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Sit right back for a weird scam story.... (thread)
I got an email from writer @ericsanjuan, he'd used my photo of @petersagal running in chicago on his blog. It's a lovely photo and you're free to use it.... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Running_Man_Kyle_Cassidy.jpg as long as you credit me ....
A few days later, Eric gets an email from some dude with the improbably name of "Aldwin Sturdivant" who says "hey, you used my photo and didn't credit me...."
"Aldwin Sturdivant" says he is the content editor of some place called Green Cap Marketing ( http://greencapmarketing.com/ ) which claims to track down photo thieves and make them pay royalties to photographers (nice idea)....
And Eric is like "oh heck! i thought i credited the photo properly!" so he goes back to wikipedia and he sees that "Aldwin Sturdivant" has actually edited the caption on the photo to say that he took it ... ***with a Samsung WB35F point and shoot*** ...
Which is funny, because I took it with a Nikon d800, an off camera wireless strobe and two assistants.....
Aldwin's credited for taking dozens of photos on Wikipedia ( https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=500&offset=0&profile=default&search=%22A.+Sturdivant%22&advancedSearch-current={}&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1) with a variety of random cameras.
I'm guessing http://GreenCapMarketing.com just rewrites wikipedia pages, claims authorship, and tries to sue people. So ... if any of you are wikipedia editors and want to look into this ... have at it and let me and @ericsanjuan and @petersagal know what comes of it.
This is sh!tty because it takes money from artists, & it takes money from people who are trying to do the right thing & credit artists. It's particularly disappointing because "Aldwin Sturdivant" hasn't bothered to take his own photos and contribute to society....
It would be sweet if I could hire green cap marketing to sue green cap marketing..... Anyway. This concludes my TED talk. #AdoptDontShop
