Dear friends, I write to you today from a very heavy heart and slightly dampened spirit. In my inbox this morning was a kind note from a friend informing that she had spotted my images {images of my daughter} being used illegally as the background of a very questionable Formspring users profile page. If you have not heard of Formspring, don’t worry…it’s simply another online networking site. It appears that the user is from Brazil…as are all his ‘connections’ which also seem to have stolen photos/questionable content on their sites.
As you can imagine, I’m utterly sick over the whole thing. But this is not the first time images have been stolen from me {or from someone I know} and it certainly won’t be the last. Naturally, one of the first things people ask me is “are you going to make your blog/Flickr/Facebook private now and stop sharing images of your daughters?” And the answer to that is a very simple and direct NO! If I am going to operate on the premise of not wanting creeps looking at my daughters, then I also much stop taking them with me to the grocery store, the post office, the library, Wal-Mart, etc. Creeps are everywhere! EVERYWHERE!!!! I have seen them and if you don’t believe me, go to meganslaw.com and look up the registered sex offenders in your immediate area and you will be shocked!
Plus, I refuse to live in fear. I refuse to let any creep take away even one ounce of my freedom, artistic or otherwise. I will not just step aside and allow thieves and perverts to take over any part of my existence. I am an artist. Part of my being an artist involves me sharing my work. The benefits of this far outweigh the risks.
So, yes, there is this element of perverts looking at a picture of my daughter{s} in ways I do not approve of. But there is also an issue of image theft…theft of my personal and intellectual property. And let’s face it friends, that epidemic is also rampant and it is not specific to perverts.
Anytime you have used a photo without permission, anytime you have used a song without permission, anytime you have tried to scan a professional photograph, any time you have taken a photograph from your photographer’s online gallery, any time you have taken someone’s idea and passed it off as your own, any time you have copied an image or style and tried to market that as being your own art…you have been this same type of thief.
I’m not talking mild inspiration here. There is a line and trust me, I think you know when you have crossed the line. In fact, in this article, Kelly Rae Roberts discusses that line quite extensively and I find her words to be a perfect address on the topic. She also expands on those thoughts here and they are a perfect compliment to the prior post.
What I am discussing here is the fact that whenever you do not give proper credit to a person for their work or ideas and/or you use their work or ideas in any way which is not specifically approved by that person, you are essentially stealing from them. And in that sense, you could easily compare the situation going on with me and the photos now to any that you have been a part of in the past. Apples are apples. Theft is theft.
So what can we do about this? We are artists, we are mommies, we have to share…because sharing is how we connect…and being connected is how we all stay human in this big, often impersonal world. It’s how we don’t get swallowed up in technology and it’s how we don’t all just become robots with usernames.
What we need to do is…
#1…Stop being a part of image/intellectual property theft. Change begins with you. Don’t use art/ideas without permission. If you have used a professional photographer, respect their wishes about what you do with their images {and yes, those images are theirs…not yours!}. If you admire an artist…great! Just don’t copy their work. You think someone’s thought are amazing and you’d like to share them with your readers too? Awesome…quote them, give them credit, and let them know that you think they’re awesome! You want to use someone else images on your blog? That’s usually no problem…ASK THEM FIRST and then credit them directly. You get the drift. Stop acting as if everything is up for the taking and that absolutely ludicrous idea will stop growing and perpetrating.
#2…If you see image/idea theft going on, call it out! Make it intolerable for this type of thing to go on. We cannot blindly look the other way at wrong doing…it implies it is okay. And it is definitely not okay. Plus…darkness needs to be brought into the light. The truth is the light. I will follow the truth and be guided in my way by the light. The answer is never to slink into the dark with others. {I will note that usually a very friendly, informative note to let someone know that they have crossed a line will do the trick! Two wrongs don’t make a right…please remember that!}
#3…Do not let fear guide your actions. If we are to do this, we might as well just step aside and allow the bad guys of this world to have their way. I will continue to do as I please in this space. I will continue to share my work as an artist. I say go ahead and cross me…because I will find you, I will call you out, and I will take a little bit of your power away! I have God, goodness, and light on my side and GOD WILL ALWAYS WIN!!!!!!!
What can I do specifically about this situation at hand…well I have submitted a claim to Formspring. I have called this individual out personally and everywhere that I can think of…anywhere where I even have the tiniest of voices. I am doing everything I can to bring light to this very dark corner of the web. And I will continue to do so. I will be patient and I will wait until justice is served. The pictures will come down, eventually, one way or another. Make no mistake!
But there are a lot of other images that have been stolen from a lot of other people. Tell your friends, take a look…help other people get their own kids off these perverts’ sites. Pass along the messages I have laid out here!!!
Together, we can make honest voices heard in this world! We do not have to accept wrongdoing as normal!
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