Ripped Off! A Photographic-Safaris Misadventure

Screen shot from Photographic-Safaris website taken April 10, 2019

Imagine my surprise yesterday to find my February 7 blog post - Safari 19: Hunting With Children - presented on this web page as the work of someone else. Here, on another person's web site, sits my work but with "Alex Jones" misrepresenting that he took the pictures and had the experience taken by me and reported in my earlier blog.

Should I be flattered or outraged?  Some say imitation is the purest form of flattery but this is not imitation, it is plagiarism. And plagiarism, according to plagiarism.org (yes, there is such a website), is "an act of fraud" that "involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterwards."

But still, it is a bit flattering isn't it? After all, someone who holds himself out as a professional wildlife photographer was impressed enough with my photographs and writing to steal them and post them on his web site as his own.

But no, I am definitely going with outraged. Photographic-Safaris.com and someone named Alex Jones misappropriated my images and content and posted them on their web site as their own work. You can see it for yourself in the screen shot above.

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Copyrighted Cover Image from the February 7 Venture Moola blog

If you are one of the thousands of people who read my February 7 blog, one full week before Mr. Jones posted it verbatim(1) and image-for-image onto his website and held it out as his own, you saw my original Safari 19: Hunting With Children post. And, you saw this as the first image in my post.

It was a great day on the Maasai Mara that I was reporting about in Hunting With Children. To get to watch Amani the cheetah hunt with her three children was a thrill. But it was my experience and the experience of others on my trip, not Mr. Jones'. And, those are my photographs, not Mr. Jones.

And the trip that produced the great images and content for my Venture Moola blog was with Gamewatchers Safaris not Mr. Jones' Photographic-Safaries.com.

I don't know Mr. Jones. Never met him. Never talked to him. Nothing. Nada.

(1) Not exactly verbatim. He added his company's name before "Lion Camp" in paragraph two.
The original reads just "Lion Camp." In fact, we were at Gamewatchers Porini Lion Camp.

Another Copyrighted Image From Our Encounter with Amani

But back to Alex Jones who is described on his site as a man with "enormous patience" who claims to have captured "photographs of unequalled wildlife behavior.. . ."

How much "patience" does it take to steal images and content from someone else's blog?  And, when it says "captured," would you think that includes taking images from someone else and claiming they are your own?

In the site's About section, we are encouraged to "[r]ead about some of the exquisite wild animals that Alex has photographed.. . ."

Don't be fooled, Alex Jones did not photograph the cheetahs in my blog post. Nor did he write the copy. He ripped it off from the Venture Moola blog and me. To paraphrase plagairism.com, he stole my work and lied about it afterward.

Another Copyrighted Image From Our Encounter with Amani

If you want to see my images and read about a great African safari trip check out my blog at ReadJanus.com or check out the same content on the fully-licensed porini.com website, home to Gamewatchers Safaris.

But enough about copyright infringement and plagairism. The whole incident also reminds me of a great encounter on a great trip last fall. Join me in viewing a few other photographs I took on that special day.

Another Copyrighted Image From Our Encounter with Amani

And, if you think you might like an opportunity to have days like this yourself on the African savanna, think about contacting the outfitter I used for my trip - Gamewatchers Safaris. You can reach them through their porini.com website or by contacting Wayne Hammond at [email protected] (or in the UK by phone on +44 (0) 7986 978985) or Julie Ruggow at [email protected] (or by telephone in the US toll-free at 1-877-710-3014.)  Wayne helped me and Julie helped a good friend plan great trips. Either can help you too.

Gamewatchers Safaris were great hosts and even better guides. Very experienced and very knowledgeable. They work in partnership with the local Maasai who ran their lodges and served as our guides. As you have seen through this blog, their guides will help you have great game watching experiences.

Another Copyrighted Image From Our Encounter with Amani

To close, let me say that while I may be a bit flattered in a perverse way by Mr. Jones, I am not amused.

Nor, apparently, is my buddy above.

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All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. All worldwide rights reserved. These images and more can be seen at the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com.

And, feel free to share (but not steal) this blog. The more readers the better.  Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter.