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Copyright Infringement, google images, Google Images are not public domain, hot to transfer photo from google images, how to share images from pinterest, how to transfer photo to pinterest, how to use google images, how to use photos from pinterest, Is it alright to use Pinterest Images, Is it ok to use Google images, Pinterest copyright infringement, pinterest images, Right clicking photos, using pinterest
Who asked permission to upload this to Pinterest? No one did, yet it’s there!
This past weekend some friends and I were discussing how some people use images from Pinterest, Facebook and Google Images. I shared a copyright infringement story with them, and told how shocked I have been recently to find so many of my images ‘shared’ on Pinterest. But I should be honored, right? Flattered that an award-winning photograph had been ‘pinned’ without my permission and uploaded, and basically been given to the world wide web to be used however they’d like! I think that that person who pinned the above image agreed before adding the image that they owned or had permission to share it.
This past week WordPress put their spotlight on reblogging and also on Using Other People’s Images. Both posts received a lot of interesting feedback, including a link to DON’T STEAL MY STUFF, DUDE – Laura at ‘Lolabees’ states her clear case and managed to make me chuckle at the end as well! Please read her post, a real eye opener for any blogger.
Sometimes people truly don’t realize they have violated a copyright; One of my friends this past week gasped when she realized that Google Images is not a grab-bag of public domain goodies!
Here’s a story from Roni Lauren who innocently used a “Google Image” and paid a very unfortunate price: “Well on one random post, I grabbed one random picture off of Google and then a few weeks later… ” Read her story here on Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued Using Photos You Don’t Own On Your Blog.
Surely Little Bit enjoyed this flight through the mango trees, but he also took a ride to Pinterest!
Virginia Debolt says, “Just as grievous –- that many pins are pulled directly from Google images, a clear violation of any copyrighted image.” See her article here: pinterest-and-intellectual-property-conundrum where she addresses the Pinterest Terms of Service to the uploader, “...You either are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services or you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant… “
No one has asked me for permission or a release, so they must have assumed they were the exclusive owner! I think not! Do they even wonder how many years it took to win the trust of the howler moneys in order to get a photo like the one below? Imagine my shock when I opened someone’s post and found this cutie staring back at me with zero credits! I wrote the blogger, who immediately removed the image, but she never replied back!
“Will You Teach Me To Speak English?” Cultural Exchange – Costa Rica and then a surprise visit to another blog!
Tara Bradford’s story of downloading her own image from Pinterest is interesting, and she also states, “But I noticed a few “pinners” list Google as the source and no direct attribution is provided. Obviously, Google is not a photographer and doesn’t take photographs (other than for Google Maps). “ Read more here: Pinterest and Copyright
Our very talented wordsmith Linda at The Task at Hand has had her share of frustrations with theft of her highly-original material. See her post: CONTENT THEFT – IT MATTERS TO ME.
Is-Pinterest-a-Haven-for-Copyright-Violations states: “Most Pinterest members are conscientious about giving a credit and a link back to the source. That gives it a little free PR. So everything’s hunky dory, right? Wrong. Thousands of Pinterest members are breaking copyright and causing headaches for artists, photographers, and bloggers. Many image owners don’t mind at all, and are happy for the publicity! But for many photographers and artists, the problems caused by these copyright violations outweigh the benefits.”
from “It Started With One Lightpole.” – This story spread fast, though I was surprised that people uploaded and published the photos without asking permission. They DID give full credit and a link back, but still…. it would be nice to be asked in advance!
One new shock came from an unexpected source, when someone ‘confessed’ that he downloaded one of my images and used it in a public presentation because it was ‘such a nice image.’ I was so surprised, that I had no reply!
If I still haven’t convinced some of you to delete images from Pinterest or your blog that you have no true right to have used, here are a few more articles!
You’re risking getting sued by using pinterest
Pinteresting Stuff You Should Know about Pinterest
I’ve written about this before; some of the comments are worth reviewing: from-pingbacks-to-pinterest-to-copyright-issues/
For every person who has stomped on the rules of professionalism, there are also those who have used sensitive respect for my posts and images. Coming soon is a post that tips my paintbrush to those who displayed complete professionalism and honored my work as an artist!
Z
Zeebra Designs & Destinations 
Excellent post. I thought I was reasonably well informed on this subject but after reading through everything I found I was quite ignorant. I think that is one of the main problems in this area; people’s ignorance.
With the new age of internet, professionalism has taken a relaxed back seat, and many people just don’t think about the consequences of sharing photos that are not theirs. Thanks so much for your feedback.
I worked late, as it’s when the internet is fast enough to work, so I’m logging off for easy sleep. Thanks so much for your feedback!
Z
Sleep well.
thank you! :))
Reblogged this on Oyia Brown.
As a designer I’m aware of this problem, many years now. It’s just that with the wide spread of internet and loose morals it seems that the situation has gone out of hand. I mean, ok. I do put a copyright notice on all my images, but so what… anyone can take it, do a little photoshop and “create” their “own” monster! One could watermark their images but 1. photoshop can do wonders, and 2. it interferes with the image. So what’s left… hope that people will eventually learn to respect other people’s work.
And posts like this one do help. Thank you!
🙂
Thank you so much for your feedback, Marina! Yes, I think that people will learn, because some truly aren’t aware they are violating copyrights. Then there are others who outright steal. Thank YOU for taking the time to comment!
Z
Marina – I watermark my photos, too, to protect my copyright. My view is a bit different. Removing a watermark is considered willful infringement in the US, and has considerably steeper penalties if proven in court particularly if your photo has been registered with the US copyright office.
If I found a US citizen or company had removed my watermark and used my photo, I probably would sue them and it would be easy for a copyright lawyer to litigate and win.
I agree Marina, and will add you are more likely to get a lawyer to take on your case if your work is registered with the copyright office too. I have learned a lesson the hard way 😦 and now watermark my images and make them 72 dip for online use. what has been very depressing for me is finding out how many professionals and organizations who should and do know better ripping me off.
it is so sad that people have such horrible morals and think nothing of stealing images and content from others. thank you so much for sharing with us! z
Thanks for the info, thought I was covered when I gave credit to my source.. But if those on pinterest are using photos that they don’t own I can see where that would open a can of worms, big time. Same with Google, if the photos don’t have a copywrite or credit for the photographer.
Interesting, you’ve just gone to bed and I just got up, sleep well amiga
yes,fellow artista, the moment an image is created, it’s automatically covered by a copyright. putting the symbol there lets people know that you’re aware of those rights.
I don’ use pinterest, but I can see where this would create a big problem because isn’t the point of pinterest to pin pictures and other interesting things you find on the internet on your wall? When I taught graduate level education classes online, I was shocked at the amount of plagiarism..blatant plagiarism. I made the students cite their sources for everything. If I caught them copying and pasting, I reported them to the university and usually they were given a warning for a first offense. Several students were booted out of the university for second and third (or even more) offenses. I feel for you. Lisa, education is the key to stopping this. Create an awareness! When in doubt, cite, cite, cite and always ask permission to reblog or use a photograph of the owner. Thanks for writing this post. Hopefully, it will make a difference.
good for you! i’m glad you were a tough teacher and gave those students good lessons in responsibility!
thank you as well.
z
Thanks for this very informative post Lisa. I can imagine your shock at finding that image on another blog without credit! On the few occasions that I have used images from Wikipedia I have always scoured the fineprint on authorship. And i have always been wary of Pintrest. Now off to check out those interesting links 🙂
thank you amiga. i hope you enjoyed reading the info in the links. z
I did, and also did some sleuthing around to discover quite a few of my ‘right clicked images! 🙂
how did that make you feel?
Annoyed. Even though they were all credited to me.
Yes. We feel shocked when people take without asking!
I’ve also found many of my images on Pinterest. Since I use them only as illustrations for my written work, Pinterest is a secondary battle for me, and one I’ve consciously chosen not to fight.
My concern is the integrity of my writing, and, in my opinion, the practice of re-blogging encourages content theft. When someone reblogs one of my posts, I treat it in precisely the same way as if they’d right-clicked an image or copied my blog.
As far as I’m concerned, anyone who allows reblogging to go on with their words or images is giving a tacit word of permission for other kinds of content theft. Using the word “reblog” doesn’t change the reality of what’s happening – someone is using my material without my permission. Using a nice word like “reblog” doesn’t change the reality, any more than talk about “curating” material changes the fact that many of those images popping up on Tumblr and Pinterest are stolen.
One problem with reblogging is that, while the source is connected to the first reblog, it’s stripped out after that. Beyond that, I simply do not want my material published on another site. Period.
If I get a notice that someone has reblogged my material, I never, ever post that trackback “reblog notice” on my blog. I go directly to the person who has done it and tell them to take it down. I explain that while WordPress may think it’s hunky-dory, I don’t. You’d be surprised how many people are shocked – they assume that since WordPress allows it, it must be just fine.
People will say, “Oh, it’s so nice – someone liked your stuff so much they wanted to share it.” Perhaps. More often, I’ve found it’s that someone is so lazy they’d rather post someone else’s material. There are entire blogs filled with nothing but reblogs. There’s a way to share without reblogging – it’s called linking.
It’s interesting – I’m seeing more and more people who are serious about maintaining the integrity of their content placing very clear “Do Not ReBlog” notices in a prominent place on their blogs. I certainly have.
buenos dias!
thank you so much for sharing your views about reblogging. your feedback would have been great for the wordpress post.
you have definitely added a facet to this one; thank you for shedding more light on the reblog subject.
i’m about to go ‘arriba’ for the day – upriver to help a friend pick coffee. thanks so much for your comment!
z
Z, thanks for sharing. To your point, we bought some pictures from a website to make our business website more readable and eye-friendly. In essence, we paid a small fee for the permission to use these pictures. Good pictures have value, so to download them without permission is a crime. The same held true when the music industry said downloading music through piracy is also a crime, as you’re harming a musician, songwriter and producer’s livelihood. Very imporant post, BTG
Thank you. I recently wrote a musician whose music really enhances my painting pleasure! I asked permission to use it in a future video, and he graciously replied and gave permission as long as i gave him full credits for the music and first sent him the video to approve before sharing it with the world! it was such an easy exchange of respect, and i look forward to when my life slows enough for time to work on that video! for now it’s incubating. So many times people are pleased to let you use their work for no charge, though when there’s a small fee, one usually values the photo or artwork or music even more!
thanks so much for your feedback! z
A really interesting blog and full of wise words both from yourself and your commentators. It is not always easy to obtain permission to use images though. I’ve made a catalog of X-ray artists with an example of their work a link, and short description, fully attributed of course. I write to the artist directly asking permission with an offer to take it down.. It is sometimes very difficult to find contact details. So far none has requested removal, some suggest better examples or improvements to the text, however others never reply despite two and sometimes three requests for permission. In each case I’ve documented that permission was requested. I disapprove of plagurism, and our university also penalises students caught copying work. Nevertheless, like email, blogs are “out there” and out of our control once posted. With limited financial resources at our disposal there is very little one can do about people, especially across international borders, who steal our work. A direct letter of disapproval to the person concerned may work, and education will help, but there will inevitably be copying. I think service providers should police this situation. If after investigation someone is shown to have plagurised work, they should be excluded from the site. Out of interest since beginning my blog I have received one request to use an image – which i gave gladly. Tony
hey amigo
thanks for your wise feedback; it is difficult when the other person does not reply or respond. being excluded for using someone else’s work is an excellent suggestion!
I agree with everything you’ve said. As a former regular columnists, I can’t count the number of times I saw my work appearing in other materials, without a word of attribution or acknowledgement of my copyright.
Having said that, as authors/artists, I think we have to be very careful to realize that blasting our work out to the masses, to the tens of millions of unsophisticated, unaware users of sites such as Facebook, Google, Pinterest, etc etc is at least partially irresponsible on our part to expect unknowing users to respect, know, and follow copyright law.
Great post
thank you; yes, i would guess that at least half of the ones who right click/upload to pinterest or facebook – or travelsites – have no qualms or guilt—- they truly are not aware that they are doing anything wrong. we have to find sensitive ways to inform and educate them so that they are more responsible when they are working with digital media. it’s sort of like learning to credit the source when doing research – if we are formally taught, we do not forget.
Until this problem gets better, and it may not with how publishers are now paying only for limited rights, et al, maybe we need to save our best works for more trustworthy venues.
Thanks for the thought-generating posts.
I have had my images stolen a few times now and I alwsys warn the theif. There a a website called tin eye, just Google for it, you either upliad or give the url of one of your images and it seaches billions of websites and if your imageis on a website it will show you it. Now having said that I have used it a few times now its a hit or miss but worth a try.
Its not just strangers that steal images – As well as being a photographer I also work in a nursery and a few yesrs ago the school photographer came to rip off the parents but that is another story.
A child was suppose to have their photo done with his bigger brother and booked for a double sitting, one of the boys were poorly and the idiot of a photographer refused to do just one, why I have no idea. Any way you could understand that the mother was upset as its coming up to Christmas and she had planned to give framed photos as gifts. A few days later I was working in another class one of the nursery staff explained the situation and asked if I would do the photos one morning in the nursery, without a moments thought I said I would.
I setup a small studio, spent an hour setting up, taking photos and chatting to the boys grandmother, I said I will put them online with prices, which I did. A week later I got a phone call from the father saying yhey adored the photos snd how do they order, I said just do it through the ordering system and pay through PayPal.
I waited and waited Christmas came and went, so I thought they had changed their mind until April when I was told that they had taken the images off my website and printed them themselves.
Now I could have watermarked them, I know I should have, but I trusted them after doing them a favour, but got stabbed in the back, I didn’t even charge for the sitting.
Let this be a lesson to you all, get paid upfront and watermark your images with a big copyright or you nameC at 30% opacity across the middle its enough not to ruin your images for the viewer but to make it look crap when printed.
It easy to do. In Photoshop when you add text, it makes a new layer on the text layer you can see the opacity slide, slide it until you are happy.
If you don’t have Photoshop you can use Gimp which is like Photoshop and is free to download and use, also Google Sumopaint which is almost the same as Photoshop, its not free to download, but you can use the full functioning product online, upload your image to it do what you wish and ‘save as’
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
http://www.sumopaint.com/app/
Sumopaint is Flash run so you will need to download a updated copy.
Remember that text, ideas, drawings, designs, diagrams, maps (Not map tracings, tracing maps is also copyright theft especially Ordinance Survey which are property of the Crown and a fee must be paid) music, songs, scripts – anything you produce first hand. but if you work for someone who pays you to produce the copyright belongs to the company who employed you otherwise stated in a contract, so make sure when asked to produce something for someone else have a simple contract saying that the product what every is your copyright. The right to copy.
Here is something for you to think about – If you own the camera, you are taking photos, your camera is on a tripod, you have set the focus, fstop, exposer etc, you then allow someone else to press the shutter release button, who then holds the copyright to that single image? ???
😀
thanks for your great comment!
as for your final question, that happens a lot, at least once a month, and i give credit to the person who took the photo, but i assert my right for the copyrights. usually my friends don’t care and don’t want to deal with the technical details, but they all love seeing their photo credits.. almost always they will write and say thanks for the photo credit.
Rise a person on a pillar they will bask in the glory of fame 😀
:))
… Someone else told me about Tin Eye – I will check that out…
that is horrible about the person printing your images! you must have been like i was – mouth agape with zero response. we assume that others have the same integrity and find out that some don’t.
People are awful, I trust very few people now, its not the Christian thing to do but I have to make a living like everyone else. Those people were thieves thats all there is to say on them. Another lesson learnt lol
we do learn, but it’s always refreshing when we cross paths with honest people who are givers and not takers.
Yes it is, I have very few true friends for just that reason, people who I trust and have my back rather on my back 🙂 Keep in touch 😀
oh you are so right, but it’s nice to have those special people, and we learn to appreciate them even more because of the ones who have bitten us!
This is why I don’t have any social networking sites such as Facebook. I used tp have Facebook but its full of people telling me that I am their friend……..I don’t even know them but they think they know me, I am a lot more then a photogrsph and a line of text.
True friends take years in the making, they share your life, they give you their last sweet, they cry when you are hurt, they stay quiet when its needed and raise their voice to protect you, they laugh even when your not funny, let you know the truth when everyone around telling you what you want to hear. My true friends would think what I have just wrote is truthful while everyone else around thinks it is crap lol. =)
I work in a Primary school part time, in the nursery on a Monday and run a craft club and teach photography to 5 to 11 year one of my guide lines in the club and my photography class is working together to produce friends first and then what ever you are working on. Without friends there is no point in doing much. after a couple of weeks in a new class bonds are forming, then I split them up and we talk about losing a friend and how it feels. I then tell them to remember that feeling and how feels not nice and to make sure that they never have to feel it again………. blogbynight@gmail.com
take care.
Pete
that is a very kind and sweet description of what true friends are, and you are right, your true friends are behind you/support you no matter what. i pause and reflect on how some of my friends look at me with doubt at times, because i approach life quite differently than they, but after they absorb what i’ve just shared, then a smile usually lights up their faces and they approve with a chuckle. one friend cracks up laughing quite often, and i laugh at her laughing at me.
how great that through your classes, you’re addressing much more important issues through example.
Hi how is your week going? It is very hot here highest was 25c today, my day to be at the castle, very busy met a lovely lady from Texas, took her on a tour which she enjoyed, so it was an almost perfect day. =)
your comment made me smile! how many people can say, ‘it was… my day to be at the castle…’ – how great!!!!
Thank you =) I am so proud to work at the castle and its an unique experience. I was there on Saturday, my friends and I went as a tourist, we had a great time. Do you use Instagram, its great, if you do my user name is blogbynight loads of photos on there.
http://instagram.com/
Thats the address and to download if you would like too =)
hey
i’m gong there now, but i think instagram is cell phone technology, and i haven’t had a phone in a dozen years!!! i am so not with most of the current lifestyle of the modern world!
z
I have it on my windows8 phone and my Android tablets. I would be
lost without it all my world is on it lol. must sleep now its 2.45am night =)
One thing that WordPress does not provide is protection for photographs. I have mentioned this to a few people who upload full 300ppi files which are perfectly usable for printing. Smugmug where I have my general galleries does have right click protection. You cannot download and if you try you will see the copyright notice. However, depending on how large a viewing image you allow or if you put a watermark right smack in the middle or not (I don’t), someone can do a reasonably effective ‘screen print’ image if they wanted to. So you can’t protect from everything. Your most special images its probably best to save for a more protected venue or load very very small. I do not entirely take my own advice but try to load 100ppi sized down and not full files. That is a hard discipline since we all like our images to look their best, most sharp etc for viewers to enjoy. One thing digital photographers should do is go into Photoshop and USE file info to put your copyright, author name at minimum. That info becomes part of the file and if someone downloads the image and looks at file info in Photoshop they will see that. Then there is no excuse that they don’t know where the image came from. Also, many digital cameras like the Canon 7D will allow you to put your name on each file as you shoot. So if you get lazy, forgetful or over anxious to post, then at least your owner name is present on the file for anyone to see.
With web sharing to some degree we have to hope that everyone respects intellectual property and copyright and the work that does go into it all for the artists and writers out there!!
Great post, Z, and good reply Judy. Z, if I could like your post 100 times, that would still be inadequate. To add to what Judy suggests, it would be great if WordPress had an option to disable right-clicking. My recommendation is to only post 72ppi images, jpgs with file quality 10. Since they are only being viewed online, quality 10 is fine for the web – tests have shown that most viewers can’t detect the difference between 10 and 12 in their browsers (though that predates the retina display from Apple), and the smaller file weight will make your sige pages (and people’s Reader) load faster. Additionally, I recommend posting small dimension versions of photos – they don’t need to be as small as thumbnails, but there is no need to post full dimension photos on the Internet. WordPress has a helpful link pertaining to protecting one’s content, and there are some good suggestions there. Lastly, I agree with Judy about not posting your “very special” images online.
thanks for your great feedback. you suggest many good alternatives that help us dodge those true thieves! i will spend some time w/the image options and see what new solutions emerge!
thanks so much!
z
You’re welcome. I’ve been in the same boat, have had both photos and written pieces misappropriated. In one case, I wrote a journal article at the suggestion of a client, and at publication time, the author’s name wasn’t mine – it was the client’s VP of IT, instead, even though he didn’t contribute a single word. Sigh. Keep up the good fight!
that’s horrible! it reminds me of the story shared in this comment series, of the photographer whose client printed the ‘proofs’ and basically dismissed her w/o paying a cent!
How awful for her! At least my client paid me for the work, but had I known I was going to be a ghost writer for him, I would have billed at a higher rate… Reading all these replies to your post, I’m wondering if there are any writers or artists out there who have NOT had their works copied without credit or permission. Because of my own past experiences, I went dark for years, and started blogging only about two months ago. Within only about 3 weeks of starting, I found a couple of my photos already out on the interwebs. (And I don’t even post large, high-quality versions of my work, and people still take them! And the verbiage on my site is very clear about contacting for permission…)
it’s sad when negative issues affect our lives, and how sad that you ‘went dark,’ which i totally understand.
we cannot let the negative people pull us down, but it’s sometimes hard to find a way to adapt. i guess they help keep us on our toes!
Exactly so. Thanks for the thought-provoking post.
There is definitely a lot to think about as regards protecting your photos when you really enjoy sharing them on the web. Photos inherently NEED to be viewed to have value really. But, you want the courtesy of ownership and copyright to be upheld. Web-sharing is not a form of permission to use in any way a viewer wants. Never take a photo without permission or do the work to be sure it is in the Public Domain and then still say whose it is. True whether image or poetry etc. I love the WordPress blogging community and the opportunity to have a conversation about my photos. So you do what you can do.
One thing I wanted to add was I think it is a good practice when you insert a photo into a post in the Attachment Display Setting area where it asks you to pick Alignment, Link to, and Display Size…..choose Attachment Page on the’ Link to’ part. Do this and when someone left clicks on the photo instead of it going to a black white web page, it goes to a page within your site with your banner etc. While they can still right click and download from there, they have a strong visual of whose image it is when they do. The blank white tends to dissociate the viewer from the site owner mentally I think. You can also choose a custom URL for the image and left click will take you to say your own photo gallery or other website you may have and still keeps the ownership visual with the picture.
I agree with babsje on the sizing even though it is so hard when you want everyone to SEE your image at its best. We all want to show well!!
that link to ‘attachment page’ is a great suggestion. there are some web pages that say one can disable the right click, but i cannot figure out how to do it. linking to attachment is a great suggestion. thank you
Hi Judy – I’m with you, I think that WordPress is the BEST platform and community out there, bar none, when it comes to being able to share both images and words. Because I have had both words and images misappropriated in the past from elsewhere, I did a lot of research before beginning my blog a couple of months ago. One thing I really like about WordPress is that when it comes to retaining the file information one embeds in a photo, WordPress preserves almost all of it, whereras some other social media platforms strip it out. I have tested it with my own photos by uploading them into the blog, then logging out from WP. Then, without logging back in, I accessed my own blog as a random Internet user would. I right-clicked on 4 of my photos and downloaded them. I then checked the image properties from within the file manager by r-clicking, and my copyright info, tags, etc were visible. Then, I launched PhotoSop elements to check further. I opened each image the clicked to see the file info. In all 4 photos, the most important details were still present. Kudos to WordPress. One other thing I do is to digimarc most of my important photos. By doing this, an invisible watermark is embedded with a link back to the digimarc system
Stripping of meta data is not something I was aware of as my posting of images is fairly confined to Smugmug and WordPress. Thanks for mentioning that reality. The first photo site I ever used before I became interested in marketing images not only automatically displayed the copyright underneath or on the side of the picture, but if you filled in the caption in File Info, it would populate the site’s image caption display field for you too. So I was just unaware it could be stripped by anyone’s system. Not good.
I see you are also into Great Blue Herons!! Lisa is too only in Ecuador the Cocoi (hopefully spelled ok) Heron is slightly variant in coloration.
Here’s a link to an early-2013 study of social media sites that strip off the metadata. Note, some platforms may have rectified their practices since this was published: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2254536/study-exposes-social-media-sites-that-delete-photographs-metadata and thanks for the mention of the Ecuadorean heron, i’ll have to look for those!
Interesting link and discussion..thank you.
that’s all great advice! thanks so much for your feedback! lisa/z
thank you so much for this feedback. There are so many ‘variables’ and choices, and now as I prepare for the next post, I find myself holding my reins and saying, ‘whoa.. digest all of this amazing feedback from everyone before you upload another image!’
thanks for contributing so much to this one! z
Definitely agree with everything. A good post, and an important one. I think much of the stealing and lending and inappropriate using of pictures is because many don’t know what copyright means. And some don’t care..
thank you; with your reindeer images, i’ll bet others enjoy sharing those! as many of us agree, if they would just ask first, then most likely we’d say that it’s fine as long as they give credit! (but not on pinterest!)
Very important post, Liza, your eyes never rest. Thank you for reminding and sharing. I only use my own photos (Wikipedia once, though), but I have been thinking about this problem now and then.I can imagine your feelings and shock. I’ll check out your links too – first some sleep!
Ah yes, amiga. you’re sleeping, and i am going to be close behind you in the sleep department, as i stayed up late working on this post, then awakened early to go to a coffee farm!
thank you so much for your feedback!
when you receive this, most likely it will be ‘buen 🙂 s dias!’
Great post Lisa and can’t be emphasized enough. Every day I get shocked at how many times I read and hear about the issue of piracy, copyright, and plagiarism – just when did NO stop meaning NO? Still is why I haven’t open my website to sell I’m just not sure that it’s worth having to fight this headache. Of course, having a blog puts it all out there and I have started to weigh the pros and cons of keeping my blog. Why is it that people, world-wide, think that it’s okay to steal someone else’s work and not have to pay the consequences – when did it become okay to do this? You have a right to be angry for what has happened and no doubt it will continue.
So where does the situation leave artists of all forms – just because it is on the internet does not grant anyone the permission to steal and assume ownership of a product that is not theirs.
I could go on and on, but the sad part is that perhaps we’ve lost what was once called a civilized society – the respect for each others’ property – basic honesty and integrity.
So for everyone that pins, tweets, uses facebook, etsy, ebay, etc. and copies other peoples work without first gaining permission: 1) you have already lost your integrity – it doesn’t matter to you today, but one day it will, 2) what goes around, comes around, when you grow up and mature you’ll understand from a personal perspective why this discussion is so important – you broke a simple tenant treating others with a good dose of human respect, 3) copyright lawyers have made this issue their business – someday you will get a knock on your door and there will be consequences (goes for the company’s that own the sites where they are allowing this activity w/o kicking members out, etc.).
what a great comment, amiga! i especially liked point #2: what goes around, comes around, when you grow up and mature you’ll understand from a personal perspective why this discussion is so important – you broke a simple tenant treating others with a good dose of human respect,
you show your sensitivity and compassion there, and yes, we are all growing and learning!
The situation reminds me of people stealing music through downloads. I think they have finally addressed this to a point where folks are thinking before they download and share copyrighted music. Social media was created w/good intentions, and as it usually goes greed and “free-for-all” attitudes erode and corrupt the original intent so now social media has to become policed. What a shame – I have no facebook, pintrest, etsy, ebay, etc. accounts. I’ve wanted to open them based on public pressure, but I think for now my blog is as far as I’m going to venture.
yes, you are right. i opened a pinterest account so that i could read the terms of service!
new comments continue to come in, and there is some amazing feedback. reading about their bad experiences makes me happy that i’ve just stumbled upon a few violations.. but then there might be more that i am not aware of – yet…. when i have faster internet, i need to do some content searches.
z
I wanted to ask you about reblogging this post, but am a bit hesitant after reading the comment about reblogging. Still, if you don’t mind, I’d like to do so as this is a big problem and one about which I, as a writer and photographer, even in a small way, am concerned. Let me know if you would mind my reblogging your post. 🙂
janet
Although continents separate us, we’re kindred spirits. I have no problem with you reblogging this, though Linda has certainly given us lots of food for thought. I’ve found a large difference from people who visit the other site when referred by links back vs reblogs. The reblogs always seem to send more visitors to the other post.
Thanks, I think this might be one where it’s a true exception.. sort of like tossing out a good photo or song for the public to enjoy, or to help educate others.
Good luck, and thanks!
Z
I’ve never reblogged anything so I don’t know what it will do for my post but I think there’s a lot of important information in your post and the following comments, so thanks.
I do love finding kindred spirits. 🙂
Blessings on your week,
janet
I see what you mean about reblogs, though. Lots of my followers have liked the post, but they like it here, not on my site. Ahh, well, it’s still good information.
it could be that we have many of the same great subscribers!
the internet has gotten too slow to open the stats page, but i’ll check tonight to see how many hopped over from your blog.
That could be, too. I’ll try to have my ego survive. 🙂
Lisa, I’ve really been enjoying the blog the past few weeks. Your work is remarkable (read “good”). The Delta is doing good with ok crops this year. Presently on the way to Colorado and Idaho. Will be reading every day.
hey fletcher! i replied to this yesterday, but the connection is slow and sometimes the info doesn’t go where it should.
thanks for your comment, and i hope that you have a great trip. is it by motorcycle?
have fun and buen viaje!
lisa/z
Reblogged this on This, that and the other thing and commented:
As writers and photographers, we bloggers have both concerns about copyrights and use of the material we put on our blogs and a responsibility to honor what others put on their blogs or how we use information and pictures on our blogs.
When I first began editing our church newsletter, I thought that all clip art was free, but I began to realize that wasn’t true. After that, I tried to be very careful to only use art that was free or in the public domain, although it wasn’t always easy to be sure. Once I started blogging, I always tried to get permission to use pictures that aren’t my own on my blog, too. One of the concerns I’ve had is that others might start using my photos as their own or without attribution and permission. I’m not sure if using someone’s photo or writing with attribution but without permission is really right, either. What do you think?
This post covers a number of ideas and the comment section is rich in thought-provoking material as well. Thanks, Z, for letting me reblog this (my first reblog). I hope that all of you who read it will feel free to leave comments on either or both of our blogs and take to heart the ideas found here. So without further ado, I shall hit “Reblog Post” and turn it over to you, my friends in the blogging world. Please do let me know what you think. Have you found your thoughts or photo places where you didn’t know they existed? If so, what did you do? Do you mind? If you use material from others, how do you deal with it?
janet
very great preface! this subject has all of us pondering how we approach sharing our words and images/ what good is an image if we keep it guarded in our own computer, yet then for it to be snatched away with the flick of a click is not being very nice.
i hope that this all helps others to be more respectful and responsible.
great job amiga! i hope that it helps! z
Z, that’s nice of you, but I and my blog ego will survive. It’s just a little odd not to have things going on. But I think it’s a very important subject and you did a great job and the comments really added to the discussion.
janet
I think that American copyright law has been unfairly exploited by genetic engineers and corporations that do genetic engineering. Of course your work is yours and is protected by copyright law. I confess, though, to freely using Google images for my blog. I thought that Google takes responsibility for airing others’ work. Thanks to your post, I will desist. I don’t see how use of UTube videos is not an infringement. I never use Utubes. Initially I though it was illegal. I always play and record my own stuff.
Personally I don’t mind that others use my material. I wasn’t making any money on it anyway. I think that most of us bloggers simply want to get our stuff “out there”.
thanks for your great feedback, and i can see how using the youtubes could become awkward…. though i guess if one gets more plays w/it being on blogs they might welcome that? wonder how we could find out what most musicians and ‘youtubers’ think about that.
i just listened to your ‘as i sat on the bus..’ how fun – and how lucky that you’re so talented!
Thanks and thanks for visiting and please ride that bus and make up those stories – or poems, or photos, or anything else that starts with as i sat on the bus. The submissions are here on the blog. I thought I would make a Compendium, but meanwhile they are just found as comments.They are copyrighted by their very existence on the blog.
it sounds like so much fun, and at least every few weeks i am truly sitting on a bus when i travel here in ecuador!
z
That sounds great.
Excellent post! For the past two months I’ve been battling out-of-control copyright theft. One company stole 91 of my articles – photos, words, headlines verbatim – and reproduced them on a dodgy “travel” site. When one of my photos was clicked on that site, a cascade of seriously dodgy spam pages opened. I took action via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and his site host/server suspended the site. Then there’s the “hotlinking” rampant on Bing (despite having code on my website for Bing not to index my photos, hundreds remain in their image searches).
I’ve exchanged 99 emails with Pinterest about removing hundreds of my photos “pinned” w/o permission. And one photo I took in Nepal had been posted on Tumblr and reblogged over 10,000 times – not once was I credited as the source. I’ve written numerous emails to bloggers, asking them to take my photos down (which either are uncredited or wrongly credited to someone else). The reactions have varied: 1) silence; 2) rude attitude – one particularly aggressive bridal site owner claimed I couldn’t prove my photo was mine (despite providing her with a link to my photo originally published on my own site) or 3) apology.
This is an exhausting and infuriating fight and I’ve started deleting old blog posts, simply to stop the photos from being stolen and hotlinked. I’ve also begun putting huge watermarks over the center of most photos, plus embedded my copyright within the metadata.
your story trumps all others in my book!!!! wow. that surely has been stressful! The Nepal photo – wow, 10,000 times.. my heart hurts for you.
thank you for sharing this information!
Lisa/Z
Reblogged this on Bastet and Sekhmet and commented:
ok…here is a post that should be read by all bloggers but above all, by all you lovely writers that “borrow” photos and artwork from Goggle, Pinterest et al…if nothing else, please, please remember that you would not like your work to appear under someone elses name! If you publish you may be surprised that your work may be infringing someone’s copyright if you use their work without at LEAST acknowledging the person you’ve borrowed from. Read carefully people and know, you risk being sued!
I’m no great artist but one thing I realized from the beginning of my short blogging career is that I really want my posts to be original in all senses of the word. True…I can’t always have a photo ready to illustrate a poem or a story…if i do “borrow” i think the minimum that I should do is acknowlege where I got that photo from. Not always possible either, esp if I get it off Goggle! So a month into blogging I started making my own photos…or art work. This is my number one motive behind my photo challenges…get people to be original…get their posts 100% their own. Hmmm thanks for the great post.
i always enjoy the challenge of pairing images to content, and as an artist and photographer, i plant the idea in my head and then go through my day as the idea incubates. almost always i spot things that will work.
yesterday in the ‘outback’ of the woods, we stopped at a petite little country store. on the counter was an old fashioned set of scales. bingo, that is certainly old fashioned, and the photo turned out well!
now i’m trying to figure out how to disable the right-click function – it can be done, but i cannot find the correct ‘prompt’ buttons on my dashboard!
Don’t know, but Flickr has the option I think…like the idea of the old fashioned scales! 🙂
This is a great, informative post.I thought I had been careful about how I used or referenced other bloggers material, but I see I have some serious studying to do.The Internet has changed how we research and cite things. I have always assumed that if an image shows up in a Google search w/o some reference of ownership, that it was considered public domain. I usually try to find images that have a watermark or photographer’s name and always attributed them as such if I use them. But I guess, even that is not enough. And the reblogging thing. I’ve never quite understood how that works. I’ve only done that on one or two occasions and when I did I believe I asked for permission from the original blogger. But I was of the impression that bloggers on WP could allow or deny reblogging, so if I could reblog, then it must be an okay thing. (We all want more exposure, right?) There again, I’m wrong. Now I’m wondering about the facebook and twitter share buttons. I was going to Tweet this post because it is so informative, but I suppose I should have your permission first? Golly. I’m going to spend the day investigating the links you included here. Thanks for opening up this discussion.
hey amiga
you have my permission to tweet your heart out! the more people who become aware, the better it helps everyone. i think there are times when the reblog works so much better than a link to a site.. as now in the body in the post. most people don’t have the time to follow the links unless they are extremely interested in the subject.
i see through the stats that many more go to a reblog than they do a link. reblogs from others almost always bring new subscribers my way, and i’ve always been honored when others liked my post enough to share it with their readers. but i was amazed to read how others have lost credits to an image due to thousands of reblogs that did not link back to the original post/image.
we all have a lot of digest and incubate as we move forward in our education about blogging!
And so, I’m back. After reading your links and all the comments, I would like to reblog this post of yours on my site: http://rangewriter.wordpress.com I think you present the case fully and eloquently and far better than I could. I am particularly keen on getting this information to a few of my followers and reblogging seems the most appropriate way. But…I’d like your permission first! 😉 (linda@rangewriter.biz)
you are so kind, and i am honored that you want to share this with your readers. it’s like a heads up to everyone, and i hope that it helps all of us!
thank you!
lisa/z
I tried the reblog button and I didn’t like how that showed up on my site, so I linked directly to your post. I hope that works for you. You’re right, the reblog button does make it look like the blogger just commandeered someone else’s content. Then, I guess you have to scroll down to get the reblogger’s own comment? That makes no sense.
providing a link is always easy, though i have found that more people click over to the other post through reblog than they do if there is just a link. it’s always nice when someone prefaces their reblog – it personalizes it.
i just finished your ‘butt flippers’ post.. what a great post!
Thanks…about flippers. I wanted reblog your post with my introductory paragraph, but instead, when I pressed Reblog, it loaded your entire page onto my site and put my comments on the bottom. That’s just crazy. Too many people would be confused to see your material on my blog and very many would fail to scroll all the way down for my explanation. Of course, I suppose if I knew HTML, I could fix that on my own.
Wonderful post. I sell my Art(photography) on FAA, Red-bubble, Society6 and Zazzle with many SHARES here there and every where You can’t sell if you are not seen but if they get them for free they will never sell 🙂
Thanks again.
Reblogged this on Living and Lovin.
Same problem here too. I lose about one hundred images a day. Some I just posted and told them to pin them, and guess what, they did!
wow. 100 a day!
thanks for your comment; i’m on my way to see your site now! z
Pingback: Using Images Found Online | Kira Moore's Closet
Well written and informitive. Linked back on kira moore’s closet.
thank you! i’m heading there now! z
Thanks, I hope you like it.
Kira
i did. this took amazing courage and heart and integrity. i salute and respect you immensely. thanks! z
Thank you.
Kira
Thanks for helping spread the word about copyright and for the kind words about my efforts. One of your commenters mentioned public domain. A photo or artwork is not considered in the public domain until at least 70 years after the author’s death – and even then, it may not be in the public domain, as the copyright can revert to the author’s heirs. Photos that appear on the search engines are not there by the photographers’ choice. Web crawlers/spiders grab the images from our websites. You can install code (on your site’s head page and add a robots.txt file to your site) to stop this, but such measures aren’t always effective. Most content creators don’t want their art or photos appearing on search engines, especially on Bing Images (which has a serious problem with spammers and scraper sites hotlinking to our images to draw traffic to their suspicious sites).
This is very useful information; thanks so much! I’m going to have to do a follow-up post and showcase the feedback!
Thanks so much!
Lisa/Z
I agree that taking without asking is wrong, but the Internet is not the place to put something if you feel so strongly about it being used. Wrong? Yes, Amiga. But we are exposing ourself to a myriad of folks. Educated and not so much so. Honest, and not so much so.
yes; it’s a merry go round for sure! when those images end up in the wrong hands= computer, and they benefit financially, that’s not right at all! i read on one post that stated it was like giving someone the keys to your car and they took it home, changed the tag and started using it to drive others around!
what shocks me is some of the stories about content theft, and those thieves take credit for the material!
Hard to avoid and fight, I imagine. At least that car isn’t used in a bank robbery! Holy Jesse James!
Reblogged this on Hoof Beats and Foot Prints and commented:
Can’t believe that website can exist that encourages copyright violations. And just wait..they plan on starting to sell images on their website in the future with a never-do-will to the photographer/owner.
I have to say I have a pinterest but do not post photography on it,but when I do I give the artist credit specially with art and photography. This is a very hard topic even if we try to disable the right click button people can take a screen shot of your work so if we put it out there people will take it they think is the right thing to do even if is not. For me I use to worry not anymore I know they will grab whatever they like I gave up. Will check all the post they all seem so interesting.
yours is a good attitude, amiga! ‘i know they will grab whatevr they like I gave up’!
you’re such a great person! one of these days we will cross paths! z
Reblogged this on Bente Haarstad Photography and commented:
The great artist and fellow blogger Lisa at Zeebra Design have posted this very important information about using other peoples pictures. It is well worth reading.
I have found many of my photos on Pinterest. Perhaps I should be flattered that someone likes them enough to take them, but I am not. At the very least I think they should ask first. I tried joining Pinterest, but it was too boring.
thank you so much for your feedback. your second sentence nails how most of us feel, “Perhaps I should be flattered.. but I am not.”
welcome to the club, soul sister!
A truly excellent post and informative post Z. I am very much of the opinion that you have so brilliantly written about.thought. In this day and age our rights should not be blatantly infringed just because we are not seen in person by the person perpetrating the copyright infringement. Because it is on the web, they think it is a free for all and do not always appreciate the time and effort we as artists have thought of, conceived an idea or studied the landscape around us to choose the right moment in time to photograph it. Often I think that one of the main problems is the people’s ignorance.Well that is my rant over! I hope you have a wonderful week ahead. Best regards, James
if that’s a rant, i am greatly impressed! your code of honor has always been one of kindness and a show of respect for others. i agree with you that so much of it is ignorance, which many times goes back to lack of proper guidance in middle grade-education. blessed is the student who was ‘cursed’ with a strict teacher who taught discipline and respect for formal rules… years (decades?) later we thank those disciplinarians for lessons that stay true.
Reblogged this on Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors.
L’ha ribloggato su primaepoie ha commentato:
Read and consider
Reblogged this on Elementary Posters and commented:
So true. I especially liked the link about internet etiquette. Although virtually all my photo’s have a copyright notice at the bottom (sometimes top) some notorious copycats crop the pictures just to take the notice out. Especially Facebook and Pinterest are vulnerable for these practices.
I would like to say that I have a few images going round on pinterest and I am not looking to sue. I fault my self for not putting my name on my image.
I had taken the images a long time ago like 2005 WAY before PINTEREST and TUMBLR and all of those sights were available and while I first felt the tinge of pain from not getting credit for the picks I also realized I failed to take personal responsibility for my self by not leaving a watermark. All artists know this. . .
SO some of me is like HEY I’m pinning here and other part of me is like… hey that’s mine.
But most importantly I didn’t make it to just be MINE. I made it to be ART and art not shared or admired or pondered over is a waste of time and space.
My social networking sights are just that Social. I am not a magazine I am not a publisher and if I was making money off the accounts I would worry but I’m not so.
Until the owners start suing the 60 Million people that STOLE their image I’m going to not live in fear, or anger.
I also have on my website a disclaimer and if someone has a problem with anything I have posted feel FREE to let me know and it will be removed ASAP! I try to put up as many names and links as I can and I have had 4 artists contact me and thank them for linking back. Because like me they understand that as long as your name or source link is on the page it is a positive not a negative.
As for watermarking see shutterstock! Great LARGE watermark!
wow, amiga! thanks for this comment!
no, it’s not about fear or anger, but the professionals who make their living from their images have a right to be angry or shocked or concerned when someone violates a rule/copyright law. it is not necessary to put the copyright sign on an image. placing it there is only there to remind others that he/she is aware of his/her rights. a work is immediately under the guardianship of copyright the moment it is created, and no one is required to place it on the image. usually the ones who do are the ones who have found – and failed to act soon enough. formally registering each work or batches of works is time consuming and arduous – especially for someone like me in the outbacks of a third-world country. that’s what happened when i found my image in the international magazine. if someone profits from that work, wow, it changes the scene and they can be hit with very expensive fines in the tens of thousands of dollars.
i agree, it’s an honor when people love your work, and what good is your work if no one sees it, but many times others share then others share and many sharing sites strip all data from the image and the true ownership is lost. some have written to say that even when they challenged ownership, they hit a brick wall. there is a lot of piracy going on out there, and they take credit for images and for written material.
link backs are always thoughtful, but it is always appreciated when asked in advance.
thank you so much for your feedback.
I remember what happened to the music industry when it fought pirating. It’s not pretty.
The world is changing and we have to all work together to figure out how to live in it. Make it work together it’s the only way to stop the pendulum from swing to hard one way or the other.
If the music industry had been smart and not attack it’s customers the industry would not be struggling right now.
I really like the article it’s very smart and I liked the commentary! Your always insightful!
it’s great to have you back in the neighborhood! the long days of summer give some of us a bit more time for ourselves! z
HA no time for myself still. Working hard but hopefully it will pay off! I’m not as quick as you I’m a LOT SLOWER!!! Insert envious look here!
Great article Zee. How are you finding your images out there? So you search for your name? Admit I haven’t been watching to see if I turn up elsewhere. Am not a Pinterest member, maybe I should be?
i did a fast ‘tina schell pinterest’ search and found this:
i think pinterest has done something to conceal more information on the searches, as what i found several months ago is no longer as easily found. i found most by searching for ‘playamart’ or ‘zeebradesigns’ but now it’s harder to find them. when i do, with searches for ‘howler monkeys’ for instance, there is the link to playamart… but most people do not follow that out, they just see the image and like it or repin it.
you don’t have to be a member of pinterest to do that search – at least i didn’t earlier in the year… i joined to see what they agreed to do when they joined (as far as having rights to the image and giving all rights to pinterest to use how they’d like and assuming all costs if challenged)
while logged into pinterest, i did a search for travels and trifles, then the entire address and an abbreviated one.. nada.. then i went to google search and found this:
sorry, it was this: http://pinterest.com/source/travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/
i also found this:
Wow, I found tons of my stuff on pinterest 😦 I had NO idea they were using my photographs. Most of them have my copyright on them (ignored of course), some don’t. Some mention my blog, most don’t. That is REALLY annoying! Thanks for pointing me ( I think) 😦
you have my complete sympathy. i know ‘mas or menos’ how you feel! it’s odd that earlier in the year one could type in the web address on pinterest and find the images, and now it gives this ‘kid’s hand in the cookie jar’ shrug that says, ‘images from a website? who? me?’
thank goodness for google search!
z
Fantastic Post…thank you for reminding us all how important it is to use our own material. I guess I am wondering, though, if we name our source and it is the original artist…is that in any way better??
naming your source always illustrates respect and professionalism. many times the owner of the work will most likely grant permission. i always try to ask first, and i have never been told, ‘no.’ i realized that i posted drawings on one post that i had not asked permission to repost. they were all for a drawing challenge that i was hosting, and i was short of time and the post was a challenging one. i featured each artist and discussed the art, but i should have asked in advance to be sure it was ok.
there are some artists/photographers who would not like seeing their work used without their permission. most likely they have been burned in the past. sometimes the image hops from one site to the next and somewhere down the right-click line, someone profits from the image. then it becomes a tangled mess.
thank you for your sensitivity; we all can look back and see where we’ve goofed, and we all grow from lessons like these.
lisa/z
Thanks so much 🙂 I look at it this way, using my own material just gives me an opportunity to expand another area that I am interested in (photography).
Reblogged this on Marketing Art Online.
Thank you very much for this great article. I have re-blogged it to my website MarketingArtsOnline.com to share with other artists.
thank you for stopping by. your website looks wonderful, and i’m your newest subscriber!
Reblogged this on Stanzes Blabla and commented:
I do reblog this. Thing is I’ve seen other blogs using non-free images quite a lot. And this can be dangerous. Some websites even hope you steal their pictures. I’ve read a case in which the photo of a plate of food of some kind did cost the blogger 180€. Every picture in the internet has full copyright if nothing else is noted. It is NOT enough to steal a photo and then write down the name of the photographer. Full copyright means, that you can not use the photo at all. … Well there’s one exception called “fair use”. But that’s not in every country allowed. Just make your own and you’ll be safe, or use picture that were posted before 1923 by an author who’s dead over 70 years. Copyright is so complicated… some of these laws have funny names like URAA, which is probably the scream of a person who tries not to violate the copyright.
I reblogged this though you write, you had a post about reblogging which could mean you don’t like rebglogging. I just hope you don’t mind. (Because I’m lazy, searched and couldn’t find the post about reblogging.)
I’ve seen quite a lot of funny attempts by bloggers to make the theft of pictures of other people “legal”. And I mostly don’t “like” posts like that but refrain from speeches why I don’t like it. My speeches are terribly boring and I’m living in a completely anarchic country in which people point at their forehead if I tell them it is not allowed to steal photos in the internet to post them somewhere else.
perdon if this comes through twice. WP doesn’t show that it ever left the comment box.
my friend linda has a strong dislike for reblogs, and i can understand her reasons. she’s been burned by people stealing content of her very beautiful writings.
this post in particular should reach as many people as possible, so thank you for sharing it with your readers! i think that with today’s ease of online communications, many have skipped the old fashioned school of proper writing and crediting the source. sometimes it’s as easy as putting the spotlight on the problem, and people wake up and say, ‘oh my! i did not realize that!’
thanks for helping!
lisa/z
Reblogged this on One Black T-Shirt.
I don’t know about pinterest but I have quite a few images that if I do a reverse image search I come up with 20 pages of hits. All over the world. What am I gonna do? Sue somebody in Russia or China? Don’t think so. Plus it doesn’t really bother me anyway and once an image is posted somewhere they is little you can do to prevent anyone from lifting it and posting it elsewhere.
Thanks for your comment; If that person or magazine uses that image for profit, is that still ok?
I like your attitude, and I agree.. until I see my image for sale with no credit to my work!
z
You may not mind, but what if they claim copyright to your image and send you a dmca notice or google shuts your blog down for copyright violation. I have seen several people try to claim copyright to my images.
that is horrible! wow; there are some really evil people in this world!
btw, i found your comment in spam.. thank you so much for your feedback! lisa/z
Needed to be said. Great post
Thank you! LisaZ
Interesting points and a useful post.
thanks, mike!