F Oversharing? | tamdoll's workspace

Oversharing?

April 4, 2013

I recently shared a project, allowing it to appear in a free ebook of Mother's Day Crafts. Did I do the right thing? I'm not 100% sure, but it's done... and I know a lot of my projects have been shared online in various blogs and websites, not all of them with my permission. The one at that link is my Mother's Day Bunting from my old blog.


I wish, when I had made this one, that there were more contrast in the fabrics and that I had gotten the pictures a little sharper.... well.. next time...


I don't mind sharing online, as long as credit is given. I knew my project had already been at the AllFreeHolidayCrafts site, didn't think much of giving permission for the ebook until it was released. Wish there were links back to me, not just credit & I started to wonder if someone else was making a profit & if I had missed an opportunity to do so. Not dwelling much on it, but it made me think. I have always shared things at my site because that's the community I want to be a part of - but I don't like to be taken advantage of.


It really is too easy to copy things from other sites nowadays. If you're a blogger, you may want to see if your pictures have appeared online in unexpected places. Sometimes you can see from Google Analytics (trackback links to how people have arrived at your site).


Another way to check is to drag one of your own pictures into the Google Images Search bar. Any instances of the same picture will be listed and linked to. You may be surprised at what you find. One of my tutorials for a crochet cell phone cozy was found on a site where the writer claimed it as their own. Disappointing. It's not the first time and I always leave a message about ownership...  I've been angry, felt pity and disgust with people that feel it's okay to copy things. I know some folks who won't put their art online for that reason. What would you do?

6 comments:

  1. I downloaded the ebook just to see how they credited you. Am disappointed it's just a text mention of your name and blog but there's no link. So far I've not given anyone permission to copy my tute contents. I only let them have an image or two and a link. I don't know if that works against me but at least I don't worry about someone else profiting off me. I try to watermark all my images. I don't always remember to do it but I think that's the only way I can proactively prevent copying.

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  2. I think it's quite common for books and magazines to just list the artist's name and sometimes location. Only once in a while do I see websites listed. And sometimes it will just say etsy.com...that's not helpful either!
    And only part of the time do publications give compensation for published work. Many times it is just a free copy of the publication itself.
    I was published in a scrapbook magazine several years ago and it only gave my first name and last initial. And compensation was just the free magazine. But it was so great to be published!

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  3. Hey there - I sometimes wish people would find my items copy worthy...but I probably wouldn't appreciate it if things were being copied with NO credit given. I think you should continue to share your art and HOPE for the best. Or perhaps add a watermark like the other lady said....stay you and do YOU and remember that imitation is the best form of flattery---keep up the great work.

    xo
    tina

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  4. Thanks all for your feedback and for listening to my rant!
    :)
    Tammy

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  5. Sorry to be so far behind, Tammy. But that seems to be my constant condition these days!!

    This is no rant! You are absolutely correct - too many people these days view any and all material published on the internet as theirs to do with as they wish. Sadly, this is only going to get worse. It used to matter more what we as artists felt, and it used to matter when we asked for common courtesy. Rarely does it matter any longer.

    Many bloggers even illustrate their own tutorials with images of other bloggers work making it appear that it is their own work. And how many thousand times have you seen the same project tutorial written over and over and over. OMG.

    Writing and requesting - demanding - that pilfered tutorials be taken off a site - absolutely does little good. It seems that these days half the bloggers are producing original work and the other half are using that work to promote themselves and if possible make money. It is not the right thing to do nor is it "fair" but it IS. And the only thing you can do is what I do - if you don't want it copied and copied and copied - don't put it out there.

    Water marking may help - hopefully! I have begun watermarking my "beauty shots" and images that are a significant part of a tutorial. It is a royal pain and adds a great deal of time to writing a tutorial, but if we want to have any hope of retaining ownership, it must be done. Having said that, Diane and I have had a long - several long - chats about watermarking older work and the sad reality is that once those images are out there all over the place, it is impossible to change them all. So we have decided to simply go forward from here and watermark new material. One can watermark older images but there are so many other copies out there.........is it worth it?

    I am so sorry you are troubled with all of this. I wish like everything i could offer a "fix". The crafty blogisphere is not the lovely, friendly place it used to be and that makes me grumpy!!! Can you tell? lol

    Watermark!!!! And grit your teeth!

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  6. Thanks Pam for your feedback. I think this is something I'm just going to ignore. I can tell I hit a nerve! This last one was my breaking point...

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