Thought some would be interested in this new (beta phase) photo search engine:

http://tineye.com/

Signup is via waiting list - i think i waited 2 hours or something...  Found some of the most viewed of all time on RR elsewhere - worth checking out for those keen on protecting their images/finding people who rip them...

Thanks Rich, that is pretty amazing stuff. The processing power that must be involved boggles the mind. Yet another good reason to be using Firefox. ;']

I found my Jet Stream Sunset image on this French site: http://www.blogg.org/blog-14985-offset-40.html Perhaps there are other Renderosity images there, I cannot be sure.

Looks very impressive.  Now just waiting for access.

So, does your image then get stored in a tineye data base?  Humm...I will try sometime but not enough time to wait for the invite now.

I dont think the image does get stored itself. The location might be remembered...  I'd think they would have copyright problems if they did store the images and essentially rip them off sites so they could search them. Here is an exert from the FAQ:

How does TinEye work?

TinEye uses sophisticated pattern recognition algorithms to find your image on the web without the use of metadata or watermarks.

TinEye instantly analyzes your query image to create a compact digital signature or ‘fingerprint’ for it. TinEye searches for your image on the web by comparing its fingerprint to the fingerprint of every single other image in the TinEye search index.

...so it looks like the fingerprint is stored, not the image itself. Makes sense considering the huge amount of images that they have in their index...

I have searched a few of my shots...not found which is good, unless the photos are simply not good enough to rip. : )

Kort, I wonder if your photo was ripped from here or Photo-Genesis?

@Tom;

I'm not sure the search has been working.....if it had, it would have picked up your images here at Renderosity.  I've tried the same with a few of my uploads here...they never showed up.

I'll give the search another try later this weekend...perhaps it was just down while I tried.

Update;
i just punched in the link to the thumbnail of Kort's image mentioned above....it did pick it up as Kort mentioned....BUT, it didn't pick up the Rendo gallery image....

Could be rendo is not in their data base.

Tis possible...but with Rendo's 1.7 million image database, that would be a surprise...

It wouldn't give me much confidence of finding a ripped image on a small website....

But, I'll give it a few more months to see how it develops....

None of mine come up in Rendo.

  20 photos of mine are on some Russian site. It looks a bit like a site to share images on and get comments. I can't get Google to find the entire URL to translate the whole page at once. Had to copy text and trans. it pieces at a time.

sperli.net/2007/10/30/prosto_prekrasnye_foto..html

I also installed the Tineye Plug-in for my Firefox. And found that it can still find images using a cropped thumbnail. Doesn't have to be the whole image.

Interesting find Rich, thanks for sharing.

Interesting... I'll have to see how this pans out.  Thanks for sharing this...

Part II

After looking around more at that Russian site, they have a ton of my 3d artwork there as well. Like 30 pics. But odd that Tineye didn't show those at all. !?

As long as that site isn't selling my stuff, I guess its cool.

This is only one page of my Dark art. They have another with same amount of my landscapes.

sperli.net/2007/10/30/tma_i_krakh..html

@Nightgallery;

Looks like you've stumbled onto another rip site....and, NO, it isn't cool.
Using your images without your permission is copyright infringement!
BTW, how do you know they aren't selling your stuff?

I translated most of the pages. I don't see anything on there for "purchase", etc.

I agree about the infringement. I don't dig it either. I could write them and try to get through to them in English and see what if anything they will do about it. Sometimes that just becomes more stress then it's worth.

I have had this issue a lot in the past. I used to have a website for all my FREE NHL desktop wallpapers. I had the site for 4-5 years. I had to eventually close it due to people printing my work out and selling them on ebay as "One of a kind" NHL images.  Ebay gave me NO help after repeated attempts to contact them, I had to write the guy about 5 times before he removed my stuff. He never did reply to me. Found another on ebay Russia doing the same thing.

It sucks but its back to that balance. Either leave images up on the www for people to see and hope they don't get stolen, or compromise the look of the image with a HUGE watermark.  I think we all are between a rock and a hard place with this stuff. I don't know the answers to it either.

Besides all that, I don't have the $ to hire a lawyer, or deal with people outside the USA.... Its all a big mess.
-B

I used the thumb of an image to search for an image I had previously searched.  The idea was to see if the original search put the fingerprint of the original photo in the data base(right away, I mean). 

The result was "0", not found.   Seems to me, searches would provide a means of increasing the Tineye data base.   Not this time.   I might try again and see how it does.

We win..we loose.   We can sometimes find where rips have been done and we win, in a way. Then, someone looking for a specific sort of photo can use it to find a photo to rip.  Win..loose.

To me, it is coming to put on the watermark or live with it.

At least in Kort's case, the French site appears to only display images of quite high quality and appeal to the eye.  Whether or not that site sells images I do not know.

I could not tell, but it does not appear to be selling them. But thanks Tom. ;'] Still, I would people to ask permission if they want to display my image elsewhere. I am not sure where they got the image from. I have at a number of different site, NONE of which came up in the search, LOL.

Quote - I used the thumb of an image to search for an image I had previously searched.  The idea was to see if the original search put the fingerprint of the original photo in the data base(right away, I mean). 

The result was "0", not found.   Seems to me, searches would provide a means of increasing the Tineye data base.   Not this time.   I might try again and see how it does.

Well - you did sign up to a Beta - suggest it. 

And yes - the scripture on the website does say that they havent  got anywhere near cataloguing the whole of the internet... can you imagine how many images that is?  So basically it is a good thing to use at the moment even in its nascent state, but picture it like you were looking for one person who is randomly placed in a 10x10 grid and you can only search in one or two of those squares... chances are you wont find them.  But that doesnt mean your search wasnt effective in the two squares you looked... just as this search engine seems to be pretty good if the image is in the database - check the Cool Searches part of the website to see what i mean...

Yes, I also understand that their database is still in it's infancy....but, what surprises me about their search process is the fact that I GAVE them the weblink to Kort's image.

I would have thought when their search retrieved that image from the link....which it did...it would automatically list that as a hit.  It didn't....it showed the image...it showed the hit on the French site....but it didn't indicate a hit for the gallery thumb which I initially gave them.....

that is because they are using the link you gave them as the photo to look for... what is the point of showing the photo used as the "search term" to the person who knows where that photo is located online? (even if it were in their database)

and in fact - they do show it... at the top: "Your image"

It doesn't look like they have any of the sites that I post on in their database as yet. I have tried a variety. So, no, Renderosity is not covered yet.

@Inshaala;

"and in fact - they do show it... at the top: "Your image""

My post did say they retrieved it from my link...."it did"

My point is, the link I gave them is no different than giving them a link to an image on my hard drive (Which you can also do!)...it is merely a location of a jpg file for them to "add" their digital signature.  It gives them the initial "search image".

So, once they have added their "compact digital signature or ‘fingerprint’ "....I would have expected it to come up again as a hit identifying the web location.

To prove my point....if you punch in the direct link to the french website showing  Kort's image as your search image....it comes up AGAIN as a hit!

Sorry - must have missed the meaning there.

Well - that just goes to show that the url used isnt logged in their database... if the URL you use in the search isn't in their database it doesn't register as a hit, if it is then it does.

Something to recommend to them perhaps...

@Inshaala;

"Well - that just goes to show that the url used isnt logged in their database... "

Precisely!!!!   It would seem that an obvious way to broaden their database would be to log the already identified image website location....

I will be advising them on this.