On giving credit where it is due.
Mar. 10th, 2009 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyThis morning I was instructed by a friend to to visit a certain website and "check out page 40." Sure enough, there I was on page 40 - part of a collection of about thousand images, none of which had any notes to identify what they were or where they came from. I do know where that picture of me came from. It was not taken by the owner of that website in the sense that she was the one holding the camera on a given day. It was, however, taken. From me.
You bet your bippy this concerns me. If you are old enough to remember what a bippy is, you were certainly taught in school that you cite your sources, you give credit where it is due, you don't plagiarize other authors or cut up library books. If you have visited my website, you know I do cite sources, I list e-links, I plant a bibliography at the end of each page. I get permission from people to use their photos whenever possible. If I slip up anywhere, it's probably here, because I never said I was perfect. Even so, I do try to include links and sources to pictures and articles I put on public pages in my journal as much as I can.
Not to do so is, you know, stealing.
Then there's the wholesale scrapbooking which renders every unnamed image completely context-free and, therefore, useless except for the "ooh pretty" factor. If this was a private collection for her own amusement, that's one thing. However, she put her collection on a public website - which means she intended to share it with whatever part of the world happens by. But why? Is it supposed to be educational? If so, how? Who made the image? When? How old is it? Is it a painting? A re-drawing? A later period artwork depicting an earlier age? A textile decoration? A comic strip? Who is depicted? Who was the artist/photographer? Were they snagged off the internet? Were they scanned out of books? Were the books still under copyright or in the public domain? There is absolutely no way to know.
I don't want to have to watermark every image on my website. I created it to be useful, a place to share what I know and what I've figured out and what I think works in terms of re-creating historical clothing, artifacts and pastimes. It's there to help people.
Sticking that photo of me on page 40 in a collection of a thousand pictures helps no one. It renders five years of my life, hundreds of pages read and thousands of stitches sewn instantly meaningless.
No, good readers, I'm not going to give you the URL so right-thinking Makiwaramaniacs can plant nasty comments all over this person's gallery or so the merely curious can go sight seeing. That sort of behavior belongs on A Forum I No Longer Frequent.
You see, I know who this person is. I know where she came from. I know exactly how she found my work so she could add it to her trophy collection.
I know what she professes to be. And I know she reads this journal.
EDIT: All comments to this post screened to protect anonymity of commenters.
You bet your bippy this concerns me. If you are old enough to remember what a bippy is, you were certainly taught in school that you cite your sources, you give credit where it is due, you don't plagiarize other authors or cut up library books. If you have visited my website, you know I do cite sources, I list e-links, I plant a bibliography at the end of each page. I get permission from people to use their photos whenever possible. If I slip up anywhere, it's probably here, because I never said I was perfect. Even so, I do try to include links and sources to pictures and articles I put on public pages in my journal as much as I can.
Not to do so is, you know, stealing.
Then there's the wholesale scrapbooking which renders every unnamed image completely context-free and, therefore, useless except for the "ooh pretty" factor. If this was a private collection for her own amusement, that's one thing. However, she put her collection on a public website - which means she intended to share it with whatever part of the world happens by. But why? Is it supposed to be educational? If so, how? Who made the image? When? How old is it? Is it a painting? A re-drawing? A later period artwork depicting an earlier age? A textile decoration? A comic strip? Who is depicted? Who was the artist/photographer? Were they snagged off the internet? Were they scanned out of books? Were the books still under copyright or in the public domain? There is absolutely no way to know.
I don't want to have to watermark every image on my website. I created it to be useful, a place to share what I know and what I've figured out and what I think works in terms of re-creating historical clothing, artifacts and pastimes. It's there to help people.
Sticking that photo of me on page 40 in a collection of a thousand pictures helps no one. It renders five years of my life, hundreds of pages read and thousands of stitches sewn instantly meaningless.
No, good readers, I'm not going to give you the URL so right-thinking Makiwaramaniacs can plant nasty comments all over this person's gallery or so the merely curious can go sight seeing. That sort of behavior belongs on A Forum I No Longer Frequent.
You see, I know who this person is. I know where she came from. I know exactly how she found my work so she could add it to her trophy collection.
I know what she professes to be. And I know she reads this journal.
EDIT: All comments to this post screened to protect anonymity of commenters.
