I found this photo cropped and my name deleted and used in this blog post and spent about 13 hours on the roller-coaster. After some search I found his email address and asked to delete the pic, (after weighing it against asking credit/link for the pic,) which he did, but without a hint of apology, and that he bothered to crop my name out said a lot. I learned that, to me, theft of photos on the Internet is not about the photos, because unlike the theft of, say, a camera, I don't loose access to my photos. It's more about the blatant defiance of protocol; I felt like this man walked into my house, with his shoos on, walking around leaving dirt on the carpet, lifting our stuff and generally defiling our private space.
And so far this blog has been hit the worst; not so much, that I have discovered, Flickr or Facebook. so I thought of limiting the audience of this blog, but it got to be too complicated. A clean sweep would suit me better. (I'll give you a warning if I decide on a wipe out.)
Then I receive a little present like this, don't I? I feel all fuzzy and warm. And the pleasure far outweighs the fear.
12 comments:
very well said, Meg - it's incredibly rude and disrespectful to you and that person who stole the photo is a complete ass. It does feel like a violation and you deserve better. Don't know what else to say, except I'm sympathetic and also glad to have you for a friend across the world! xo Lainie
I really felt like a victim of sorts. Not of a grave crime, and the "theft" (it wasn't really a "loss") was a serious imposition rather than a material deprivation.
Rainy weekend here, so some drawing might do me some good, Lainie. Whatcha doing after a good end to your week?
Blogging in moderation has crossed my mind but it disappeared as soon as it appeared; it feels like just hard work. Tumblr.com looks attractive if I can indeed edit myself, but is it worth the effort getting off Google? Conundrum...
i feel with you; i am only a little weaver with a little blog but i know how it feels. i admire your work and i respect this and the work of all the other blogs i read. i suffre also about this copistas and i think like my husband says to me: only the good things copistas attire...
keep smiling.
i hope you anderstand my terrible english and my comprehension
daniela
Meg, I've just gone to moderation to try to circumvent the word verification thing. So far I'm happy with it, I just have to see in my email who sends a comment and I can hit publish or ignore. I agree with you that it was a really bad thing to use your photo, especially with your name removed. He'll come to no good in the end.
Hi, Daniela. No problem with your English. It's a bit sad, isn't it? Especially because I've never said no when asked about the use of my photos before. Grrrr...
Carol, that word verification is another thing that's been bothering me. But I hate to put moderation on the comments. Conundrum.
I've had 2 stolen - one by an art museum in Frankfurt (got a lawyer after they offered me €50 and they ended up paying €1400' insurance covered the lawyer) and a few weeks back when a magazine lifted an image and published it in the mag and online. Used the lawyer's words and got €200.
Who was the offender? I always work on the principle of "Don't get mad, get even"
PM me if you want. I'm getting quite good at this!
I remember the museum one becoming a really big deal for you and a longer/slower than you wanted. I'm sorry it happened again. Wordpress forum told me to sue him, but you know where I am, and he was in England, so getting him to take it down was the easiest. But I do admire your tenacity. How else do we teach those people, right??
Why be sorry that people lift images? Look at it this way - you can't stop people lifting photographs. It's as if you hang them on the wall in unlimited quantities in every train station in the world.. Someone's going to write on Facebook "Look what I picked up" and you might just see it.
Why be offended? I find it quite cool that people use my images and if they'd give me a credit and a link, I'd be cool with that. OTOH if they rip me off and use it for commercial purposes, then I'll go after them
My real-life next door neighbour did exactly that the first time I met him - walked into our house uninvited and straight over our freshly sanded floor with his muddy shoes on, even though I was standing by the door in my socks begging him not to go any further. He has continued to live up to that first impression! Some people are jerks, and you meet them online and offline. I'm glad you stood up to this particular jerk, and am only sorry that he seems to be the sort of person who will never understand that he was in the wrong and thus never see the need to apologise. But that's what makes him a jerk, isn't it?
Goodness, I remember you telling us about him!! That's exactly it. And I do wonder how many people's houses he's been into with dirty shoes!
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