no.60 - The Flickr Thief

I received a normal sounding request today to join a closed group I run at flickr for baby & maternity photographers.

When I checked hornsman1987's page I found a great portfolio of maternity portraits. Great because he had stolen everything, including some of my work — with my copyright information still watermarked across the bottom.

In response to his request, I declined him access, attaching the following message:

"Most, if not all, the photographs in your stream are stolen, including a few of my own.

You will not be gaining access to the group. You are, in fact, exactly the sort of person we strive to keep away. (Actually, you are a bit worse because you are not only a fetishist, but also a liar, a thief, and a momma's boy.)

Please note that we will be further tightening controls on who is allowed to view this group to ensure that when you scurry out of your dark hole again, you fail as you have today, and as I suspect you have in most of your life.

I would like to suggest you seek help with your mental health issues. Your behavior is abnormal and the combination of your selfishness and fetish-ness are surely a detriment to you and to those around you.

If you can, try to remember that the women in the photographs you have stolen are people, very much like your mother, with the notable exception that they all, no doubt, do a better job of parenting."

Like most flickr creeps (see demon no.5) , hornsman1987 could not be bothered to create a face for his identity, even though he clearly has gone to some lengths these last few months to steal other people's work to post for his own deviant pleasure.

It does not surprise me that some unpleasant souls choose to steal the work of others to pass off as their own. What surprises and, frankly, disappoints me is the sheer ineptness of the attempts. For example, nearly every pervert who has posed as a photographer with an interest in maternity portraits has been unable to contain his horny need to also be a member of the groups "Pregnant Booty Lovers" and "Pregnant pornpics." (As usual, I wish I were making this up.)

There is something grotesque about their awkward fumbling attempts to mimic the behavior of human beings. It is like watching hungry slack-jawed aliens in a film stumble about in search of humans to befriend and then eat.

I invite you to visit "hornsman1987" and, if you are so inclined, to see for yourself. Expect, however, that he may already be gone by the time you arrive - burrowing back into the depths of his sleaze covered home-world.