Week 10 and Copyright Issues

Privacy and Copyright:

I made this card yesterday. However, I did not make it from my own imagination. I saw a card in a magazine that used this technique to make a card. It also had some tips on 'how to'. I read those and then created mine (slightly different) using the same techniques. This in the paper craft world is encouraged. In fact, it is mentioned often in certain manufacturing sites as a way of encouraging you to purchase the products necessary to make the item. I would not watermark this usually as I don't feel it is all my own work.

Is this stealing? I am never quite sure - the common knowledge is that if you use something for inspiration and copy it exactly, you acknowledge who you copied when you publish it - after all, it is only polite! This card was made with the help of Karen Binnie and published in Creative Papercraft - Issue 2, page 42-43.

However, I dd not use the same embossing folders, or the same basic card. I also did not colour it as she did, and I used a different sentiment and added my chook embellishment! It is my personal take on her inspiration - in that case I do not need to worry about copyright apparently. However, I will still acknowledge her in my personal blog as the inspiration and direct people to the magazine and page.

I run a Challenge blog and am on several others. We make items to inspire others to create along a theme. In fact, this card is made for my blog Unstampabelles' current challenge. If I wanted to make it difficult for someone to use this as their own - and yes they do; some people 'steal' the image and claim they created it and then enter it in the competitions under their own names, as sometimes the prizes are quite impressive and challenges are world -wide - I would add a water mark of some kind. I added this one as text in Pixlr.

I am not sure this cannot be removed so I have in the past written my name with a permanent marker onto some spare acetate sheet and laid it over the project prior to photographing it. I also find it easy to add a watermark from Paint to photographs also if I need to do that in a hurry before publishing.

I have had a piece of work stolen and then sent to a magazine under another name in the hope of winning the Letter to the Editor prize. It was a pretty unique piece and not inspired by anyone else - it was based around fixing an error actually and it came out better than I had thought. I was a few years ago now but I was shocked to see it a few months later on the pages of an English magazine but apparently made by someone else! I sent an email to the magazine, with the link to my blog page where the card was published and they sent a thank you message back but as there was no prize involved there was not much they could do. We agreed that they would take the letter down from their own blog and they also published a note in the next available issue saying the card was mine not the name given on the letter they received but they refused to go further. They ceased to exist about 18 months later anyway. At the time there were lots of problems with digital images being stolen as well and being reproduced in commercial cards or sold on eBay and we were all warned to watermark our digital images if publishing.

It was a bit if a fillip really - they thought it was good enough to steal! If I get to a stage where a photo of mine is stolen I think I would be chuffed but I can see that it is a problem for those who make their living from them. I often use photo's from Google and FB in my blogs - I always acknowledge whose photo I am using.

As a teacher I was well aware of not publishing images of people without their permission and we had the standard blanket permission for image use form for all parents and students to sign. It met that you had to opt out rather than opt in.

My family is like a lot of families spread far and wide and FB and Instagram are two social media useful for keeping up with them and their doings. As the young ones grow up and become parents themselves their attitude to photo's become quite amusing in a way but they are very protective of their children and their images. I use Instagram mainly as a way to see images of my great nieces and nephews and grandchildren and their children as they will not post on FB generally.

I see many photo's and video's that have gone viral and if they do not contain small children I will often pass them on but I don't always pass on photo's of children and never pass on photo's where someone wants to trace a lost family member. I never pass on anything that goes against my moral code.

I am planning a trip to Bruny Island later in the week and hope to find a theme or story there for my final assignment.