Ok, so this is right up there with the weirdest thing we’ve ever seen in our past almost-three-years as bloggers. Recently a reader (thanks Sara!) wrote alerting us that she had seen photos of our living room and guest bedroom on a vacation rental site called Airbnb. And apparently the “landlord” was claiming that they were photos of their house in Pasadena- and charging $48 a night with priority to anyone who booked it for one or two weeks straight (to the tune of $336 to $672) since they “received so much interest.”
Isn’t that weird???? What happens when people get there and it doesn’t look like that? Or maybe it doesn’t get that far because it’s all a scam and this person takes the money and runs without providing an address? Either way we were adequately skeeved out. And of course we contacted both the webmaster of the site along with the “landlord” to let them know that those images were ours and they were firmly planted in Richmond and not for rent. Pretty soon thereafter they were removed. Whew. But so odd right?!
It ranked up there with the time that another reader (thanks Michael!) wrote to us shortly after our big bathroom reveal to tell us that they saw some girl named Amber on Rate My Space claiming our bathroom after photos as hers.
The good news is that it was getting great feedback. But the bad news was that it wasn’t her bathroom! The funniest thing about that situation was that Amber was answering questions about the paint color and where she got things (all of which were wrong, so we were totally confused to see her claim that our $100 Overstock sink was a $400 splurge from Kohler and that the walls were some shade called Cucumber Dream instead of the actual Dune Grass hue that we used). Isn’t that weird? Of course we just commented under the post with a link to our site saying “Wait- that’s actually our bathroom! You can see where we got everything and how it all came together by following this link.” Literally within a minute the post was removed.
Actually now that we think about it, the Rate My Space thing might have been stranger than the room rental incident because the room rental person seemed to be in it for the money, so the idea of a scammer stealing a photo and trying to make some loot with it kind of makes sense. But isn’t it odd that someone found a photo of our bathroom and thought it would somehow be rewarding to claim it as their own on Rate My Space (where there’s no dough on the line)? Maybe she didn’t feel like redoing her bathroom so she thought using our photos would be a shortcut? Or she thought it would be funny? Consider us stumped.
Thank goodness for all of our lovely readers who have eagle eyes and thoughtfully email us every time they see our casa somewhere that it doesn’t belong. We’re used to hearing that our pictures are on eBay or Craigslist when someone’s trying to sell an identical rug or duvet. And we even saw before and after photos of our front yard on some landscaping guy’s website in Texas (so crazy, right?!). But the latest Rate My Space and vacation rental listing have been the most odd by far. What do you guys think? Can you figure out some ulterior motive for the Rate My Space thing? Have you ever seen your photos somewhere they didn’t belong? Do tell.
jeannette says
jenny b. harris and, i believe, hilary lang at “wee wonderfuls” are craft bloggers whose free patterns were appropriated by others to sell for profit. i believe it was hilary whose doll patterns were bogarted by a manufacturer.
i can only get one url at a time for you, so here’s the jenny harris one.
http://allsorts.typepad.com/allsorts/2010/06/a-scottie-dog-giveaway-in-celebration-of-giving.html
self policing is the only way to take care of this.
robin says
My story is not as skeevy but over ten years ago, my husband and i had a professional photographer photograph our two pugs in New York. When we received the proofs, we were asked to sign a waiver allowing the artist to use the images however she chose. I happily did so and didn’t think twice about it. A few years later, I was in a small boutique in Philly (where we live) and saw my pugs on a magnet. I screamed and explained to the surprised shop owner my shock and delight. On the back of the magnet were their names along with the photographer’s contact info. Since then, we’ve seen the magnets on ebay as well. And yes, of course I bought one of the magnets at the boutique.
jeannette says
here’s the hillary lang url.
http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/wee_wonderfuls/2008/04/definitely-not.html
Rita says
I’m with Amanda. There are some really crazy people out there, so try to watch out. You are too kind sharing so much of your life with us strangers. Luckily, for every loony out there, there seems to be a kind soul who watches out for your best interest.
joy says
Simple solution: put “no right click” on your website, this way no one can copy any of your photos. I did that for my family blog and it is a peace of mind knowing NO ONE can ever copy any photos.
Kristin says
I would be furious and it’s so creepy! It makes me mad what people will do these days, no morals. It’s so wrong to copy someone’s else’s things and claim it as your own. I would be very scaried after having a child and would be careful with your baby’s pictures and security and all. There are just some crazy people in the world and it’s scarier these days with everything being exposed on the internet.
Is there any other way you can copyright them or write some disclaimer? Can you sue anyone for it, I definitely would just to prove a point and make a statement in this internet world that we live in.
Amanda says
Putting a “no right click” on your website is a good idea, but it doesn’t make all the “stealing” go away. There are ways around taking a picture without just right clicking it and saving it to your computer. But it definitely does deter your creepy guests if their too lazy to use “print screen”, or other ways.
I’m with Amanda too, you definitely need to be careful about little Clara and keep her photos safe!
Carolyn says
Wow..just read this post. My thinking is that it is really strange, although not surprising. It definitely demonstrates the more deplorable side of humanity. From claiming something as your own to downright scamming people to make a quick dollar.
I have to say, I think you’re both really brave to put so much of yourselves out there on the web! I know you’ve mentioned you have taken security measures to protect your home, but I would feel nervous having photos of my life, home, family, heck even my full name out there for all to see. This is one of the reasons I deleted my facebook account. Identity theft really bothers me, especially now that I have a child (I just can’t help but think where her pictures might end up if I put them on the web). It’s such a shame that things like this happen, because I think the reason that facebook and blogs exist, is that people genuinely like to share their lives with others. For now, I’m just sticking with plain old email.
Having said this, thanks for sharing what you do with us! You’ve certainly inspired many of us around our own homes. It’s nice to have a place where we can give and take ideas with one another. You have a strong readership base, so hopefully people will be able to spot the fake when they see it.
Steph says
No Joy don’t say that! I copy YHL pics all the time to collect and create my version of ‘moodboards’ with the inspiring things I like for each room. I can then print them and take them with me to the store to help get something. But yeah, its kinda scary that someone would think its ok to do this. And I concur with the others about keeping Clara safe :)
YoungHouseLove says
Don’t worry Steph! Since people can just take screen grabs even if we impliment the “no right click” feature, it’s just not worth it to us. We love that readers can save our photos for future projects and we wouldn’t want to change that fact for a few random scammers. It seems silly to alter YHL when the vast majority of people are good honest individuals- and the few who aren’t are mortified enough to remove our photos as soon as we contact them. Thank goodness!
xo,
s
Lauren says
I tell ya… it is such a widespread thing these days, it’s unreal… I have some good friends here in Austin that started up their own cake ball bakery business a few years ago, and they have an amazing thing going…it has grown by leaps and bounds and has been the talk of the town. But, it seems that when you’re that popular, all kinds of people pop up on the internet stealing everything from the pictures you post to exact wording on your sight (not even paraphrasing, but verbatim!) to just stealing the entire web page layout! I think most of these folks don’t know too much about the internet…if they did, they would be too worried about being caught. On the positive side, I guess they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?? ;)
Tara says
That’s so crazy that someone would do that…then again, I’ve seen people just copy blog posts and post them as their own; they’ll just follow bloggers and repost everything as their own until they get caught. Some people are so strange.
Ashley says
Before we started remodeling our kitchen I was googling for “1980s oak kitchen white cabinets” to find picture of 80s cabinets painted white. Came across this designer’s blog about why every kitchen should be a white kitchen, see this photo that looks very similar to mine. Take a second glance and realize it is MY KITCHEN! It was the image from the house listing back before we bought it.
I contacted her to tell her it was mine, and that we were actually going to remodel it. She offered to provide some design tips for me, but never responded. Oh well. I didn’t go with a white kitchen anyway! I went espresso instead: http://tinyurl.com/23kjk4g
Emily says
wow. People are crazy.
Jennifer says
Unfortunately, we run into similar issues with dishonest people trying to use our gift images as their own. What’s worse is when people pull copy directly from our website and put it on their website as if it’s theirs. It’s no fun when you have to be the website police.
Jen @ Canadian Rhapsody says
Ya, sorry Joy. If people really want to rip photos off of your blog, disabling the ability to right click really doesn’t do much (other than make it impossible to get a high resolution photo). All they have to do is hit print screen and paste it into paint or something and they’ve got a duplicate of the photo.
If you’re posting your pictures on the internet, there isn’t really a way to protect them from being taken (and misrepresented elsewhere). Putting a watermark on your photos would be a good first step at preventing publication elsewhere, although it’s a fine line as you don’t want the watermark interfering with the image, but if it’s too close to the edges, people can just crop it out. :(
michelle says
How weird! Some people are so strange. I know for a fact that no one would want to claim pictures of my house as their own. :)
Amanda says
That’s just dispicable. New economy full of new scams.
Jenine says
Another blogger I read had her belly shots stolen and posted on FACEBOOK of all places… the girl just cut her head off, and claimed the photos were her. I mean really though… won’t your friends and relatives notice the difference?
YHL fan says
Wow – that’s just craziness! We too had some weirdness – with our wedding invitations. They were a custom design from a now well-known company that doesn’t re-use designs, so yours is unique to you (and is why they cost what they do). A friend let us know that ours were featured in InStyle Weddings magazine, but with the names, date, and location name changed. At first I wondered if it was a privacy thing, but another of their invitations was featured as well, and that info wasn’t changed. I’ve since had people say that they saw our invitations in someone else’s name in magazines. Very weird. We’re really private people, so we’re ok with not sharing the details with the world, but to have put so much time and thought into creating the invitations (and the distinguishing detail of them came from us and not the designer) and then to have someone else’s name on them just felt wrong and insulting. It’s a small thing, but it can feel like a lot when you’ve put so much thought and care into something. So glad your craziness is sorted out now!
Jill Young says
Not the same at all, but the other day I was shopping at West Elm with my mother-in-law and saw a picture of your Parsons desk they were using and I got really excited and told her I read your blog and how great it was. My MIL didn’t seem quite as excited though.
Gina says
Both of these stories are very odd. I have to say I laughed at myself the other day, I picked up a copy of BHG Big Style for Small Rooms and as I was flipping through I saw your living room. It was a slightly different angle then I’ve seen before and when I saw it I thought, “that looks just like the house from YHL”. Only after reading the little caption that directed readers to your website did it hit me, “duh, that’s because it IS their living room!”
Deb says
Oh my… so sad to hear this story. It’s happening much more often that it used to. And while it may be a bit funny, it’s maddening when people steal your artistic property. It’s even worse when you catch them, confront them, and they pretend there is nothing wrong with what they are doing because ‘It’s out there on the Internet, so it’s fair game’. UGH.
It’s not OK to steal a name, copy a graphic design, rip off a tagline, duplicate a web page, spam the fan lists of dealer Facebook Pages to up their own fan count….and I know two people who have done all of these. It just makes you wonder who long they can get away with it before the truth comes out? How can you build a reputation – especially a business – on a string of lies?
Sevi says
A friend wanted to rent a house for new year’s eve to hang out with some other friends of his this year. He also sent €100 deposit – expensive eh? But it all turned out to be a scam!
Somehow his friends hadn’t been able to join in with the deposit, but they were definetely going. After finding out the scam, they refused to pay their share for the deposit to my friend so it all got more dramatic! :)
Martina says
See… some people need to get a job.
Maya says
My husband found someone stealing posts from his tech blog– they would just lift his entire post, and he realized that it was set up to happen automatically. His next post was entitled “—-.com is stealing content” and the body of the message directed readers to his actual blog. Sure enough, that entire post showed up on the thief’s blog. :)
Kathleen says
When I was 18 or 19 a photo of me showing off my belly button ring (it was early 2000) was stolen off my Friendster site and used on a teen porn site – it wasn’t even a graphic photo! Gross!
valerie J. says
Yeah, that’s weird. If they’ve got enough time to upload pictures that aren’t their’s and “answer” questions about the pictures it sounds like they could use a life of their own. I’m not surprised about the rental website…people will steal just about anything these days. Not sure how you all feel about it, but packing heat wouldn’t be a bad thing for online celebs such as yourselves. A bodyguard in your pocket. ;)
Cass says
One of my favorite quotes of all time:
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of someone else.” – Judy Garland
Bev says
That’s more than a little creepy!
I was in a “Wedding Show” of local vendors, and walked by a photograher displaying MY wedding portrait!!! I had never even met this woman – and she had a giant (seriously, nearly life-sized!) portrait of ME, claiming she had taken the picture. I immediately went to the man in charge and brought him over to the photographer’s booth, and let him deal with her.
cara says
The girl on Rate My Space sounds like she’s jealous and desperate for attention. I’m sure it won’t be the only time someone steals your photos! Just be glad it wasn’t a picture of your baby used for advertising :)
Kat says
I guess that’s the downside of having a popular blog. People have access to ALL of your pictures. Please be careful with the photos you post of Clara, there are some really crazy people out there who don’t need to see kid/baby photos.
amanda says
Yes, I have heard of this happening with people taking baby photos and saying the kid is up for adoption. Some sites watermark the photos they post online to prevent this from happening. It sucks, but there are a lot of dishonest people in this world.
Renae says
http://www.yhl.com watermark?
Michelle says
Ewww that’s just gross! Luckily your house is so well-known/well-loved that this was able to be stopped! It isn’t fair for you guys to get your images stolen, but think how unfair it would have been for the person who tried to “book” this “house” and had their money made off with! I’m glad everyone wins.
Analia says
WoW! It’s not weird, it’s insane! crazy people out there…
sorry guys :(
Katherine @ Grass Stains says
I don’t have time to read all the comments that have already been posted, so someone might already have mentioned this … but one thing that might HELP (although it wouldn’t eliminate the issue altogether) would be to watermark all of your photos going forward with younghouselove.com or something similar. It wouldn’t have to go across the center of the picture and distract from the photo itself; it could be placed lightly in the lower right corner or something. That way even if someone stole it, they’d have to do more work to be able to use it without someone knowing where it came from!
YoungHouseLove says
Hey everyone,
Thanks for the watermarking suggestion! We hate to put a YHL seal in the middle of our photos, and putting one in the bottom or the corner just means people will crop the photo to get rid of it. Boo! So for now we’ll just stick to retroactively asking the few-and-far-between scammers to remove our pics (since there are far more people who enjoy our photos without doing anything shady with them- thank goodness!).
And as for the suggestion to keep our photos from being copied & pasted, we definitely could add that feature to our pics, but anyone could just take a screen grab anyway. So we’re pretty sure we’ll just keep things as is and occasionally ask people to remove our photos if they’re being used in any creepy ways. We hate to change anything for those very few incidents that are so easy to resolve with a quick little email. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Jennifer says
This happened to me with my daughter. Someone in Nevada had stolen about 50 pics from my blog and posted them on her own blog, claiming my daughter as her own. It totally freaked me out. Seeing her tiny little face and body up there enraged me like I never knew possible. I don’t think I stopped shaking for a week. Everything has been taken down now and I had a profuse apology but still… Lesson learned. My blog is now private.
Kimberj says
Some people just want other people’s lives. I guess you should be both flattered and creeped out. When my son was a sophomore in high school he found out another local kid at a different high school had posted my son’s photo and name on a gay dating site for teens (my son is straight but has gay friends) with a different email address. My son started getting come ons (both phone and in person) and finally one of his gay friends found the post and let him know. It took a while to verify it and get it removed. We contacted the boy and his parents totally freaked on him. We felt bad :(
Jeannine @ Small & Chic says
You guys could, like, add a watermark to your photos or maybe disable the ability to right click them.
Hardy har har. I guess I’m seeing the other side of getting hundreds of comments on every post. :)
Kathy says
My husband, a computer IT specialist, and I were just talking about this issue, and some people wasted no time at all taking a wonderful communication and educational tool like the internet and using it for unethical purposes. As a teacher, I am saddened that many students use technology to plagiarize/cheat. But I suppose it’s just a small percentage overall, as you say. :-/
Sherri says
A friend of mind sent me a message a while back that some woman was using a picture of my brother and my son (he was 8 months old) and saying that it was her husband and her son!!! She can have my brother but I absolutely refuse to let her have my baby!!!
Katie says
Dude…you guys must have a lot of patience, because it would annoy the crap out of me having to repeat the same WE AREN’T GOING TO WATERMARK OR MAKE OUR PHOTOS NON CLICKABLE a bunch of times and STILL have people get on and leave comments telling you how to run your blog. Seriously. If some of the people who commented read like THREE of the comments they would have seen you guys already addressed their “idea”. lol
laura says
very creepy!
d says
let’s hope no one use your baby pictures to claim as their own… maybe as a last resort to thwart off a grandmother-wanna-be
Nicole H says
This is too common, and too sad. I was searching for an apartment on craigslist (aka scammers haven) and a beautiful one came up fully furnished, hardwood floors for 600 a month! I knew it was a scam right from the beginning, but wanted to see the kind of crap the scammer would say, of course the scammers english was poor and he wanted the money out right because “he was out of town”! Too typical, especially after I googled the apartments address and a different home for sale came up! I reported him to craiglist, but I feel that this is pretty typical business, even for Rate My Space! I’ve seen rooms with only one picture and comments saying that this is a fake space, but never have I seen someone pull off what they did with your bathroom!
As for watermarking, too easy to a) crop it out, or b) remove it with photoshop! So I can understand you resisting watermarking or no right clicking.
Keep up the great work! And I’ll keep looking for wanna-bees!
Thanks!!!
Deb says
WOW…..people are psychos!
Stephanie Walker says
That is so weird and creepy! Did you feel violated? Last year when we had our house on the market, a friend found a posting on Craigslist that advertised our house for rent for $4,000 a month. The pictures were from the Apartment Therapy home tour. We immediately reported the post and Craigslist responded swiftly. A friend emailed the poster saying that they knew it was a scam. Anyway, we felt totally violated. It was so bizarre too.
And I agree with you that the person claiming your bathroom as theirs is even more bizarre. And sad too.
By the way, just last week a friend of mine sent me the link to Airbnb and I’ve been spending time browsing the awesome accommodations. Prior to that, I had never heard of it. It’s a great site, but your post is a good warning to ALWAYS be extra-careful.
Angie D says
I was pleasantly surprised to open up my local newspaper a few months ago (I’m in Jackson MS) and see a large pic of your living room on the front sheet of the Style section. I said, ” I know that room!” It mentioned yall in the article and had a reference to your website, so I’m sure that was a good thing but I wondered if you were aware when your decor is used like that or not.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Angie,
We actually knew about (and were flattered by) that mention! As long as publications reference our site with a link whenever they use our photos we’re beyond thrilled about the shout out!
xo,
s
Adriana says
I recently discovered your blog and I am loving it. Being a newly wed with a 10 months baby boy my self and a lover for DIY things I’ve found inspiration on your work. DH and I used to have a photoblog after we got married, and found our pictures being used for commercial pourpuses so many times that I could say. You gotta be careful since there’s so many people around the globe looking for things to show even if they’re not theirs. As we say in Mexico. Saludando con sombrero ajeno.
Krissy says
Some people are just pathological liars and love the attention they get from lying. I bet the rate my space girl just wanted some attention, in a weird, psychotic way.