What is your opinion of an photo industry guru who steals images?

Well, let's see - Paula Deen used some bad words (probably more recently than she admits), was arrogant to everyone who had any contact with her, and she lost EVERYTHING. But she actually cooked the food.

This guy promoted himself and his courses in photography with other peoples' work. The promotional aspect is commercial therefore not exempt from copyright protection, so I'd say each photographer he ripped off should sue his a** for the maximum allowed by law (US150K/image/use). Settle for what can be got, as if he goes bankrupt nobody gets much, if anything.

Also, since he represented that these were his images, individuals who took the course might have a fraud action, but that would require a lot of expensive lawyering.

Photo workshops aren't necessarily part of academia. Many of these courses are only tangentially connected to universities/colleges, basically the school acts as a conduit for the workshop, providing the space, registration and financial collection for a cut of the fees. Something like this however, could drag the school into litigation so I doubt that any academic institution will ever hire the guy again. Individual workshops are done by the groups sponsoring them, and they too will have a long memory for theft of work. I think the guy is done. Put a fork in him. Literally would be ok by me.

Edit: Thanks for posting the link. It seems the guy had someone write his blogs and that he or an employee/service provider stole the writing(s) of others. Still infringement, but brings up an interesting point. I guess the moral of this story is check EVERYTHING before it goes out, and if you are relying on someone else to do the work make it very clear that they are not to plagiarize others' work under any circumstances. I also think you would need to spell out what plagiarizing and copyright infringement are, as so many people think it is ok to grab whatever if it is on the internet.

Ultimately it is still his fault - a blog is something a person should write personally - no relying on other people to do this under your name. Time is money, but your reputation is priceless.

If I am not mistaken, he cannot be sued for copyright infringement if he was using the photos for educational purposes, which I suppose he technically was. So the jerk will probably get off with no legal repercussions, but it certainly is deceiving. I think it is one of those situations where all that will ever come of it is his "apology". Perhaps there is a slim chance his freaking workshop business will suffer, and perhaps his entire reputation. People have short memories though. He can take a vacation for a couple of years, then come back with his workshops and plenty of new, clueless DSLR owners just drooling at the mouth to be told lies, sold products, and have their ego inflated.

steve

It's arguable (not probably as much as his or her guru nomination)

Photographers giving workshops usually "steal" ideas, but not photographs; it would depend on how the workshop was organized, perhaps students must lend their photographs.

Otherwise, that's a missuse of course

Using photos for promotional material is a commercial use. The owners of those photos have every right to sue for damages, assuming there was no hidden clause in their contracts that allowed him to do what he did.

If one of my photos showed up on the Cover of National Geographic, I'd be amazed and amused.

If one of them showed up on an infomercial, well, not so amused!

The world of academia is riddled with plagiarists and thieves. Nothing new here.

Doug was stealing text, and his excuse was that he paid someone else to write is blogs, and that person pilfered them from other sites.

This thread is no good without a name :-)