[Update] Auction on Ebay With Images Stolen From Getty Images?

A hint from a reader indicates that dozens of images which probably belong to Getty Images are up for auction on Ebay.

The images are probably taken by various photographers and probably belong to the Getty entertainment & celebrity section.

A first hint reported 88 images, but we have found 189 images. Some images seem to be very recent, including ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) awards photos from May 18th 2004, and without watermarks. The average image price is about $3,80 (Emma Watson: $28). The image description mostly says "This is an 4x6" photograph as pictured below. This is not an inkjet or laser printout, it is a real photograph from a professional photo lab. The lab typically usually uses FUJI paper."

The name of the Ebay seller is "littlecria" (look at the Member Profile: "Member since: May-24-04, Location: United States"): "If you're looking for a certain celebrity, feel free to contact me and I'll will let you know if I have anything available on that celeb. I have several thousand photos and have many more celebrities than are listed at any given time."

[Update: 10 hours after this message appeared the images have been removed. This clearly indicates that the images were - as hinted - from Getty Images. The question remains: how could it have been possible that dozens of watermark protected images from the leading picture agency in the world appear for auction on ebay? The person must have been registered at Getty, downloaded 1 8 9 images (a value of at least $37,800, calculating with $200/image), removed the watermark (how?), went to a professional photo lab to make 4x6" photograph, started an auction on ebay and - up to this point - no one had a clue... . Uhm, by the way, we downloaded all 189 images from ebay as large files, wanna buy some? Maybe we should put them on ebay and ... to be serious, we guess the images are circulating, it is indisputable that a member of the napster generation would treat these files just like any other file.]

Comments

[Benjamin Kanarek]

Just wanted to tell everyone that my editorial is on the opening page of Hint "Mag" called "Killer Instinct":

http://www.hintmag.com

I also have the cover and three fashion editorials in the new issue number 12 of "All Access" Magazine UK.

Ben

[Anders Bildbyrå]

Image theft of becoming more a problem. I have seen images from Getty, Corbis, etc sold for a couple of dollars in Russia, Brazil and Asia. I have even seen images for sale using CD titles from the big agencies with cheap "fake" images included instead. Can this ever be stopped?