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Hi there.

I'm posting this as a look-out warning, and to be wary of "Precinct Omega Studios"
http://www.precinctomega.co.uk/
Or its sub page- http://www.warhammerbargains.com/blog/warhammer-40k-emperor-titan/

You see on the second link, advertising commission work for an Emperor Titan.
Hinting that the one pictured was either at "Gamesday" or is from the Creator.
Then a link below it for 350.00 , and not the "it would cost a minimum of £1000."
as specified.

Thing is, Precinct Omega Studios DIDN'T make that Emperor. I did. He pulled the Image
from my Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50191001@N07/

I commented below said article, then privately mailed him- asking him to take my picture
down. My Flickr is not linked to Google. I get no reply. I warn people as much on my Flickr.
And put mine up on Ebay for much less then his "1k Commission". Then "he" strangely Links
My Ebay auction as his own, ignoring his own 1k price?

The Titan is Mine. The picture is mine. My Flickr says a little "C". Is that image now protected?
I see people go after sites and force there Service providers to remove content pretty often.
Can I do this? How? I don't want this person to screw people out of their money, using my stuff.

Interesting stuff - if true, it looks like blatant plagiarism and scam attempt.

Have you got any evidence to back up your claims? The Flickr account says the photo was uploaded on Feb 2011 but there is no date listed on the Precinct Omega page or any way of dating it that I can see.

What is actually linking the two? I can't find a link to that blog, or a picture of the titan in question on the PO pages...

SilverMK2 wrote:What is actually linking the two? I can't find a link to that blog, or a picture of the titan in question on the PO pages...

It looks like this picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50191001@N07/5458423736/

Plus another has been ripped from the Flickr account. Also, if you click the link on the PO page it goes to an ebay auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280647806834

Presumably, the PO chap is trying to get people to bid lots of money for a non-existent item (or at least, one he doesn't have). But this is speculation as I am afraid to say, there really isn't anything to back up the OP's claim, other than his word as a gentleman.

What I mean is that looking at the PO website, I can't find a link to the blog, or see a picture of that titan.

Actually he doesn't claim to have made the titan listed in the photo. He is simply taking orders for custom titans. Don't post your pictures in a public domain if you don't want them used. As a side note I never found it listed on the first link, only the second.

And the Properties tab does look like he took a direct rip copy/paste job from your website to the website where he did put your picture.

For instance, the path for the first picture is shown here:

http://www.warhammerbargains.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/warhammer%2040k%20emperor%20titan.jpg

From Flickr's TOS:
23. COPYRIGHTS and COPYRIGHT AGENTS

Yahoo! respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. If you believe that any of your intellectual property rights have been infringed on the Services, please go to our copyright policy [http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/copyright.html] to report the problem.

From here:
http://info.yahoo.com/legal/uk/yahoo/utos-173.html

So rehost your picture, change your own links, and replace the location of the current picture with porn. Problem solved.

Tarot wrote:So rehost your picture, change your own links, and replace the location of the current picture with porn. Problem solved.

The blog is not linking directly to his image host, so that would not work.

CageUF wrote:Actually he doesn't claim to have made the titan listed in the photo. He is simply taking orders for custom titans.

So it's okay to post a misleading picture in an ad?

The Blog you have linked to doesn't actually appear to be anything to do with Precinct Omega. It's just an ad-farm, grabbing google ads and keyword links from all over the place.

That post about the titan appears to have been pulled from Yahoo Answers. So presumably the Blog owner (or a piece of clever software) just scans certain websites, grabs articles with appropriate keywords, and adds an image that fits the topic. Precinct Omega weren't using the picture at all.

"Have you got any evidence to back up your claims?"
My name here is IronKeep. The flickr belongs to IronKeep.
I will take a photo of my work along with INSANIAK's name
on a piece of paper and the date for proof.

The Ebay auction is real and mine, my girlfriend was kind enough to post it for sale for me.

His website is a sub-site of Precinct Omega Studios. It says
as much. I would caution people from going there.

The dates on my pictures vary because I removed them
all to watermark, but then decided against it. So I just
placed them all back up.

I don't think its software. It looks like it was done on
purpose.

Thank you for the replies, and to Skinnereal for the link.

Well, the PO site and the stuff they are producing looks to be very high quality, while the other site/blog is terrible quality.

And as I have said several times there appears to be no relationship between the two other than the text on the blog mentioning the name...

SilverMK2 wrote:And as I have said several times there appears to be no relationship between the two other than the text on the blog mentioning the name...

And since the text on the blog is just taken from elsewhere, that's not much of a relationship.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ironkeep wrote:I will take a photo of my work along with INSANIAK's name
on a piece of paper and the date for proof.

Er... What?

His website is a sub-site of Precinct Omega Studios. It says
as much.

Where does it say this? I couldn't see any mention on the blog of anyone it belongs to.

The site blog is all over the place. Using my pictures and
probably other peoples images also.

It mentions the name, and is a subsite of Precinct Omega Studios. Why else would there be that connection? Huh?

"I've promised my wife that I could raise £1000 from finished commissions before the end of the tax year. In two weeks. Yikes! 8:06 AM Mar 21st via web"

A post on the Twitter from the owner. Gee, that looks a little strange no? It makes that Commission Emperor using
my photo look not so softwareish no?

Ironkeep wrote:It mentions the name, and is a subsite of Precinct Omega Studios. Why else would there be that connection? Huh?

Again, where does it say that it is a subsite of Precinct Omega? The only mention I see of Precinct Omega on that blog is the Emperor Titan entry... which, as I pointed out before, is just lifted from a question on Yahoo Answers. Someone asked where to get a titan, Precinct Omega posted an answer (which did not include your picture) and that question and answer has subsequently been reposted (along with a whole bunch of stuff lifted from various places around the internet) onto the blog.

"I've promised my wife that I could raise £1000 from finished commissions before the end of the tax year. In two weeks. Yikes! 8:06 AM Mar 21st via web"

A post on the Twitter from the owner. Gee, that looks a little strange no? It makes that Commission Emperor using
my photo look not so softwareish no?

Given that the Yahoo Answers post that the blog has lifted the text from is a year old, no, I'm still not seeing a connection.


The Precinct Omega website is registered to a private individual in the UK. The Blog site is registered to something called 'Hostmonster' from Utah, USA... which appears to be a domain parking service. Frankly, I would find it extremely unlikely that the two websites are related. The blog is simply an automated set-up in order to pull traffic through keyword use in order to cash in on Google ads.

Here's what I see.

http://www.warhammerbargains.com/blog/warhammer-40k-emperor-titan/

This website using my photo, and advertising commission work
using a picture I took. Not the Titan from Gamesday, or any
other persons Emperor. He's using Mine.

I see a name in the description entitled "Precinct Omega Studios."

When I run that site
http://www.precinctomega.co.uk/
I see a Commission website with a bunch of
ad-hoc pictures taken from other peoples work also.
Lucas Arts concerot(SP) city, I think the middle photo
was lifted from a Terminator game. And some Fantasy
Dragon lifted (I bet) from somewhere else.

The site is work in progress (like the other) With not
much there. No forum. And a Twitter saying He's gotta
make a Grand in under 2 weeks. Put it together in your
head. It doesn't look right.

I don't want peoples money to get stolen. And I don't
want him to use my stuff to disceve people.

The first thing to do is obtain a screenshot of the site that is using your photograph. Find the administrative contact of that site, if it is not obvious, do a WHOIS search for the site. E-mail the administrative contact of the site, explain that you are the copyright holder and ask that they remove the picture. If they do not comply then contact their host. (The host's contact information also availabe from a WHOIS search.) Problem solved.

It is unfortunate that the web runs on taking people's IP. Google is one of the great offenders in this regard. Seemingly the lesson is that if you take enough stuff it is OK.

Ironkeep wrote:Here's what I see.

http://www.warhammerbargains.com/blog/warhammer-40k-emperor-titan/

This website using my photo, and advertising commission work
using a picture I took. Not the Titan from Gamesday, or any
other persons Emperor. He's using Mine.

I see a name in the description entitled "Precinct Omega Studios."

Right.

And what I'm telling you is that that blog entry is a question and answer that were posted on Yahoo Questions a year ago (Linky), and have been subsequently reposted to this blog by whoever is running it. The picture was not a part of that original answer from Precinct Omega. It's been added by whoever is running the blog... which is (at least going by registration records) most probably not Precinct Omega.

Your picture doesn't appear anywhere on the Precinct Omega site so far as I can see. And, frankly, I'm not seeing how him saying that building an Emperor Titan would cost over a grand a year ago is in any way related to him saying now that he promised his wife a similar amount just now.

I don't care if he copied the Yahoo Question from one
year ago or 10 years ago. As it is written in its present
format it is deceptive.

Here's a Question for you. What if some gullible person
saw that website, saw my picture and for some reason was
willing to put down the money?

Its harder then you think it is to make an Emperor Titan.
What if the product that showed up didn't look like mine?
What if no product showed up at all?

What if this person who got ripped off then saw my flickr
and went around blaming me? Or worse, contacted the
police. It "could" happen. What if I don't want that
headache now or later?

"Your picture doesn't appear anywhere on the Precinct Omega site so far as I can see."

No. My Titan doesn't show up as of now. But other stolen
images do. Starting with the ones on the front of the site.
Unless of course you believe he is in someway related to
Lucas Arts?

"I'm not seeing how him saying that building an Emperor Titan would cost over a grand a year ago is in any way related to him saying now that he promised his wife a similar amount just now. "

You don't find it strange that the amount is the same?
And because its impossible to make a fake website in
another country, created just for the task of screwing
people out of there money? That's not in the realm of
possibility at all?

This is all a moot point. I'm doing what spaceelf was kind
enough to tell me and I'm getting started on that. Still,
I don't want people to get there money stolen. You don't
seem to want to address that.

Just had a look at both sites.

http://www.warhammerbargains.com/blog/warhammer-40k-emperor-titan/ was designed by a company called MIF Design based in the USA. Why would a guy from the UK use them when there are local alternatives?

http://www.precinctomega.co.uk/ was designed by Walker Consultancy based in Cheltenham in the UK.

I'm with Insaniak on there being no link between the two. With regards to the background art on the
http://www.precinctomega.co.uk/ site I'd guess it was supplied by Walker Consultancy from stock photos.A company I worked for did a similar thing with promotional material a couple years back.

Ironkeep wrote:I don't care if he copied the Yahoo Question from one
year ago or 10 years ago. As it is written in its present
format it is deceptive.

It certainly is. The point that you seem to be missing though is that Precinct Omega doesn't appear to have anything to do with that deception. He posted an answer to a question on Yahoo Questions a year ago. The blog is a copy of that question... so the 'deception' here is on the part of the blog owner, not Precinct Omega.

Here's a Question for you. What if some gullible person
saw that website, saw my picture and for some reason was
willing to put down the money?

How? The blog doesn't actually include any links regarding commission work. And the Precinct Omega site doesn't include your picture.

The only way that this is going to happen is if someone stumbles across the blog and then takes the time to google Precinct Omega to find their website... and then they're still only going to be expecting that specific titan up until the moment they say 'I want a titan like the one pictured on that blog' ... at which point, the likely response will be 'Which blog???'

Its harder then you think it is to make an Emperor Titan.

No, I think I know exactly how hard it would be to build an Emperor Titan, acxtually

No. My Titan doesn't show up as of now. But other stolen
images do. Starting with the ones on the front of the site.
Unless of course you believe he is in someway related to
Lucas Arts?

That's a completely separate issue. And while, yes, it should be considered bad form to build your website with other people's images, for one it's fairly widely done, for two a lot of companies don't actually mind you using their images on your website (although that does often have certain conditions applied) and for three you have no way of knowing whether or not he actually does or does not have permission to use any of the images on his site.

You don't find it strange that the amount is the same?

Two statements a year apart? Not particularly, no.

And because its impossible to make a fake website in
another country, created just for the task of screwing
people out of there money? That's not in the realm of
possibility at all?

It's certainly in the realm of possibility. I'm not just not seeing it as being at all likely in this particular case, given the lack of actual links on the blog site that would give the blog owner any way of actually scamming anyone.

Still, I don't want people to get there money stolen. You don't
seem to want to address that.

I've been addressing it. The thing is, you seem to have got so fixated on the idea that it's all a scam that you're apparently not willing to consider the idea that you didn't originally have all of the relevant facts and have jumped to some rather large and unsupported conclusions.

"The point that you seem to be missing though is that Precinct Omega doesn't appear to have anything to do with that deception."

All of this just started happening as soon as i released my
photos. It is not outside the realm of possibility for a
person, to make a fake site in order to steal funds in
another country. Both sites are a mix and match of
information and adds. And don't seem to show much of
any content at all. You could view them as quick fake
sites. Thats the point you miss.

"That's a completely separate issue"

No its not. Its a credibility issue from the start. If your
making a website to show your skills show your skills and
only products your capable of crafting.

"Two statements a year apart? Not particularly, no. "

But the way that they're linked, just as my pictures go out?
First that website makes the false add, then advertises
another websites talent, not displaying much of anything-
some hand drawn photo's and such? With a twitter saying
They want that money soon? No, nothing in common at
all. You could never draw such a parallel.

"I've been addressing it. The thing is, you seem to have got so fixated on the idea that it's all a scam that you're apparently not willing to consider the idea that you didn't originally have all of the relevant facts and have jumped to some rather large and unsupported conclusions. "

Really? I don't see you addressing that at all. You don't
care if my images or anyone Else's get taken. You never
mention theft in your posts. Or repercussions on the
behalf of any artist who has there images taken.

You do seem to defend a "Corporation" pretty doggedly
and in your eyes clearly not possible on the behalf of Precinct Omega to want to defend there own name.
Surely if someone was using my name and advertising a
product I didn't claim i would make I would want this person to pull it.

Instead I have to make the call/calls in order to pull my
images. Your trolling me with nothing to troll. I've stated
my Opinions clearly and concisely. You have failed to do
that, and have several holes in your logic that your not
capable of understanding. Have a good day.

I'd like to warn people to be cautious of
http://www.precinctomega.co.uk/
Or its sub page- http://www.warhammerbargains.com/blog/warhammer-40k-emperor-titan/

I do not want anyone's money to get stolen for a product
there not capable of delivering, and using stolen
artwork/imagines

To add to my earlier post I've purchased from the http://www.precinctomega.co.uk/ site and also seen commission works posted by Precinct Omega during the wip stage that are now on that site. I'd have no problem purchasing from him again and plan to do so at some point. I'm sure this will get straightened out in a couple days.

Ironkeep wrote:All of this just started happening as soon as i released my
photos. It is not outside the realm of possibility for a
person, to make a fake site in order to steal funds in
another country.

And again, not, that's not outside the realm of possibility... but it's unlikely, given that the blog is not in any way presenting itself as being a part of a commission model service. It has that one single post on it that doesn't even contain a link to Precinct Omega.

Both sites are a mix and match of
information and adds. And don't seem to show much of
any content at all. You could view them as quick fake
sites. Thats the point you miss.

There's an entire gallery of painted minis on the Precinct Omega site. And they've been going for a while... at least a couple of years, off the top of my head.

But the way that they're linked, just as my pictures go out?
First that website makes the false add, then advertises
another websites talent, not displaying much of anything-
some hand drawn photo's and such? With a twitter saying
They want that money soon? No, nothing in common at
all. You could never draw such a parallel.

Glad we're agreed on that point, at least

Seriously, though... it's a tenuous link at best. And it becomes more tenuous when you look at the complete and utter lack of any other link of any sort between the two websites.

If your picture had also been on the Precinct Omega site, or if the blog had mentioned that site in other places, or had any sort of actual contact information on it, it might make it a slightly more reasonable assumption. But as it is, all you have is a reposted Yahoo Answers post, and two completely unrelated statements made a year apart that just happen to concern a similar amount of money.

By that logic, I'm trying to scam someone every time I talk about filling up the petrol tank on my car.

Really? I don't see you addressing that at all. You don't
care if my images or anyone Else's get taken. You never
mention theft in your posts. Or repercussions on the
behalf of any artist who has there images taken.

I was addressing it by trying to point out where you were basing your accusations on false conclusions and assumption.

Yes, your picture has been used without your permission. That's certainly reasonably indisputable. But it's the US ad-farm that has used your image without permission, not Precinct Omega.

Unless you can show some actual, clear link between the two websites, all you're doing here is accusing someone of trying to rip people off on the basis of a bunch of images on his website that he may or may not be using without the permission of their original owners.

You do seem to defend a "Corporation" pretty doggedly
and in your eyes clearly not possible on the behalf of Precinct Omega to want to defend there own name.

Sorry, which corporation am I defending?

I have no idea what you're saying with the second sentence there.

Surely if someone was using my name and advertising a
product I didn't claim i would make I would want this person to pull it.

Sure. I would want the same. If I was aware of it. And if that's what was actually happening.

The thing is, this is what ad-farms do. They pluck stuff from all over the internet and bundle it all together in the hope that people will wander along as a result of their search engine grabbing keywords, and that those people will subsequently click on their ads and earn them a commission.

Anything you post on the internet can wind up on one of these sites, without your permission, and without your knowledge unless you happen to stumble upon it.

To turn all this around, how would you feel if you were a small business owner whose name was being slandered because someone saw something that you had written a year ago reposted out of context on a website that you had never seen before, accompanied by an image you had nothing to do with and had similarly never seen before?

Is it not at least worth considering the other possibilities before you start throwing accusations around?

I have to agree with insaniak - you are making connections that are not there. Ad farms are fairly common (though very annoying and bordering on something that should be illegal as far as I am concerned).

Just contact the blog's host and let them know the site is using your images without permission and linking to your ebay auction, etc.

You may also want to let PO know about what is going on so they can work on the issue from their end - I am sure that they do not want to be associated with this kind of thing either.

What confuses me is why would they post a link to your ebay ad? If it was a genuine scam attempt and plagiarism, surely they would be using your pictures to link to a non-existent or vastly inferior facsimile auction?

I think that they may get a referral fee for people clicking the link/buying the item via the link.

I can't see anything misleading. There's no message anywhere saying "this is my titan, I will sell this to you". Only a single message on a random blog offering to build one. The picture link doesn't seem to have anything to do with him, it looks like a websearch for ebay auctions and the fact that i tlinks to your auction seems to be something of a boon. I don't see any claim to credit, or any direct benefit for him, only free publicity for you. Roll with it.

If it were me? I'd really not be that bothered, unless there was someone explicitly promoting thier work as mine and lead to financial loss on my part. At which point I can go to flickr and advise that this image belongs to me, and provide my evidence (todays paper in a photograph or similar, even better a picture of me next to the thing - easy enough).

To go around bandying the word "liar" on nothing more than a tenous link just isn't cricket matey, and if the whole enterprise is innocuous, then you may have done serious harm to his influx of business.

Furthermore, the page is all sales links. It's a blog whose sole existence is to make money by hosting ads. They're fully covered by the T+C

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The actual body of text comes from here, how? Google the subject and text used on warhammer bargains.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091104170315AAnTt4n

He doesn't use your image, he has nothing to do with warhammer bargains and hasn't responded because he doesn't have a clue what you're on about. Do you have any idea of the kind of damage accusations like this can cause? It's entirely irresponsible to make an accusation like this without even performing basic research.

Close the thread.