Picture Theft… oh my.

One last story before I begin my weekending–

We’ve all heard stories about pictures being stolen on the internet (it is, after all, hella easy to do) but how horrified would you be if someone stole your picture and put it on the cover of a porn DVD?!

That’s what happened to Lara Jade. The whole story is right here, but let me give you an excerpt so you know it’s worth it to read:

“Yeah, that’s right. My image is being used for a pornographic movie called ‘Body Magic’. Did they have permission? Did they hell. This happened a few months back (well, since I found out). Somebody noted me saying this company was using one of my pictures.. actually let me get this straight – a SELF PORTRAIT that I took at the age of FOURTEEN. I don’t know if you can see the descriptions too well but it is qouted as ‘Hustlers Highest Rated’ and a ‘pleasure to watch’. The back of the cover was disgusting. I looked it up on the internet and found out that Hustler.com was stocking it and a range of other dirty video websites that took pleasure in this. What I ALSO found was that there was a note on the back saying ‘Everyone associated with this DVD is 18 or over’. Yeah right. I contacted hustler and they gave me the name of the company – TVX Films. As soon as I’d found out relevant information and I send a long and ‘friendly’ letter to TVX Films – to my suprise I got an abrupt e-mail back from the owner who claimed that ‘his company does NOT steal pictures off the internet and he recieved it from a company they’ve been in business with for 25 years’.After a few e-mails I found it obvious that I wasn’t getting anywhere and that the owner was definately a sleaze himself. This is what he said in reply to me, in big bold capital letters to make a statement – “I’M SURE BY THE END OF THE MONTH YOUR FACE WILL BE HISTORY. WE HAVE STOPPED SELLING THE DVD UNTIL COVER IS REPLACED. WE HAVE FURTHER CHECKED OUT YOUR NAME AND ITS NOT LIKE IT’S A HOUSE WHOLE NAME. ACTUALLY, REMOVING YOUR IMAGE WILL HELP IMPROVE THE SELL OF THE DVD….. SO FAR IT BOMBED.”. He also claimed I was ‘scheming’ and had set him up – placing the image on a public domain so companies can steal it and I can sue them… er, what? When I asked for compensation he said “AS FOR COMPSENSATION;YOUR SILLY!” and this was one of the end comments he made – “THEY ARE REMAKING THE COVER AS WE SPEAK SO YOUR TEN SECONDS OF FAME WILL SOON COME TO AN END.” My so called ten seconds of fame was from a porno dvd? No thanks.”

Read more here, and pass it on if it compels you. Poor girl!