Image seared

Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 02:24 pm

Blogger Jeremy Sear threatens legal action against anybody who publishes his cat pictures:

Theft of such an image is, of course, covered by the Copyright Act 1968. Those who claim their theft is “fair use” might want to read sections 40-42 of the Act. Simply copying a photograph of someone’s cat is extremely unlikely to qualify as “fair dealing for purpose of research or study” (s40), “fair dealing for purpose of criticism or review” (s41) or “fair dealing for purpose of reporting news” (s42).

Oddly, copyright hardliner Sear (below) frequently publishes borrowed images at his own site.

(Reproduced on the basis of “fair dealing for purpose of reporting news about a guy who is extremely protective of his cat photographs”, section 42 of the Copyright Act 1968)

UPDATE. A clarification from Sear on those Bolt images:

I’m only linking to the copies on the [Herald Sun] site. I’m not publishing my own copies …

Bandwidth thief. News Ltd should bill him.

UPDATE II. Sear has also stolen bandwidth from a resource guide to the handicapped.

UPDATE III. An incomplete list of organisations and individuals from whom Sear has stolen bandwidth over the past year:

The Wichita Eagle (in the sidebar of his main page)
Booksamillion.com
Namco
The Age (at least nine times)
Saxton Business Speaker Bureau
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
NOW magazine
ABC (at least twice)
Answers in Genesis
NSW Education Department
The University of Kentucky
The University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ask Tog
Herald Sun (at least 16 times)
MontyPythonPages.com
Lisa Rein
The Washington Post
Princeton University
ReadyMade magazine
Collecting Books and Magazines
Ambience Entertainment
Victorian Liberal Party
Thanksgiving.org.au
Boing Boing
BBC (at least twice)
European Space Agency
Tracey’s Space
Moore Educational
The Sydney Morning Herald
Handicapped Hunting Resource Guide

And others.