Content lifting

I have spent years creating media content at a great expense of time and money.  I have had a camera in my hand since I was in my teens and have always created what is called "content" now.  When I started taking photos I took photos of my friends and weird things in my environment.   It has changed over the years to shooting food, artistic things and making short films and even working on a documentary.   I had to stop making short films because I couldn't afford to do it anymore.  I had to sell my video camera at a huge loss and haven't had the time it takes to assemble the things and people needed to do it justice.  I have also stopped because I started feeling ripped off.  I would spend a huge amount of time trying to create a short film and expense of submitting it to film festivals to receive nothing in return even if it was accepted into a small festival.  But what is getting to me now is finding my images or trailers on other people's websites but no notification has been sent to me and sometimes not even credit.   Have you ever googled yourself?  Try that and see what comes up on other people's sites.  

My images have appeared on BLOGTO, and I just found one on TORONTO LIFE and an old image I took in the 80's appears in a video promotion for an artist.   These are professional entities that get paid for their work.  I created the content but have not received any compensation for any of these images.

I found one of my short film posters and trailer on some website asking the question is it offensive?  How would they know unless they had seen the whole thing.  It has not been sold for distribution anywhere and it hasn't even been shown at a film festival.  It has only been submitted to a few festivals so what gives them the right to propagate my materials for their own gain?

I admit that I have used some images on my blog but if I am able to credit the author I do.  I usually only use images that promote events and illustrate something like a holiday or a logo to promote an event and most of the time the event producers are aware that I am promoting their event.

Taking photos comes naturally to me.  I am constantly striving to take better quality images with very basic tools.

I am going to try to only use my own content but I hope that other people stop using mine for their own gain.  I can honestly tell you that I am not compensated for my content on this blog.  The only compensation I may receive is a ticket to an event where I can create my original content.   As I said I have invested a lot of time creating content and I don't want to have to stop because everyone decides to steal it.   Make your own content or pay for it or at least give the creator credit.

Sorry.. this rant has been building up and I had to put it out there to those people who do not understand copyright and content respect.

I suppose I should be flattered that people have noticed my content and thought it useful enough to steal it but I also find it disturbing to have to find it by accident online.

thanks for reading this whole rant..