This was more of a glass half empty post from you than I was expecting haha. It's certainly not nice to see one's creativity being used for someone else's gain. It's like the technology has overtaken law and there isn't a great deal to be done about it. It's a sad inevitability or consequence of the internet.
Doing a quick google on my Oviedo 2017 winning image, I found it on a Russian language website for something totally unrelated and sadly I have zero chance of recovering anything there....
Well for the most part its not avoidable if you create compelling art. Often I try to take it as a compliment and a with humor. Once a shot of Kosmai (war monument) ended up on a school web site in Kongo. Not even stating my name. I found this rewlly cool. Write them tobputvmybname there. ... I saw in Google analytics that I had a single visitor that week on my page coming from a Kongo IP address and my picture was taken down. Did not write me back or anything. No Nigerian relatives would send me 100,000,000,00$. Awkward enough I was sad.
I’d have settled for $1,000,000. I’d be happy with that lol
Oooh Huhmble you. To many gready gready people on this planet hey. Teach your wisdom to us. 🙏🥳🥂