT dept, evidence shows you may be responsible for the post which violates various RCW and DMCA codes.  (RCW violation didn’t happen until you changed the link on Tumblr for our Facebook account on 8/21/12).  Ironically, our Facebook page was scheduled for change last Friday as we’re no longer operating under Benjamin, rather a combined group licensed under 24/7 PROtography.  We now have a DMCA order and docs Tumblr will have to go through evaluating if your account fits criteria set forth in the Users Agreement for termination.  We wish to avoid all this and resolve any differences amicably and professionally.  With help from others on Facebook including but not limited to Tumblr, Steven Wright from Tumblr IT group, Jackie Kelps of Account Admin, we’ve obtained enough evidence and image property screenshots from the posting which implicates you on violating various RCW codes as well as numerous DMCA statutes and codes.  If you’re looking to continue the defamation of 24/7 PROtography for images which were promptly resolved with the rightful owner(s), we’ll be happy to pursue this with both legal action and follow through with all DMCA docs and a court order to have Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook evaluate your account(s) for violating their own User Agreements.  We wish to rectify this amicably, swiftly, and professionally leaving out any unnecessary actions.  We’ve admitted our faults and openly apologized for using some images found on Google (literally, just googled “wedding images” and found some to fill in new site and Facebook fan page.  Forgot they were even on the site and Facebook, but pleased to know they are no longer on there.  It was not intelligent on our part to use such images).  We’ve deleted them from FB and our site.  There is not one left as of 8:05pm (PST).  We have done all we can to ensure all points that upset any user is resolved.  You mentioned another image which you found that was taken by someone else; it too has been deleted and removed from our system.  This is not a practice we condone, rather it was simply an action intended to fill in blanks on the site and Facebook with the intent at time to remove promptly upon filling in with our own images.  We are at fault for failing to do so previously.

We did not want to post this on Facebook as our goal is not to taint your Facebook page with such a topic.  We respect your space in the digital world, and hope we’ve rectified any complaints that you had.

We are asking before any legal actions are made, we formally ask that you to remove the Tumblr posting as here, posted for any purpose you deem notable, we admit fault posting some images found on Google which we discovered we not open source images.  We admit no faults on either party, but adhere to make all parties happy.  Is there anything you need from our firm to further make a decision on the removal?  If we have not resolved this by Friday, August 24th, 2012, 12pm noon (PST), we will presume formal action must be made to have posting removed followed by account reviews.

Please feel free to call me directly or via email.  We truly wish to just resolve this as we were out of line and want to fix it whole heartedly in its entirety.

*You mentioned something about 28 Photographers work had been used?  We’ve spoken to Karli from Prestige, Mark, and Connie.  Together it appears all work was theirs with the exception of the gentleman you named Michael.  I didn’t get to speak direct to Connie, but she expressed which photos were hers and my apologies were immediately given as well as the images she claimed were promptly taken off site and Facebook.  The image you mentioned taken by Michael has been removed as well.  Now I know, each and EVERY photo on site is strictly property of 24/7 PROtography.

If you would like to reach me via phone, I have no personal hard feeling about this matter and am quite impressed by your dedication and thoroughness in this matter.  Feel free to call me if there is any last requests you have and suggestions.  This has been a learning experience for us all here, and are pleased to know we’ve made things as best we can.  Speaking with Mark and Karli, it appears they are satisfied with the outcome of us promptly removing the work, and expressing our sincere apologies for anything that may have upset them.  Given these facts, and pursuant with section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act, we will have to pursue court order for removal if we cannot amicably resolve this like professional adults.  Everything about you appears to be civil, educated, and willing to work with an entity if all parties are fair.

Sincerely,

Benjamin 253-970-1344

for the tl;dr folks: he’s threatening to sue me and the second email is a duplicate of the first save for the final paragraph questioning where I got 28 photographers from.

1.  I have been in contact with almost all 28 photographers that you have stolen from, listed above.  Not a single one has stated that you were given permission to use their images, nor have this been resolved with many of them as you have yet to apologize to most of them.  

2.  I’m not quite sure what my personal Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest accounts have to do with this case.

3.  If you, in fact, just Googled “wedding images” and used these images to fill in your site as place holders with no ill will, how do you explain how the original logo watermarks from the copyright holder were removed and replaced with your own logo?  Furthermore, how do you explain your Craigslist ads in which multiple images were used which were not your own.  Also, there were multiple stolen baby and senior images which would have not come up under a “wedding images” Google search. 

4.  Defamation ≠ telling the truth.  Never once has anything derogatory been said about your site other than the works that you were using to represent your photography company were other photographers copyrighted works of art. 

5.  There are still some stolen works on both your Facebook and Website. 

6.  Screen captures of the stolen works on your site fall under Fair Use, which makes your DMCA invalid. 

7.  Section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act reads as follows, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”  Basically, this is what law protects Tumblr from being sued for anything I say.  This has nothing to do with the case at hand.

8.  I would have considered removing this blog post in the beginning had you of admitted you were wrong in your actions and apologized to the photographers and clients immediately.  Instead, you chose to deny and come up with bizarre stories about the reasoning behind the theft and ultimately threaten me if I don’t remove this post.  

9. Beyond violating the photographers copyrights, have you thought about the additional fact that you also did not have model releases from any of the people that were pictured in your ads, Facebook and website?  To legally use a persons likeness for business purposes, this is required by law.  Quite a few of the photographers were more stressed about the stolen images of their clients children being on a strangers website than they were about the violations of their own copyrights.  

UPDATE 8/22 @ 3AM:

I’m up and I’m irritated enough not to be tired so I figured I would finish the sourcing I started on the Craigslist wedding collage from 24/7’s advertisement.

This image is from the same wedding stolen from Jaime Lee Photography in the original wedding gallery (there were multiple images in the gallery from this wedding).  Multiple images from this wedding are used in the Craigslist ad. 

This image seen on Elizabeth Anne Designs was taken by Hillary Maybery.

This image as seen on Elizabeth Anne Designs was taken by MQ Photography.

This image as seen on Elizabeth Anne Designs was taken by Kylene and Ryan Studios.

This image as seen on Elizabeth Anne Designs was taken by Grey Photography.

Multiple images as seen on Elizabeth Anne Designs were taken by Hazelnut Photography.

This image on Elizabeth Anne Designs was taken by Laurie Peacock. 

This image on Elizabeth Anne Designs was taken by Autumn Burke.

This image on Elizabeth Anne Designs was taken by Souder Photography.

This image on Elizabeth Anne Designs was taken by Marvin Tsai.

This brings the grand total of photographers that had work stolen to 37 adding this additional 9 additional photographers that images were used in the Craigslist advertisement. 

UPDATE 8/22 @ 1PM:

He’s still deleting comments as fast as they are being posted on his Facebook wall.  I’ve recieved replies to most of the emails I sent out the latest batch of photographers and thus far NONE work with this photographer nor ever have heard of him or his studio before.  

Here is a rundown of how his story/response has changed through this process - IN ORDER

1. The people accusing me are just jealous haters.
2. Those are my partner sites, we work directly together.
3. Those people stole images from me.
4. I’ll talk to my staff and see what happened, will have a staff meeting regarding this.
5. The people who are accusing me of stealing have had their Facebook accounts hacked.
6. If you dislike the images or find them offensive, then report them to Facebook.
7. They were already on my site when I bought it.
8. I only put a couple of images on my site as placeholders.
9. I Googled “wedding photography” and chose images that I admired, then used them because I didn’t know they weren’t free to use.
10. Lightroom put the watermark on the photos, not me (note that in several cases, he removed the original watermarks).
11. I never used anything stolen on my site. He literally said this, despite admitting 10 minutes earlier that he had taken images off Google: “Nothing you have ever admired or commented on was anyone else’s work but my own.”
12. I did steal the photos, and I am ashamed. I welcome any negative comments you have to say about me. (even though at this point he continued to delete anything negative said about him and leave only the positive messages)
13. My apology is only to two photographers. I didn’t take from anyone else.
14. Okay fine, I stole from 3 photographers, but that’s it.
15. If you tell people I stole photos, I’m going to sue you for defamation.

UPDATE 8/22 @ 2PM

For those wondering what copyrighted works he’s still using on his site and/or Facebook as his own, the below screen captures.

This image is a edited version of a stock image, the legalities on this are in a somewhat grey area but it is definitely not 100% his own work, which he is claiming is what is on his website and Facebook now.

One of the many uses that the stock image has seen on other websites and advertisements including this page. 

This collage, used for a cover image, features the image sourced above that is on the far left that is Slinky Genius’s original work. 

As for his website, the following page still appears when you click on the gallery section which shows you the opening image for the Newborn Gallery, which is not his own, as referenced above. 

UPDATE 8/22 @ 3:30PM

I assumed when I posted the above screen captures that he would have something to say.  I was right, it’s another threat.  

Link to the post on Facebook.  

For the tl:dr folks - he is reiterating he is going to sue me but he says he’s not threatening me. 

1.  I never once called you a bad person on this site, nor elsewhere.  So that stance has no merit when it comes to defamation.  

2.  The above emails were in fact directly copied from what you sent to me, which you should know as you sent them yourself.   Per the email and missive sent through my contact form on my website, as shown above, “We are asking before any legal actions are made, we formally ask that you to remove the Tumblr posting as here, posted for any purpose you deem notable, we admit fault posting some images found on Google which we discovered we not open source images. We admit no faults on either party, but adhere to make all parties happy. Is there anything you need from our firm to further make a decision on the removal? If we have not resolved this by Friday, August 24th, 2012, 12pm noon (PST), we will presume formal action must be made to have posting removed followed by account reviews.”  This is a threat to sue if I do not remove the posts. 

3.  The owners of your images went to Facebook when you flat out lied to them stating that the images were yours as well as their friends.  I eventually posted a couple times stating that you did not steal from TWO photographers as you were claiming but 28.  Which is now up to 37 not including the original photographers of the stock images you also have used in your portfolio.