Wednesday, September 12, 2012

an apology

If you read my blog at all, you know that I LOVE Pinterest and pin stuff like a madwoman. But most of the time, I don't bother change the title from what automatically pops up to include more info about where I found it. And sometimes I repin things onto my own blog, and I forget to list additional credit there too. I realize now how offensive this can be to the people who originally posted the images. I am very laid-back about people pinning and re-posting my own images, so I assume others feel the same way as I do, but I am starting to realize that I'm in the minority here and I need to be more careful about this sort of thing. If I have ever pinned an image from you or posted an image or anything else onto my blog and you were upset because I did not give you proper credit, PLEASE let me know so I can correct that and make amends. I hate to think that anybody out there is mad at me about something like this, especially since it is due to my naiveté and laziness vs. any malice or attempt to steal another costumers' work. I will try better to give everybody proper credit in the future.

Also, I would like to make a public apology to Heileen for pinning a photo that she took of a chemise dress. I used this photo for research when making my mourning chemise, but I neglected to tell you all where I found the photo, and I just assumed that clicking through the pin would be good enough. My deepest apologies, Heileen, and I thank-you so much for sharing your photos with us all.  I will not make this mistake again.

9 comments:

Sharon Kwilter said...

Pinterest is creating copyright problems all over the place. I have the attitude that I don't upload anything that I mind getting used. If it's out there, it's public--get over it.

Caroline said...

I agree with Shasha Kidd. Owned or not, once you've put something online, it really is fair game for others to see, and possibly be inspired by. We all try to give credit where credit is due, but honestly, there are so many other things in life than blogging. Priorities happen.

Bottom line: don't feel bad. We all make honest mistakes. This is supposed to be for fun - not to feel like you're under a microscope of scrutiny. And really, I think 99% of us feel the same way.

Cheers to keeping it happy!

Thread-Head said...

Agreed. Responsibility is critical when you're wading into territory where someone else's intellectual or physical property is used for personal OR public reasons. But it comes down to intent, always. Your intentions were not harmful.However,you are very brave to offer a public apology just as Heileen was brave to ask for recognition of her work. Hopefully, we can all appreciate that we are blogging to create a shared pool of knowledge and that the rules guiding the sharing of that knowledge are going to change as we move forward. Best to you, and kudos again for initiating a respectful dialogue on this issue!

llyrafantasyfae said...

I have been guilty of this also. I didn't realize it was such a big problem so I am trying to be more conscious of it. I guess in my mindframe it was giving them credit because I liked it enough to want to pin it.... But I can also see how stupid that may sound to anyone who is not on the same brain length as me. Like I said though, I do intend to be more conscious of it.

heileen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
heileen said...

I'm going to answer here, because my reproach is larger than just name credit and might strike a cord with some people.

I love sharing pictures I took of costume in museums. I LOVE sharing. That is one of the top reason I love internet so much. But the use and abuse of sharing showed me I was a big naive, and my love for sharing has cooled a lot since the explosion of Pinterest and Tumblr. I love Pinterest, for research, but I also realise that people on Pinterest (everybody, Jen, not you especially) are less curious about credit than any one else on internet, and that's saying a lot.

The fact is that, I like direct credit like everybody else, but I have always accepted direct link as a sufficent credit, even a link to my Flickr instead of a link to my blog. A delayed linking throught Pinterest through ? No, that is not good.

As I said in my blog, I'm like you, Jen : I might be lazy, forgetful, or any other bad reasons, and I don't want to give moral lessons that I could not be respecting. It's just different to be on the other side of the credit thing.

But with pictures like mine (clothing from museum, these are usually the pictures of mine that are used by people), there is another aspect that is, in my opinion, as much important -- no, more important -- than name credit : information. Crediting me might allow people to find the information through me but actually, I prefer people to have the direct information where they find the picture.

On the precise exemple of the picture you used, it is not just a chemise gown, it's one of the only two remaining in the world. People have the right to know from which museum it is from, and what other information we can have about that dress, and there are a lot ! We know the EXACT year it was made, the woman who wore it, etc. I made a post about the pictures I took at that museum. Yes it's in french, I undersand that it is a problem, and I know that google translation of french is godawefull, but here is the good news, people : I speak english. Just ask me. And the fact is, it's been year people have been using my picture, and I NEVER NEVER had any questions about information on the costumes. That is definitely not normal.

As of why I got angered now. It was boiling for a long time, but a series of blog posts by several different people started me. It was lenifient about the ethics of the internet, the credit, name dropping, sourcing, when actually I have several times seen this people in fault about the VERY thing they were denoucing. Their blogging friends too, and no remarks were made to them. And yet, everybody was applauding. The whole hypocrisy of it was too much for me.

We all made mistakes about credit, the important thing is to work on it, not the talk about it.


I accept your apology, Jen, because it was really sincere, and I understand you had no malice. You can keep the picture on your blog, but add a link to my blog (to the post talking about the museum would be the best), and add the following information about the dress : from the Muse de la Toile de Jouy, in Jouy-en-Josas, made in 1784, worn by Mme Oberkampf, wife of the owner of the famous toile de Jouy factory (rephrase it of course. Said like this, it sounds very boring).

Unknown said...

I'm sorry but everyone knows if you click the picture you get to the origin. If no one got to the origin then they didn't care enough to look that far. A obvious link won't change that.

Now if it is an original piece or art/craft it would be polite to type in by so and so but otherwise I think to be pissed over this is splitting hairs.

Unknown said...

OH and just cause you took and picture Heileen; unless you're selling it as original art ( which since the subject is owned by the museum not by you, you would have to get permission to do )you have no legal holding over the image. And I hope she unpins it because you're a bit on the self righteous side when you admit to doing this yourself. Don't you have better things to worry about?

Anonymous said...

Jen, I just discovered your site and love it!! Thanks for all your hard work.

On this particular subject, I can see both sides. First, right-clicking and "save image as" for upload later is probably how the majority of credits get lost. Second, I've seen images that might link their particular source (but not the original source), a broken link, or could just be wrong.

Personally, when I post photos on the internet that I'd be upset to see somewhere w/o props for my hard work, this is what I do: inconspicuously add © info/link (use a small text size & a different shade of the same hue) directly on the photo. Watermarks are distracting. I want the info to stay there so I don't want it to be obvious, thus blending is the key. It would be malicious use for someone to take the time to remove it. The © symbol is added by ALT + 0169 on Windows (on Ubuntu Rt.Shift & Rt.Alt + o + c). It's super easy and problem solved!

The fact is that anything you put on the web is out there, whether it's information or images or videos or whatever. If you want credit, whatever your reasons are, it's wise to make it as easy as possible for others to give it to you. --Dee Dee

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