# If you didn't build it, it isn't for your portfolio.



## rhett (May 11, 2008)

I have to vent here about a current situation I have encountered. The situation is this, a fellow woodworker I know has decided to post pics of very nice and very complicated studio furniture pieces on his facebook "business" page. No big deal, right? Well they are pieces by other woodworkers, and by not speciyfing they are not his, others assume he made them. I can only assume he has the skill set to actually build these pieces he is indirectly taking credit for. When confronted on his most recent picture, a very nice dresser a friend of his made, he said "I cut the arches". He then changed the avatar. 
If you do not design, cut and finish a piece, it does not belong in your portfolio for you to take credit for! I don't care if you "could" build it or not. The point is, you didn't. If any old woodworker could fill their portfolio's with work they "could" build, then there would never be any record of ones actual skill level. Words cannot describe how upset I would be to find out someone was taking credit for my designs and long hard hours of work in my shop.


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

I actually had someone post pictures of one of my projects. He didn't know I was a member of that site and already had the same project posted a year earlier. He disappeared from that site and another that he knew I was on.


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## huff (May 28, 2009)

rhett, I know how you feel….this really burns me. My shop did a complete house full of cabinets for a client.(kitchen, vanities, buffett, home entertainment center, home office and more). A couple years later he decided to open a woodworking shop and used all the pictures from his house in his portfolio. One of his employees told me about it, that he was telling his clients this is the "type" work he did. Never said he built it, just let them assume he did. That's a flame that still burns my butt. Started his business off my hard work. Sorry, didn't mean to blow off like that, but thanks for the post and bringing it to everyone's attention. That's just sorry as far as I'm concerned.


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## blockhead (May 5, 2009)

I can only imagine how frustrated and ticked I would be. Even if I use a small element in a project that I saw somewhere else, I will give credit for it. I guess in a roundabout way, it's a compliment that someone else would like your work enough to want to call it their own. But that doesn't help any. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, I won't have that problem for awhile.  ): 
By the way rhett, you do have some great stuff! Very beautiful work!


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

You can stop most people from stealing your images and or designs by using a code on your web pages. Some people can get around the the code if they know how. It doesn't work in all browers but does in 99% of them. It's called a "slient no right click" script. You right click on an image or a page and nothing happens. 
My friend that's putting up a free plans site is using it and we use it on my business sites also.
All you have to do is go to the HTML part of each page on all your pages and copy and paste the code into the part of your HTML pages, save and then publish to your hosting site. Also be sure to Copyright your images and pages. We had some images stolen from us and a friend just happen to see them one night and called me. I sent an email to the site and ask them to please remove our Copyright images from his site or we would seek legal action against him. They were off his site the next day and we put this script on all of our pages. 
The script will look like this:
so paste below the


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

It's great that you can block someone else from posting your pictures.


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

WOW neat, can't copy and paste in here!..If anyone wants the code PM me and let me know how to conatact you and I'll send it to you.


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## cstrang (Sep 22, 2009)

Nothing gets to me more than people post projects that aren't theirs. Everything that I make may not be my design but I specify that if that is the case and I always get permission from the original author of the project before starting on my own. I don't know how these people can do this, even by the sense of pride I get when I complete a project, they don't have any of that feeling. One thing is for sure, there are too many of these people out there.


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## SawDustnSplinters (Jan 18, 2008)

Well Rhett, I feel you…it boils down to how much honor and self-respect a man or company has, if they ain't got none there is not much you can do…it will eventually be their own downfall….on a diifferent note I had a big company called NapaStyle out of CA contact me to design a piece, so I spent 2 weeks designing it, they liked it, sent them the pics, prototype and plans and my quote….well I guess they did not like the quote. But I saw my exact design in their next catalog being produced from some other outfit out of GA..go figure..It takes all kinds…individuals and corporations…

Rob, that wasn't that one where you made that nice huge bar and all the tables fer was it?

Hang in there and just kick them no account guys to the curb and move on…

PS: I put a little Javascript on my site so that if they right click on an image it says something like" I am sorry, those our our images!! hehe and it disables their right mouse button…oh well will work for most of them cept the desperate….I should have put something from "Lonesome Dove"( I won't tolerate rude behaviour in a man…Woodrow F. Call) think I will..hehe…

here is a snippet of the code, yea I used to be a nerd..don't ya dare tell no one…hehe..if you put it in the universal header or footer of your site it will work for all pages but if you ain't got that option you can do one page at a time and you can change the message between () in the alert below:

<!-Begin
function right(e) {
if (navigator.appName 'Netscape' &&
(e.which 3 || e.which 2))
return false;
else if (navigator.appName 'Microsoft Internet Explorer' &&
(event.button 2 || event.button 3)) {
alert(" I won't tolerate rude behaviour in a man! Woodrow F. Call… The Right click option on your mouse has been disabled for the download window pages.");
return false;
}
return true;
}

document.onmousedown=right;
document.onmouseup=right;
if (document.layers) window.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);
if (document.layers) window.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEUP);
window.onmousedown=right;
window.onmouseup=right;
// End->


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

I don't care if someone uses my images or copies something I built. I just don't want them using my pictures and telling people they built the project. Nobody has ever seen a swing like mine and this guy claimed he built it. LOL


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## miles125 (Jun 8, 2007)

Even rendering is getting so sophisticated that virtual portfolios of the indistinguishable variety are just around the corner if not already here.


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## boyneskibum (Nov 24, 2008)

Sawdust, I figured a way around your right click disable. I'll pm you the details!


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## SawDustnSplinters (Jan 18, 2008)

Boynes….well like I said it can be worked around, and well I guess I am an old nerd…. but it keeps the un-educated out..but nonetheless I could use a few more calls and parameters in there for the new browsers like firefox, etc..let's build it bro..lets make it impervious…hehehe..and thanx
*
*HAPPY HALLOWEEN LJ'S*


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

Posting someone elses work as your own is just not right. Takes a real lowlife to steal someone hard work.


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## cranbrook2 (May 28, 2006)

I can,t imagine someone doing that to me


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

No chance on your houses John. You are world known.


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## patron (Apr 2, 2009)

i just stay ahead of my own dust !

i've had people claim my work ,
i've taught many to do it ,
i've seen many attempts to build it .

in the end what i do is to much work for most
of those types of people , they are looking for an easy way .

none of them are still doing building !

i'm still here ,
and i'm still blessed with new ideas !


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

a crow is standing on the ground and sees a bull and asks the bull how he got so big

the bull tells him, if he eats his manure, that some day he would sit on the top of the tree of life

for the next year the crow eats the manure and one day he is seated at the top of the tree

a farmer sees the crow on the top of the tree and shoots it dead.

Moral of the story

Bull******************** might get you tothe top of the tree, but it wont keep you there!


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## Padre (Nov 5, 2008)

I think Dan has it right on, it's a lowlife way to steal someone's hard work.


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## RvK (Nov 22, 2009)

People who get by taking credit for other peoples work are one of the things that really sets me off.

Used to work with a guy who was really great at BS'ing and charming his way through life, he'd constantly take credit for stuff I did, and in such a way that if I said anything about it I'd look like I was just whining or whatever, like I'd be the bad guy. I finally got "demoted" to working in the receiving docks (tho frankly it was so much less stressful than working commission on the sales floor, I ended up being happier for it), where not only did I constantly get praised for my work ethics and effort, but it left my former co-worker on his own with no one to sponge off of, so not only did he eventually get fired, but his previously sterling reputation he was so proud of was exposed as a huge lie and he was marked as "damaged goods" (I know for a fact he applied at and was rejected by at least two other companies because of that whole episode.) I like to think he now works at McDonalds. That thought makes me smile 

Sadly there will always be opportunists looking to capitalize on other peoples work, but I like to believe in the end it always catches up to them. Of course, while you're waiting for it to catch up to them, I also like to beileve there's nothing wrong with egging their house in the meantime lol


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## GMman (Apr 11, 2008)

Hey Jei'son I did not know that you knew my brother in law he moved to Canada from Arizona 6 years ago, that guy never worked one day in is life and he knows everything, he can do anything better than anyone else but in 6 years I never saw anything he did, don't matter what you talk about he knows it, just the other day he was in the Hospital for a day surgery and they had to get Doctors from New York specially for him.???
He told me he builds computer from scratch so one day I was up to see he project and he just sold it.
He knows all about painting and vanishing so I had a question for him and he said he was to call be back and e never did.
By the way where did you meet him?
Nothing to do with woodworking but just to show that you can't trust all people.


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## Seer (Jun 5, 2008)

Another simple way that works sometimes is to put a clear watermark over the picture when when they do copy the pic there should be nothing there. I have also seen where when they print the pic to copy it it is also clear no image and I am still trying to remeber how to do it.


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## boboswin (May 23, 2007)

While I completely agree with the premis that passing off pictures of other people's work as your own is disgraceful, I can't help but wonder if a website of "examples" could be beneficial to both the builder and the buyer.

*They, of course shold be marked as such.*

1.The first plus could be that it limits the style and type of work to the builders abilities and tools.

2. It could act as a method of budgeting and or planning for the buyer.

I have , over the years, had countless individuals approach me to contract a variety of services with nothing much more than a pencil and notepad.

Now I insist on references and if possible a supporting portfolio of completed work.
If you can't supply these you wont be working for me regardless of your talent.

This is not your father's world.

Bob


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

Guys,
I think that claiming a great piece of work by another as your own is flattering to the actual maker and an addmition that they are not capable of such work. It is totally wrong.
For me, I don't have this problem as only a lunatic would want to claim the crap I make, so I guess it becomes a problem when you become a talented woodworker.
Having said that, I did have someone post one of my project pics and claiming he had firewood for sale.


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## DerekL (Aug 18, 2008)

Personally - when I encounter a site with "no right click" scripts, I leave the site, fire off a letter of complaint, and then never go back. While those scripts may slow down somebody intending to steal your pictures by a whole 3 seconds (they are trivially evaded) - they also interfere with my ability to open multiple pages of the site in other windows or tabs.


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## GMman (Apr 11, 2008)

Could be Mario they move around quite fast to spread they knowledge.


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## papadan (Mar 6, 2009)

I don't put water marks or block right clicks on my site. I am flattered when someone wants to copy my work and am happy to give them whatever information I can. I even have a picture hosted on my site of a copy of my poker chip cabinet that someone built. I just don't want someone claiming my actual work as thiers or anyone else claiming anyones work as thier own. And don't buy something and then claim you built it. LOL


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## sky (Dec 5, 2009)

Wow, lot of comments on this one. It's illegal to use other images for your own advertising without permission. Copyright protects any published images from use implicitly. Any right-click script is very easily bypassed. Using Firefox, for example, clicking on the Tools menu will allow you to open Page Info, then Media. Here it is very simple to select all images on a given page and same them all with one click.

Even Flash or Silverlight images can be acquired through a simple screen capture.

What's interesting is to see how photography studios (and others that really have a lot to lose) handle this problem. Some use watermarks, flash, or just small versions of their work. Most all state that the images are copyrighted, though it's not necessary.

The most interesting to me is when I see my work show up in an image search on Bing or Google images. This implies that they are within their rights to display my images on their site. They ask, if you'd like to not have them shown, that a spider crawl script be added to your page's web code to not "crawl" that page for indexing. Sort of like when I have to call Directv to ask them to not call me with solicitation calls. That seems backward. They, like the image thieves, should simply ask first. If I were asked, I'd probably give permission. Then it's up to others to match that level of skill in creating it themselves.


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## GMman (Apr 11, 2008)

I have posted some projects that my son in law made and my daughter made but I made sure to write that it was not my own, what I do I don't copy or post someone else projects.
I may look at others for ideas but that is it, and I sure don't buy something and post as my own ,it may look like it came from a cheap store like Kmart but it is mine, woodworking is not my profession I am just a hobbyist.


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## Seer (Jun 5, 2008)

What I meant by a clear watermark should have been Putting a new layer which is clear, kind of like puttting another image on top of one another so when they right click and copy they only copy the clear one.


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## GMman (Apr 11, 2008)

seer I copied a few of your projects not to use the but to see if your system works and I get a copy everytime,I am going to delete them now.


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## sidestepmcgee (Mar 14, 2008)

amen,thanks for saying it for me


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## Jim Jakosh (Nov 24, 2009)

Some one taking a picture of it and claiming it as theirs when you built it is one thing, but if they actually show someone a piece in person, I always burn my NAME and Made In USA on all the pieces I make so they could not take credit in person for my stuff. 
Some people have no integrity!

..............Jim


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## reggiek (Jun 12, 2009)

Unfortunately, in these days of easy digital manipulation…folks can edit out alot of information such as watermarks…burned on names…etc. There is no real safety measure other then not posting images that you think might be stolen (I don't know the laws in other states regarding copyrights but posting that this is copyrighted material may give you certain rights). Sad that folks feel they need to take credit for someone else's hard work….as far as I am concerned it is plagurism and fraud….anyone doing this has little or no scrupples. I can see using a picture to draft an idea….I've done this as I am sure alot of folks do….and told someone that I could make a duplicate of this for them (or to give them an idea of certain accessories..etc.) and that this was another artists work….but I would never claim the credit for work unless I had actually done it myself.


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