People stealing my work!
In the last 4 weeks, I’ve been notified 3 times that 3 different people have taken my photos of my cakes and are posting them and claiming they are their work. I admit, I used to never watermark my photos, but what makes someone do this? I guess I just don’t understand the motivation behind it. One lady had made beautiful cakes in the past, then she posted one of my photos and watermarked it as her own?? I believe she was more than capable of recreating it herself! I’ve seen many recreate the same cake, which I find completely flattering since it was my own original design. I just don’t get it! I one time posted a picture of a winning State Fair cake and made it very clear that I didn’t make it. I still had two people tell me I did a great job, so I removed it! I don’t ever want credit for any work that’s not my own. Seriously, what’s wrong with people these days! SMH…………….
Melanie Mangrum Cakes
14 Replies
Laziness, jealousy, you pick Melanie. Unfortunately there are unscrupulous people out there. Once your work is out there, it’s hard to stop this kind of thing. Watermarking is your best defence. And even that doesn’t work sometimes. 😥
Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God. Clarky's Cakes 😎
I saw a brilliant idea, photograph your cake with your business card alongside it, more difficult to eradicate than a watermark. It also shows your contact details should someone need to order from you.
Roo's Little Cake Parlour
There seems to be a lot of that going around! I’ve read several posts lately about stolen photos. Did you ask them to remove your photo and did they??? I’ve had this happen to me also and too don’t understand why they do it and think that they can get away with it!! When I confronted the person that stole my photo she told me that I should be “flattered” that they CHOOSE to use my cake since I’m just a “hobby baker”!!! Really?!?!!!
Ellis1985, I was told EXACTLY the same thing when my portrait cookies and sculpted cake photos were stolen! Flattered? No, and especially not when my watermark is smudged or cropped. It’s no small task to have them removed from the offender’s site and I always watermark. I’m sorry that happened to you.
Ahimsa you are an extremely talented painter! Your portrait cookies is amazing! Why would someone steal them??? They would never be able to replicate them! I’m afraid once we put our cakes/cookies/etc out there on social media we pretty much lose any control over them even if you watermark them!
Thank you! Ellie1985, you do beautiful work.
Great tip Roo…..
sugar and art - perfect combination! sugarmagic22@gmail.com
I feel your pain, I had this done to me a few months ago. I was warned by a lovely lady from across the pond. Once I posted the details on here, some amazing people really helped out, they contacted her and she then took the photos down. I hope you get it sorted x
Ugh – It’s such a bad feeling! Unfortunately, even if you watermark, the ones who really want to steal them can photoshop out the watermark. Or when you have a cake published in a magazine or collaboration, they ask for unwatermarked photos, so there are versions of your work that have been pinned thousands of times without any trace back to the original designer. So sorry, hun – they always have excuses for their behavior too! :(
I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, I have been set free! www.facebook.com/sbcakedesign
This happened to me. She did take my photos off her site but said that since they were copies of cakes from the Wilton Wedding Magazine, she didn’t see why I would mind. Sigh…………….. Each one of us puts our own spin on our cakes and I would have loved it if she removed photos from the Wilton Website instead. Otherwise, if I see someone copying a cake design I came up with, I feel blessed and happy to have inspired another decorator.
