Okay but I was informed by a commenter yesterday that stealing cat photos and posting your own cat photos is all morally the exact same thing because it's all "here's a photo of a cat" so it doesn't matter. Just FYI.
That's like the commercial fisherman i had to sic a lawyer on in 1996 when he stole some of my tuna illustrations to use on his website. "A tuna is a generic fish unless it's Charlie the Tuna" was the gist of his argument. (pretty sure "everything on the internet is public domain" was in there too)
in the 90s, i was more than half tempted to go to law school with a view to specializing in IP / internet law because hoo boy did i get a crash course, not just with Generic Tuna Guy. But, sitting here now, despite my poverty, i'm glad i didn't. i never could have imagined things getting THIS bad
However, i am grateful for the legal education i DID get, even if it was kind of the "hard knocks" variety. They should teach this shit in art school (maybe some schools do, now?)
Cats are not just aesthetically pleasing creatures. They have personalities, hopes and fears, desires and ambitions. Some raise money for charity, others help cats find homes, some educate folks on how to unionize. To post an image without that context is to decontextualize and flatten them.
Nonsense! Cats are multi dimensional magical beings...not like mr Golden Retriever who thinks hes so great ,wagging his tail, getting all of moms attention...Bap!bap...meow..crash...purrr..
And they have life stories - it's fun 'getting to know' various feline characters on Bluesky, and when you spot a pic of one which has been 'stolen' it's disappointing.
Some of the replies you get, istg… I am amazed every day for your fortitude in not becoming the Joker. I assume it is the influence of a pair of amazing cats, mainly
yet again vindicated in my belief that anyone who uses the word "content" is soulless. they'll never understand the difference when they view everything as "content" to be "consumed"
Sandal is definitely not amused by picture scrapers. Also Sandal wants to know why, aside from being very cute he/she has bed-head hair everywhere except on his/her head. My apology to Sandal for not knowing which pronoun to use so as amends I blocked that picture scraper.
Just to be clear, if I share the pic to other social media with the account information NOT CUT OFF and better yet linked back, that's not theft, right?
Yeah, they could also just have another account, there's always pretty easy ways around a block. But most of these accounts don't seem to do very well here, at least not all the newer ones.
Agreed!! I’m aware cat Bsky has a lot of fans (myself included) but we really can’t let these guys come in and reduce our lovely cats to just pictures on a popular feed if you get what I’m saying
You’re welcome. I saw Gonzo’s post about it, looked on their account, and immediately saw the stolen Mimi post. Hopefully this scumbag learns when to stop doing this
The important thing about swearing is not "never swear"; it's "swear when swearing is the right reaction". I'm Australian, we fucking know these things.
That’s the bulk of this account… it’s insane. It’s literally all the most recognizable accounts on here just scraped into an unlabeled, soulless bucket.
That's right @gonzo.bsky.social -- you can bite that picture thief's bundt -- you can bite HARD -- as many times as you think they deserve -- and no points will be deducted from your behaviores report.
I'm not sure how feeds work really yet, as I've just been too ill to get to grips with it, but can we collect all of these accounts in a feed, so that people can check them for their own photos, so they can challenge them without having to follow them?
Of course they followed us here.
Though I don't see the point - the big ones on the other place are blue ticks, getting money from it.
I found one recently that steals photos of ill cats and posts them claiming they're their cats.
Some of them aren't even ill, but they claim a blind eye is dying!
Yeah, they build up huge amounts of followers by putting out photos of cats they claim are sick and dying, because obviously people feel bad about that kind of thing. Then they can ask, and because they have tens of thousands of followers, they'll get some who donate.
Predators make me angry!
😾 😾 😾
I've seen a few like that but mostly they just steal cute pictures to try to build a following, probably to then try to sell to someone else or they'll switch it all up to something else to make money somehow or other.
Comments
🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️
He is great fun for this kind of thing
yet again vindicated in my belief that anyone who uses the word "content" is soulless. they'll never understand the difference when they view everything as "content" to be "consumed"
Also, when did he change his gender?
All jokes aside, she looks like a sweet thing.
I only know if one of my two short hairs start looking like that, somebody is going to get accidentally boop-zapped.
Gonzo’s a kitty but he’s also the GOAT!
Thank you, Gonzo. 💖
GONZO GET BEHIND ME,,, BIANCA SAVE YOURSELVESSSSSSS!!!
I like a lot about Bluesky, but these fucking content scraper accounts drive me nuts.
Though I don't see the point - the big ones on the other place are blue ticks, getting money from it.
I found one recently that steals photos of ill cats and posts them claiming they're their cats.
Some of them aren't even ill, but they claim a blind eye is dying!
Predators make me angry!
😾 😾 😾
They have a post about losing their cat, using this AI generated picture.
It's so frustrating that these people exist!
https://easy-peasy.ai/ai-image-generator/images/proper-handling-burial-guidelines-deceased-cat