World famous in Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation MTDC . No website can be made without some cut-and-paste from other sites. Our IT cell used stock images from some of the free websites, so there is no copyright violation as claimed by the complainant — Dinesh Kamble, senior manager, marketing and publicity, MTDC I n these days of fake news and post-truth, a tourism ad campaign by Maharashtra) that — using tacky graphics and Caucasian models to sell famous spots in the state — caught the eye of a city-based activist, prompting him to shoot off a complaint to the Chief Minister’s office and managing director of the corporation.Contending that the pictures have been on foreign websites and online albums of foreign photographers, he raised copyright issues and also the need to fake pictures of sites that are worldfamous.Ashish Mane, a member of the Nagar Road Residents’ Forum and president of the Wadgaonsheri Nagrik Manch, has in the past fought against illegal hoardings and also gotten involved in traffic issues of his area. He first noticed the foreign models and realised some of the pictures were in reality foreign destinations, that had been morphed to pose as Indian ones.As he dug further, his research showed that many of the pictures have been sourced from the works of a Finnish photographer Alexander Bidin and Polish shutterbug Baranq.While some of the pictures had been photoshopped with local destinations, in many others, the places shown are not from Maharashtra. Many of these, Mane insisted, were “stolen” from ‘Shutterstock’ – the American stock photography, video footage and music website.Clearly not savouring the make-belief world of advertising, he ranted, “Lakhs of tourists visit famous sites in the state, such as Ajanta-Ellora caves, beaches and waterfalls. Why do the authorities not use pictures of the real spots? I have demanded that the morphed pictures be replaced with original site images.”Having found out that the website was developed by one Idealake Information Technology, he said, “The agency must be sued for copyright offence and cheating the government.” He added that he is also planning on filing an RTI application to access the nitty-gritty of the contract and the brief given to the private web-designers.However, MTDC officials saw nothing amiss in the pictures used on their website. “Our IT cell used stock images from some of the free websites, so there is no copyright violation here as claimed by the complainant,” Dinesh Kamble, senior manager of marketing and publicity at MTDC, told Mirror, underscoring that Shutterstock offers its photos free. “No website can be made without some cut-and-paste from other sites,” he claimed. On the need for foreign models, he said it was done to attract foreign tourists and not with any other ill intent.Yet, he had no explanation for why the pictures were pulled out of MTDC’s website after the complaint was filed. He just said he was not aware of that development and will have to check with the IT cell of the corporation.Pointing to the folly in using fake pictures, Somesh Salunke of Trimurti Tours and Travels from Nagar Road, said, “Most customers approach us only after visiting MTDC’s official website. They are looking for authentic information. Rather than using morphed pictures, the website would make a greater impact with real images of specific destinations, coupled with interviews with foreigners who have visited the places. They don’t buy into the tall claims made by our private websites.”

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