An interesting situation developed yesterday. My post about the moon, because there was a link to it on Scientific American, drove a LOT (over 200 hits) of traffic here yesterday. That makes it the highest hit page in a single day ever. Only the main blog page or the main site page could ever compete with it, and never on a single day. It’s amazing to think that such a large number of people saw my photos of the moon. I’m just a humble person who likes to take photos!
There was one interesting hit though, someone who apparently liked the pictures I took (who wouldn’t? they’re amazing! okay, maybe I’m not such a humble photographer). And what this person did brings up a few points about proper internet etiquette when it comes to images, because this person broke several rules.
There was a comment waiting for moderation on my blog quoting a section of someone else’s blog. That was interesting. So I checked out the blog. Imagine my surprise when I see MY photo on their blog. Nobody’d asked if they could use my picture. There was no mention of my name with the picture. And more surprising, the picture was still on my server!
That’s three internet etiquette rules broken.
- Not asking permission to use images belonging to someone else.
- Not providing written credit for where the image came from.
- Using the image on the original server.
So I did what any site manager would do under such a situation, I changed the image. Instead of my beautiful picture of the moon, they now had this image on their site:
They were lucky though. I know of people who have replaced the original image with EXTREMELY offensive images when they’ve discovered things like this. But it was because they were still using the image off my server that I was even able to do that.
So then, this person has the NERVE to expect me to apologize for their theft of my image. I received this message from them (capitalization problems are in the original, this person has issues):
dear miss giggles:
imagine my horror when i looked at the post i put up about the perigee moon to find a message “image used without permission or credit given to photographer, don’t do that, it’s rude!!” where your picture was.
I am going to remove it and you can be sure i will not use any of your images again.
contrary to the information which was posted by you in place of the picture, you were in fact credited – the image was a direct link back to your post. granted i did not ask your permission but i certainly did give credit where credit is due.
an apology from you will be appreciated for making an unfounded, unfair and nasty accusation..
Unfounded? No, I called it like it was. Unfair? No, I’m not the one stealing images. Nasty? No, trust me, it could’ve been much worse.
I will apologize though. I will apologize for the general stupidity of a great deal of humanity, and that includes those who don’t know the proper use of a shift key.
As a side note, the other two images on her blog post are also being stolen off other servers.
Here is an example of how to properly reference photos elsewhere on the internet, and besides, it’s an AMAZING photo!
I am an educator and PhD. I quilt, belly dance, run, read, and try to grow things. I am a Mormon. I am infertile. I am a daughter, sister, aunt, grand-daughter, friend, wife, and mom.
Brett L. Dennis
Mama g
Giggles
AmandaStretch
Are you serious!?! Wow..some people are totally clueless!
Oh, it gets better!
I wrote a note to Karen Marie, at From Laurel Street last night and explained the netiquette she had broken and why I had done what I did, basically what I put in this post here.
She just sent me two messages (edited for violence, not for continuing shift key problems).
you are a stupid b—-. i did nothing wrong. if you do not want people using your images put a lock on them.
i would have thought you would have appreciated the traffic but apparently not. best wishes to you in your tiny little life.
bite me.
sincerely,
karen marie.
and
the reason i did not put the name “miss giggles” on the picture?
it’s a stupid name and one i felt would detract from the photograph itself.
like i said, you are a stupid b—-. be sure to remove me from your site registration. i will not be back.
Also, all of the images on her site are being stolen off other servers, and a few others have been edited by the server owners as well (like the United States Government Library of Congress).
Wow. Some people’s kids. Seriously.
I’m feeling the love.
She’s very classy as well!
Hmm… for those like me who are curious, here’s the web copyright info
http://copyrightwebsite.us/using_someone_elses_work.php
From the person calling YOU stupid:
>> if you do not want people using your images put a lock on them.
I rest my case.
Karen apparently lied when she said she wouldn’t be back, because she came back and saw this thread and sent me another message. This time suggesting things about a horse I apparently arrived on. I won’t be sharing that message. It had the same shift key problems as the others though.
I have since read the Terms of Service (TOS) for WordPress.com where her site is located. She’s in violation of the TOS and if I had wanted to, I could’ve reported her to their legal department and they would have shut her site down. Perhaps if she comes back again she’ll read this, remember she agreed to not steal copyrighted information from third party sites, and change her ways, or risk someone else getting her site shut down.
In the mean time, I’ve been doing some research about how to stop hotlinks in the future. This is probably going to require a change in servers for me. So as soon as I get my schedule for the semester figured out (that’s a HUGE rant for me today, this week just sucks), I’ll be doing that. That might mean there will be some hiccups in the site, but hopefully you won’t notice a thing.
Because I moved the site, I have now been able to set up hotlink protection. From now on when someone tries to hotlink to my site they will get this image instead of the one they thought they were getting:
That just makes me smile tremendously when I think about it. I can’t imagine this is a huge problem, but I’m glad I’ve prevented it from being a problem in the future.
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