Charles Mallett and Silent Circle Cafe debacles
By adminI have recently had exchanges with Mr Mallett who runs the Crop Circle “Cafe” and his use of my photos which he has over the years put on his website without seeking any permission from the website I contributed them to The Crop Circle Connector. I allow my pictures to be used on the CCC website and for them to use their copyright as it solves a lot of problems with the crop circle community moaning that I am taking pictures and how deplorable it is that I fly a microlight and give my pictures away and who do I think I am that Wlesh bastard blah blah blah…
Most of the derision about me and my photos comes from either Steve Alexander who is jealous of any other photographers out there because he wants to be the only person taking pictures. The other person is Charles Mallett who continually complains that a lot of the photographers on the CCC arent named.
Not naming the photographers stops people like Steve Alexander having ammunition to go to the CAA with his “They are flying commercially” bollocks – which isnt true – I fly for my own amusement and am not profiting from sharing my pictures by sending them into the CCC website and sharing pictures with newspapers so that they get maximum exposure. I have never been paid by any newspaper for any of my pictures so can hold my head up high from any complaints that Steve or others may level on this front.
However then you have the double edged sword. Due to the fact that a lot of pictures are anonymised on CCC to avoid personal attacks from Steve and others – trying to make sure that they are the only ones taking pictures – the use of the anonymised names then pisses off the likes of Mallett who bitterly complains that the photos are not named. However he does’t bother to write to CCC to ask who took them and to be put in touch with the authors – some of who’m will be me… he just whinges on that CCC are cheating by not naming people. What he forgets is because of the problems with people like him in the past that the policy of not naming photographers has been adopted.
I do not actually mind my name being on my pictures and I am fully legally allowed to take them from my microlight and now also from my multicopter as long as they are not for profit.
So the latest chapter to this is that as a tantrum tactic in order to spite the CCC, Charles Mallett now just takes any pictures he wants off the CCC site and has never asked permission to do so. He figures that if the photographers names arent supplied then this means he can do what he likes. This normally involves him posting the pictures with his own copyright details replacing those of the CCC or who the photographer is. Well CCC have told me they would rather they get the credit and a link back to their site – as would I if pictures were used that were my copyright.
However this is where I pop up and remind him that these are my pictures and I want eiter him to play fair and credit these to me or CCC. To which he is resisting and has called me a “local bully” because I am now demanding that he correctly attribute these pictures as being sourced (c) Crop Circle Connector and not to himself or any other name. He has refused to do this until he is contacted by CCC – and i pointed out that me telling him what I want done with my pictures is not a matter for the CCC to decide – it is firstly and rightfully my decision what happens to my copyrighted pictures.
I have reminded him of legal remedies available to me should he wish to refuse to alter the pictures credits to how I am asking else he should remove them.
It was comical that today I saw on silentcircle website that youtube videos (that are youtube videos by Mallet BTW) that have also wholesale stolen my pictures to use in clips for their own websites where they ARE ASKING DONATIONS ON… God I dont even ask for donations for my pics and others out there are trying to make a buck off work I did for free and not even give me a credit. I thought to myself… this crap has to stop.
So I have seen to it legally that the youtube videos are pulled, and they have been. The below screen shot is from Silent Circle Website (www.silentcircle.co.uk) and shows the video details that the video has been removed from youtube by my copyright complaint.
I hope this message is starting to get through to Mr Mallett because if he doesn’t get the message soon I will be getting a judge to order him to comply and it will be a very simple process for me to take him to court.
All the guy has to do is give the credits as I ask and all is well and he can continue to use the pictures free of charge so he can line his pockets in his commercial enterprise – his website and cafe. Isnt that fair enough. I seriously do not know what this guys problem is.
Picture of his site showing video taken down and a glimpse of what is to come for him if he doesnt play ball…