Acephoto Reporting Manics Tumblr Users for Copyright Violation

[MarilynRoxie]

Hey folks,

If any of you have posted or reblogged Manic Street Preachers photos to Tumblr in the past or recently, be aware that someone or Acephoto themselves is going on a reporting spree that could put your entire Tumblr account in jeopardy. I received a warning earlier this month, listing only the URLs and not showing the pictures in question. I received another warning today. I have set these Manics blogs to private right now since I'm not sure which photos are the ones that are problematic...I wish I knew which photos this was in regards to, but I don't. Does anyone know what photo sets they own the rights to? I would hate to have to delete ALL of the Manics content from my sites. The message is below.

(Please read this entire message carefully. Copyright violation is a complex issue, but one we take seriously. Understanding how we address it will greatly reduce the risk of your account being terminated.)
Hi,
We've received a notification of alleged copyright infringement on one of your blogs. Here are the details of the content in question:
Copyright holder: na na (Acephoto)
Post URL(s): http://glamourtwins.tumblr.com/post/291008766
Description: notice includes photographs of bands and musicians used without permission
The content has since been removed, in accordance with US law and Tumblr's own copyright policies.
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we are legally required to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. The first strike against your account was uncontested, meaning this is your second strike and final warning. If you receive three uncontested strikes within an 18 month period, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE TERMINATED. You can contest this notification by following the instructions for a "DMCA Counter-Notification" found here: https://www.tumblr.com/policy/terms-of-service#dmca. A successful counter-notification will remove the strike against your account.
Here are the details of the previous strike against your account:
Date of Takedown: April 7th , 2015
Post URL(s): <ul><li>http://fuckyeahmanics.tumblr.com/post/175915852</li><li>http://fuckyeahmanics.tumblr.com/post/199071720</li><li>http://fuckyeahmanics.tumblr.com/post/209549708</li><li>http://fuckyeahmanics.tumblr.com/post/210039139</li><li>http://fuckyeahmanics.tumblr.com/post/217125702</li><li>http://fuckyeahmanics.tumblr.com/post/218029494</li><li>http://fuckyeahmanics.tumblr.com/post/246341790</li><li>http://fuckyeahmanics.tumblr.com/post/494071706</li></ul>
Copyright holder: na na (Acephoto)
You can review Tumblr's Terms of Service (https://www.tumblr.com/policy/terms-of-service) and Community Guidelines (https://www.tumblr.com/policy/community) for more information on our copyright policies.
This is a good opportunity to learn more about US copyright law (never a bad idea, really) and to make sure none of your other posts are infringing on someone's copyright. Here are a few free resources you might want to look over:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/internet-resources/
http://www.teachingcopyright.org/
http://copyright.gov/
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Best,
Tumblr Trust & Safety

[amay]

The same thing happened to me, and to a lot of other people too. I wasn't sure what the pictures were either, and one of the posts was screenshots of Snapchats I'd sent (ie. pictures I'd taken with my phone), which really confused me! Anyway, my blog was deleted. 6 years and thousands of posts If you've made yours private, you might be ok though.

[Deets]

thanks for the tips. i'm gonna delete now all manics pics. jesus, 7 years of tumblring to go through...

ps. Marilyn, ask Shug, she might know which pics are the problem-causing ones.

[MarilynRoxie]

Yeah, I'm setting all mine to private. I recommend anyone who is concerned about this make a back-up of their blog through https://revert.io/ If you have side blogs, you can create another Tumblr account, add that account as a member, and then promote that member to admin so you won't use your sideblogs as well.

[handbag]

It sounds like it's Paul Slattery still at it.

This is his email address:
From: paulslattery@acephoto.fsnet.co.uk
> Subject: Joy Division
> Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 01:36:17 +0000

acephoto.

Loads have been deleted. Some of the people started afresh and they were deleted even though no Slattery comment.

http://www.foreverdelayed.org.uk/for...ad.php?t=61658

He's a cunt.

[amay]

Oh I thought it might still be him, only now he's masquerading as a photo agency...his vendetta seems to be working at least, there's a lot less Manics pics (from any photographer) on Tumblr now, which saddens me a lot

[Takk]

I've asked clearly before in that thread...no personal insults please.

[UEF]

Can't be that serious with a Freeserve email address

[handbag]

I didn't think freeserve still existed.

Found that here:
http://www.moopy.org.uk/forums/archi...p/t-88601.html

Some Joy Division fans having problems as well.

[handbag]

(Could've switched to acephoto so he's not recognised as the person reporting the images after people slating him for having their tumblrs removed. It used to say the person who'd reported it was Paul Slattery, so acephoto he's more anonymous. Possible explanation).

[MarilynRoxie]

Good to know, I had no idea who/what "acephoto" could be.

[tuckedaway]

Sorry to those of you whose blogs have been terminated. Seems like an extreme response, especially if the "offending" posts were already deleted.

For reference these and these are some of the photoshoots to be careful with. That particular photographer has taken lots of pictures of the Clash and various Manchester bands as well, so if you post about The Smiths, Oasis, Joy Division, Stone Roses, etc. you may want to do some research on those too.

If you're rooting through your archives, don't forget you can use the mega editor to bulk delete posts. Good luck, all!

[MarilynRoxie]

^ Thanks so much! That helps a lot. Yep, I saw that some Smiths blogs were having trouble too...Totally forgot about the mega-editor.

[amay]

I think in some cases, 'Acephoto' has been reporting photos that weren't even taken by that particular photographer, which is really not the thing to be doing, but I guess how do tumblr even know who took the photos in the first place?! It all seems like an easy system to abuse to me.

[Porco]

Well, you can usually dispute these things, if you know they are wrong. The photographers of the photos being posted might well say that the bloggers are abusing their copyright...

But the whole thing is ridiculous, copyright badly needs reforming in the digital age... It has made some progress, but we're still in a very transitional phase. If a photo is not posted purely to be defamatory or to be used commercially I don't think it should be so prohibited. But that's not how things are sadly. And complaining to get take-downs without even letting bloggers know specifically which images need to be removed is just crazy.