HIDE

 

Drape [] No.1 pattern from Drape Drape, made from Gunmetal silver grey jersey from Tessuti's - easy, quick, and very striking. The front drapes the same as the back. But not as low.

Hide [] The internet is a huge expansive place full of wonderous things. The internet is also a very small place, and you cannot hide. Particularly if you are stealing content from other people's blogs - words, images, and profiles. I would like to send you here, and here - to read one of the most perfectly written posts about internet and blogging abuse and what we should be doing as a community when it happens, and to read a heartbreaking post about content theft which has become apparent this week to a small selection of blogs. Then I would like to send you here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. I could go on. I have a collection of a lot more links relating to my blog. What you will notice are links to my blog posts first, and to another blog second. What you will also notice, is that most of the links to the other blog are broken - or direct you to a blog which has now been made private by the blog host while the owner of that blog is contacted for infringement of copyright under the DMCA. You can see in the link address though, where the theft starts - often in the title of the blog post itself. Posts, and posts, and posts, and images. Word after word, image after image cut and pasted. Stolen.

From me.

From T Does Wool. From Ravelry profiles. From other bloggers. Not random. Not spam. Deliberate. Some posts have had crucial information altered [like dates and names of shops], have been cut and pasted, and back dated. One of them shows my daughter. My daughter. Her name has been changed to make it seem like she is theirs.

They stole my daughter.

I put myself out here in public. I put my family out here. Or I put certain things out there. I don't put everything out. I take that risk and I understand that risk. It's a risk I'm prepared to take to encourage, to inspire, to gain inspiration and to feel part of a community. That risk, that choice, does not make it ok for someone to steal my work. It does not mean I hand over carte blanche approval for my work to be used without my permission. It does not mean my life, my children, my words, or my images are yours for the taking or to do so is valid in any way. It does not mean I should shrug my shoulders and accept it. It means I should take responsibility for the choices I make about what I show. And that responsibility lies in taking content theft seriously, and doing what I can to stop it when I know it is happening. It also suggests that the people who read the blog take some responsibility, and tell blog authors when they see something which doesn't feel right, which is copied, copycatted, or stolen.

We took action. Word was spread on Twitter, on Facebook, through blogs. We wrote and complained to the blog host. We attempted to leave comments on the offending blog. The blog authors whose work was violated sent formal notices of copyright infringement to the blog host. And action does get taken. As you will have noticed, the blog has been locked. I decided to retain the links to the original posts here in this post* - in case the blog goes back into the public domain, because I'm still waiting to hear back from the blog host about the state of my violated posts, and as a record. A record that I am quite happy and willing to link and make public my disappointment in anyone who thinks this is fair practise within the blogging community. I will not be a blogger who sits back - I will be responsible for maintaining professionalism and integrity within this community.

Too often I fear that people shrug this off with the inherent suggestion that 'you ask for it' by making yourself public. That's so wrong, and incredibly insulting to the process and the act of blogging. Too often people forget their manners, and think this sort of thing is OK. This is not flattery. It never has been and never will be. There are instances in this situation which give grave cause for concern about the intentions of the blog author, who they are, and how much a part of this community they are. I am so heartened and glad to see people getting behind this, and standing up for us. I'm glad there seems to be a resolution being implemented and I hope the scale of the copyright infringement is such that the blog author is prosecuted.

I'm tired and I'm saddened. This is destructive and yes, it's a violation of my public identity. It happens. Yes. And we can do something about it.

*all my posts were screen shot saved before the blog was locked. If anyone feels they need the extent of the posts' content to be validated, I am happy to forward those screen shots.

Comments

[peanut]

That's so scary.

[susana]

Hello. I haven't commented before, but always read your wonderful, inspiring, real blog and just wanted to say: I am so sorry this ugly, sick-making thing is happening to you. To the others. At all.

[Courtney]

That's so bizarre, were they making money from ads or something? I can't imagine any other motivation for such freakishness.

[Becky]

I am just speechless. I just cannot imagine why anyone would want to do such a thing. Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but in this case it's very misguided. I am shocked and saddened for you.

[pinry]

thank you for sharing, for your inspiration and showing the beauty in domestic life. good for you for shining a light on the dark corners of the blogging world. such a shame not everyone plays fair.

[Rosa]

what is going on? I have just come from the blog 'Katie did'...today...she writes of suffering the very same experience and is reeling, like you. Very sad.

[CreatureofHabit]

I looked up the blog in Google cache - my god. This is truly psychotic behavior. One post I found was actually from a blogger grieving over the loss of a family member and this person took it and posted it as HER loss. And even got sympathetic comments.

I'm so sorry you are going through this..... I have no idea what makes people do such things, nor do I know how to make it stop. Perhaps one battle at a time will eventually get us there, so don't give up the fight!

[Ingrid]

I'm a long time reader, and can understand how upset you are by this. My blog has been replicated in spam blogs, but it is so weird for someone to deliberately try to replicate your world. I think that she must have some real issues.

[Kelly]

Your blog is BEAUTIFUL. I wish you courage and strength on this battle to fight off the thieves who have stolen your beautiful work.

[christie]

I can't believe or understand why someone would simply cut & paste someone else's work & try to claim it as their own!?

I am glad that you have blogged about this & taken a stand, as you said putting your work in the public domain does not mean it is a free-for-all!

I hope you continue to blog, your words & pictures are beautiful & inspiring- thank-you.

[Steph]

So many kinds of uncool and saddening. For those of us who treat blogging as a community and share bits of ourselves and our families this is disturbing. It saddens me that anyone could think that is an acceptable thing to so and I'm so glad for your sake the blog has been made private and I hope that more will happen to that person to let them know that it's not right.

[sue]

Good on you Alison, well done. How awful that some horrible person would do that to you and others, and to try and steal your daughter's identity too. I hope the blogger host does something too which they should and it never happens again. People should be able to post their posts and not have information stolen, it is like stalking isnt it.

[Alicia A.]

Alison-
This is such an outrage. I cannot even fathom what makes people think they can do something so blatant and wrong.

I am so sorry.

[MNR_T]

Alison, I am soooo sorry to see this. And I wholly admire your strength in standing against appalling behavior.
ps your dress is dynamite!

[Mefi]

so sorry about this. your writing is so eloquent it can never be copied.

[michelle]

I had one of those this week too!

It's the most freaky experience to see your words, your thoughts and stories of your own life, family and challenges appropriated by a third party.

I thank the person who directed me to it or I'd never have known, but honestly think there is nothing to be gained by kicking their door down. I trust in kharma. It never fails.

So sorry this has happened to you - it's not flattery it's theft. Hugs.

[mommycoddle]

I am so glad you are making this public and taking a stand and reminding all of us not to shrug it off, or put up with it. But to stand together and protect each other and watch out for each other.

I'm sorry you are going through this. I went through it a few months ago with someone directly sucking my blog content onto theirs. It was a long, frustrating process to deal with it. But I am thankful that someone had MY back and brought it to my attention.

[KathiD]

It truly boggles my mind that anyone would think it's OK to steal someone else's words and pictures. Or, more likely, that they know it's NOT OK and do it anyway. I just don't get it.

[Renee]

Glad you have gotten some results. I hope you won't stop blogging because of this. I've found so many wonderful blogs to read and follow. Too bad people can't use their own words and pictures.

[Kristen]

i am a lurker, never really commenting.

this happened to a friend of mine on livejournal. A mutual friend of ours did the same thing, only didn't post it on a blog, they just kept it to send to other people. It's a scary scary feeling.

Sorry this happened to you.

[itto]

I am so sorry for you and I absoultely support all you say about honest blogging. may you be rewarded for being so truthful.

[brit]

I just don't understand why people think because it is on the internet it is free!? yes we should be responsible but lets face it sometimes other folks logic is just scary. The reposting of other folk's children is ridiculous and bizarre.

this was well written and I applaud you in your stance to fight back and take back your right to put content on the internet. We have the right to share information in the blogsphere just as we have the right to walk down the street without being mugged.

*applause*

[leeain]

The concept is good. the photo is amazing. both were brilliant!

[Marie-Christine]

Basically I stopped blogging because I was so tired of my work being stolen. I've left what was already up, figuring that was a dead loss, but I really haven't felt up to posting more. The 5th print article in a 'prestigious' journal that was directly stolen from my most original work pushed me over the edge..

Mind you the same publication stopped one of my friends from publishing her work for over like 10 years, by stealing her first published pattern. They've been at it from their first issue, I'm sure to this day.

That wasn't people pretending to be me though, that'd be even creepier. If I saw pictures of my cat lounging on my hand-dyes on someone else' blog I'd want to rip their eyes out. I completely agree with soozs that it's as much mental illness as the garden-variety criminality as happened to me.