An Apology

Dweller · Feb 21, 2005

I was experimenting over the weekend with gallery software. I only had a dozen or so pics scanned at the time and I wanted to see how on paticular software would handle larger gallerys so I dumped in 60-80 pics I have saved from my wanderings on the net.

Some of them came from users here.

Due to how I had the webspace setup I essentially had an "open directory" sitting at the name and anyone that happened to go there could start digging and find these gallerys. I had 2 friends testing the gallerys remotely for me, and asked them both to not disclose the URL to anyone.

Someone from here found some of their work on the gallery and asked that I remove it. I did so immediatly after explaining why his work was "out in the wild" like that. I had no intentions of that gallery ever being publically accessable but I was not careful and did not realize how easily it could be accessed.

If your work was in that gallery I apologize. I did not intend to make it part of the actual gallery. I needed something to pump it up so I could test it and failed to remove it in a timely manner. I had moved it to a /temp/ folder while I tried some new software and forgot to go in and remove it.

I have since closed the open directory structure, deleted all traces of this pictures from the site, and sent that user an apology... but its possible that work from others here was accessible as well.

I am sorry for that. I made a mistake and meant no harm. This paticular user is some whos work I admire and I feel terrible for what I did.

Digital Matt · Feb 21, 2005

No problem. I see why you did it, and your apology is accepted. I may have jumped the gun, but at first it did appear to be a rip. I've had a recent run-in with someone ripping a lot of work from various photographers, so I'm on the lookout.

Thanks for being honest about it. No harm done.

ferny · Feb 21, 2005

Do you still have other peoples photos that you haven't asked permission for? It may be wise to ask before you do anything with them if you do.
Most people would be happy to help, if you ask first.

Dweller · Feb 21, 2005

no I deleted them. I never had any intention of doing anything with them other than giving me somethign to look at when I needed inspiration or soemthing to help me learn.

The choice to use them in a gallery for testing was something I did just as filler.. I only wanted to something to pad a gallery up to a few pages. I had no intentions of ever making that gallery public.

The gallery I have posted is my own stuff, as it should be. Since I have only been doing photography for a few months, and in film, I only had a few pics scanned to use.

Going through the 200+ prints I have now I find maybe 20 that are something I would like to post. Not really enough to truly evaluate a gallery software.

By the way I settled on Coppermine if anyone is wondering. I looked at JAlbum and liked it, but needed more features and coppermine met all of my requirements.

Artemis · Feb 21, 2005

Well, if you did use any of my pics, and I doubt you did, placing them on your gallery would make no difference.
My image was easily downloadable from this site, as you so proved by downloading it, so, and you must excuse me for repeating myself, if you used my image, I dont mind...infact id be flatterd, just gimme a pm and say "Can I use your image?" and you will undoubtably get a reply saying "Go ahead"