I fired off the following missive:
Hi. I'm Proof, from Proof Positive. You're the one ripping off my images and Tweets without attribution. I am very lenient about people reposting my stuff, so long as they do it with attribution. Otherwise it's just a scummy vile thing to do. Did your mama raise you to be a thief? Please remove any images I have created where you have cravenly cropped off my blog address.
He ripped off one of my first drafts where I left Mary Jo's necklace on. Still, my blog policy is to let anyone republish my stuff, so long as they give attribution. A pretty low bar for most folks, but this guy can't seem to get over it.
You can see my stuff (and probably lots of other people's stuff) here: http://happyacres.tumblr.com/
I thought he'd ripped off my quote from Robert Downey Jr. on November 30th of this year. I like to Tweet my Quotes du jour, but this one was too long, so I edited a hunk out of the middle and Tweeted it. "Happy Acres" apparently took my edit and then edited it some more.
But seriously, how hard is it to give attribution for the stuff you post? In Happy Stealmore's case, it would have been easier for him to post my photo with the address on it than to crop it.
C'mon, now, Happy! Your Mama didn't raise you to be a scumbag, did she? Then stop acting like one.
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I've found tons of my stuff all over the Intertoobs without attribution. I let it slide because it's just not worth the aggravation. I figure some day someone may steal their stuff and then they will know how it feels.
ReplyDeleteYou assume they're bright enough to have "stuff" of their own.
ReplyDeleteMy experience has been that they are lazy, talentless slackers.
Your statement about them being "lazy, talentless slackers" is far too kind. It angers me when I see my stolen graphics because I spend so much time working on each of them. I take pride in the things I create so I am left with the old adage that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
ReplyDeleteThat said, we should just be satisfied that they liked our creations so much that they just had to have them as their own.
That poor bastard just isn't as good a thief as I am.
ReplyDeleteI do derive satisfaction when others appreciate the work I do, both visual and verbal (yeah, they rip off my writing as well!).
ReplyDeleteBut when Big Fur Hat appreciates my work and links to it, it drives traffic to my site, where people can see other wonderful things as well, he said modestly. When Happy Clown Car steals my work, the idjit doesn't even steal the headline that makes the image relevant. Most people today scarcely know who Mary Jo Kopechne was, much less able to pick her out of a lineup.
Had he included the link, at least anyone who looked at the image and wondered, "Who's that?" would have had a prayer of finding out.
Wear gloves. Come at night. Bring hamburger for the dog. Check.
ReplyDeleteI would add, 'never steal anything small'.
I almost didn't make it this far because I got stuck in the quicksand at Friday Night Babes.
ReplyDeleteThis is a real pet peeve of mine because I have no talent to photoshop but I do tremendously admire those that can. When I see works done by artists I know and they have no attribution I always comment to who the artwork came from originally. It's amazing some assholes get upset or huffy when I do this. Well I usually tell them to go f**k themselves. ;-)
A lovely place to be stuck, by the way!
ReplyDeleteThere was one clown who was even stealing from cartoonists like Michael Ramirez, cropping his name off the 'toon and representing them as his own.
If someone goes to the effort of creating something worthwhile, that's his intellectual property, to do with as he pleases. The Good Book says 'the workman is worthy of his hire'. Not telling people where to find the stuff that you find noteworthy to republish, deprives the creator of the piece of the recognition (and sometimes remuneration) that they deserve.