Hi I've just found an online medal dealer use a very detailed reply I posted about an event in Greece 19444 as a back story to the sale of a long service medal for a WO Harper REME. It was sold for £150. 331 Armoured Brigade Company RASC, Greece (December 1944) Long Service Medals & Miscellaneous | J Collins Medals I see no credit has been given for my work. Not even any note of thanks. I get a lot of self satisfaction helping other forum members with their research, so I am very reluctant to just stop posting, because of one individual case. I might have to think about emailing more detailed information to members in the future if someone is going to hijack it for their own financial gain. Or quote my work without giving due credit. Miffed. :-( Gus
I suspected recently that very much same thing happened to info I posted. Wasn't flattered but I laughed. I reminded myself that the majority of the material itself was already in the public domain: I simply transcribed and collated on here. If nothing else the very fact that I shared it on here proves that I did some work. Restricting info-sharing to PM'ing etc won't guarantee that this'd never happen again. For every person making use of the info in that manner there are countless others out there who are grateful for the help with their family research. To be honest much of the time I post info up merely to please/occupy myself!
Gus, you're right to be miffed, but hope it doesn't deter you. I for one am very grateful for the material you have provided. Far further down on the crime scale, I've had photographs of books I own used as illustrative pictures to sell (presumably inferior) copies of the same book on eBay. It only bothers me because I'm sure it's a minor form of deception towards the ultimate buyer. dbf, collation and transcription can be a slab of monotonous work that makes the more pleasant end of research much easier; it may not be very glamorous, but you deserve credit for it.
The dealer uses the post-nominal letters A.R.R.C.--I think that means you should report him to the Red Cross or something. Conduct unbecoming a nurse. Sounds dodgy as hell.
I remember the days when I was a newcomer to the forum and knew very little.And it was the generosity of others on this forum who gave their time and effort to help educate and inform me. It is because of that I do the same for others. Researching ww2 is not an easy subject. So a simple "Big thanks to GMYLES" would have done.
Hi Gus, The same thing happened to me a few months back regarding the sale of a very rare gallantry medal. The dealer did a straight cut and paste from my website. If he had asked I probably would have allowed him to use my material. With the provenance of my research the medal was worth quite a bit more on the open market than without it. Either way, I could not afford to purchase it, although I would have loved to. I made my decision many moons ago to publish a website rather than a book on Chindit 1. I have shared information with many other families who lost loved ones in Burma during 1943, many more than if some obscure book sat out there on Amazon. I've accepted, however annoying it might be, that once and a while someone will pilfer my work for their own gain. It is irritating, but almost impossible to prevent from happening. Steve
Hi I wrote a stern email to the website and an apologetic reply has come back stating that the story was provided by the seller of the medal, whoever that was. The website owner has agreed to take my material down. Gus
Sadly this is becoming a regular occurrence especially on ebay where I have contacted loads of sellers to remind them to credit their sources especially from here ,my most recent reminder a few months ago brought back a reply which said " I would rather remove it than credit it" ! It isn`t confined to medals either a well known auction house last year offered a photograph album of `Belsen` related images together with a portrait photograph of the alleged original owner ,Estimate £180-200. The photograph of the `owner` had been culled from a website I had visited on contacting the webmaster they kindly put me in touch with the `soldiers` grand-daughter who confirmed her Grandfather had been taken prisoner in 1941 and was not liberated until 1945 and he was never near Belsen let alone photographed it . I contacted the auction house weeks before the sale asking them to have another look at the authenticity their reply...well they didn`t! The purchaser was sold a pup for nearly £200! Let the buyer beware ! Kyle
The trouble is when we post the whole world can view and cut and paste to their hearts content. Common courtesy is to ask if ok to use and im sure we all will say yes keep posting but as you did if it gets ripped off chase them up
What annoys me most about one man who copies photos from my Facebook page is that he puts them on his website with misleading information .For example he will assume that because a soldier served with a certain Battalion, he was at all the battles they were involved in. I have tried telling him that he is making assumptions and that injury and illness etc would have affected deployment but still he includes the info with the photo.
Gus Forgive me if I consider that you owe it to all the other members of this forum who have had similar experiences, to write to the "Gentleman" concerned, pointing out that his action of failing to acknowledge the original source is beyond the pale ! Best regards Ron
Reminds me of D-Day Overlord website shamelessly pinching material from here and numerous other websites. Scumbag still won't remove material, and claims its all his copyright, despite repeated takedown requests. Tosser.
I suspect that a lot of people consider that 'found it on the internet' is a source in itself and there for anyone to help themselves. They consider a quick 'Google' to be original research. It's certainly nasty if they then claim copyright on it. I'm a little wary of a general condemnation as it is all to easy to 'save' images and the like and then not be sure where they have come from. That said, I don't have any commercial interests and don't sell on the internet so anything that I might do is purely in the hobby sphere. I don't think there is much that can be done. Some people are simply 'takers' and don't put in the effort and that isn't going to change.
Hi The website has complied and my stuff is no longer there. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Gus
Gus, glad you've got an outcome that seems satisfactory. I just hope that the negative aspects discussed on this thread won't put off other members from sharing on this forum. Freely sharing information is the reason why the forum exists as well as the reason why many of us were attracted to join in the first place. In my experience the positives outweigh the negatives every time... and I've even been on the receiving end of a complaint!
