One of the things that I have found blogging the Newburyport Blog now for almost 2 years (Wow… hard to believe) is that my “stuff” gets used all over the World Wide Web without my permission and, many times without acknowledgment or a link back to the Newburyport Blog.
I gotta tell you, this really, really pisses me off.
Here’s a photo:
Photograph of Inn Street, Newburyport, MA
with copyright information
(Mary Baker Eaton © 2007)
Yup, you got it, it has copyright stuff and the name and address of the blog all over it. (The Inn Street photo seems to be particularly popular.)
And yup, it’s for a reason. If folks are going to download stuff or “hot-link” it– “linking” an image instead of downloading it, I have a few options.
One, is to remove the image all together (and since I’ve put time and effort into gathering up a myriad of images for the readers of the Newburyport Blog to enjoy, I hate to get rid of them.)
Two, do what a lot of bloggers do, which is replace the picture being found elsewhere with another image that tells whoever it is, where to go, and it’s usually where the sun does not shine (this is done with images that are “linked” or “hot-linked… I can’t believe that I actually know this kind of stuff now. Gesh.). I’ve seen some of these and they are pretty creative, but not exactly quite my style.
Three, try and get in touch with whoever. And surprisingly, this is not always so easy, and often not so fun. And if successful, often requests are ignored or stonewalled.
Or, four, voila, have copyright and info scattered all over the image, as in the example above. (Which doesn’t do much for the image.)
So those of you out there in Web-Land who might be “borrowing” stuff, please make sure that whatever it is that might be being “borrowed,” from wherever it may be being borrowed from, please make sure it would not be copyrighted.
And (and believe you me, for those of you who have been following the Newburyport Blog, I never thought I would be on this end of this comment, and this one is way ironic) using an image that is copyrighted is illegal, a copyright violation, and is against the law.
It is my understanding that to use a copyrighted image from any place, written permission is required along with the proper acknowledgement. A link back to the place where the image is found and a “thank you” does not hurt either.
Plus this technique is just plain classy and thoughtful and very much appreciated by whoever happens to have the image in the first place.
(And, for a variety of reasons, there are times when permission is not always granted.)
Oh readers of the Newburyport Blog, thank you for your patience on this particular topic. Who knew, not moi, that such things as “hot-linking” would be discussed in such depth on the Newburyport Blog. Good grief.
Mary Eaton
Newburyport