I know the big topic now is about having your photos stolen from this site. Let me point out that we have some house cleaning to do too.
I first noticed it happening when we received two submissions to the "1,000 places to see…" category that had fantastic photos. A peer category manager brought it to my attention and after a very quick Google image search, the photos were found within 2-3 clicks. Needless to say we declined the waymarks and the waymarks were never resubmitted!
But it made me curious about the submitters and I started watching their submissions. Sure enough, this behavior continues. Submissions from their local area all look legitimate and the photo EXIF info indicates they are taken with the same kind of camera. Photos submitted from outside of their area shows that they are taken with a different kind of camera and the photos can usually be found within 2-3 click in Google Images. I notified some other category managers when I saw it happen and waymarks have been declined after acceptance. Other managers have continued to let waymarks stand approved after I notified them of where the photos came from.
If you want a recent example, check out today's submission from Iraq! If you want other examples of waymarks with "borrowed" photos, you can find them yourself or I could provide example waymarks and show you where the photos came from, if you're unable to do it yourself.
Poaching of photos in either direction is very disappointing.
DK