WARNING: RANT AHEAD!
Must I be furious or flattered?
You often (unfortunately) see authors complaining about someone stealing their work. They have worked hard and I will never condone this! Whatever the reason it will never be right.
Well today I found one of my teasers in another blogger’s review! I would have felt flattered except …no mention that I was the creator of the teaser!!!! I don’t want to mention the blog as 1) I don’t want to be petty; 2) maybe it was an “honest” mistake but ...
Let’s speak about usage rights.
Contrary to authors or graphic designers, I don’t earn money with my teasers or graphics.
But they remain MY creation.
I have worked on these sometimes for hours just to find the perfect picture free of right on Pixabay. To find the perfect fonts, the matching colors etc.
Basic etiquette would be that you ask permission or at least give your “source”! Give credit where credit is due.
That’s why you’ll find at the bottom of my site:
“All content on this blog was created by Beware Of The Reader except promo material (tour etc.). Reproduction, duplication and/or republication without written permission are prohibited, with the exception of authors and publishers who may use parts of reviews for quotations if credit is given to Beware Of The Reader. “
I always get:
-either pictures free of right from Pixabay or;
-download from site “free of right” and look twice at the policy and rights paired with said pic. Contact them if need be to be extra careful;
-either buy them from Shutterstock or Depositphoto…;
-either contact the author and ask permission.
So please could you respect my work? And if it was an honest mistake can you correct it? Everyone makes mistakes so I don’t want to point the finger. I will always feel flattered if someone asks permission to use my graphics, promise. It’s a kind of recognition and I am not a bad person wanting to sue everyone. I just want to be asked nicely …
Now let’s chat: What do you think about this? Do you feel it’s “stealing ” if someone don’t tell it’s yours? No credit given ? Or am I making a fuss for nothing?
Sorry rant finished I just had to take this out of my chest!
Love you all.
Sophie
Sorry Sophie that sucks!! I always try to use Pixabay too though honestly, I often just use stuff from pinterest, not on my blog but on IG. Probably shouldn’t but if it has a watermark, I’ll use those so the creator gets credit automatically. But truly, I love the stuff you make…so AWESOME!
Thank you TRisy! For the moral support and for the praise 😉
So sorry to hear about the steal! Upset doesn’t begin to explain how one would feel. When I first joined Goodreads, I noticed this copy and paste Bentley spoke about in a few reviews and wondered about the credibility of Goodreads. Not understanding how it worked at first, you quickly learn who the honest reviewers are. Keep up the good work girl!
Thank you Dani! And it would be horrible to steal one of your beautiful graphics as well! I love them <3
I hear you dude! I am personally very protective of my graphics on my blog because I work very hard to make them unique. If I ever find out someone’s stealing I’ll be on a war path
Want me to share my sword with you Ari? 😉
All of this. All of it.
Sorry it happened to you. At some point it happens to all of us I think…and often times we don’t even know.
Did you contact the blogger?
Yes I did Astrid. She apologized today and I hope she’ll have learned something xx
I’m sorry that happened Sophie. That’s your intellectual property whether its a teaser or something more. I’d be angry too so ranting is perfectly reasonable.
So sorry that happened to you, Sophie. Plagiarism isn’t tolerated at school, why is it tolerated in real life? Did you find out who did it? Maybe you can ask them to remove your photos unless they give credit?
I found her and asked that she give me credit. She excused herself and told me she’ll do better in the future. I think she did not know she had to give credit. Well if the lesson is learned that’s the most important 😉 Thank you Danielle!
You have every right to be upset, Sophie! It takes a lot of hard work to make those graphics!
Thank you Kayla!!! <3
Oh no.. i’d be pissed to, im sorry this happened
What id probably do, is gently converse in dms with them (maybe on twitter? If it’s in their blog) and explain the whole situation with saying you atleast want them to include it comes from you. It’s just such a shitty thing to do!! Atleast tell your readers you DIDNT made the photo, and give them a link to where they can head to if needed.
I know Kristina! Now she excused herself today and seemed not to realize that it was mine. Maybe a newbie?
Oh Sophie, I’m so sorry that this happened to you. It boggles my mind that people copy content from others book reviews and book blogs to use in their own. I remember last year a big to-do on Goodreads when it was discovered a fairly popular user had never posted an honest review, and instead was copy/pasting paragraphs from the most popular reviews for books together to make her own popular reviews. Her entire account got nuked when enough people reported her to Goodreads, as is what should happen.
No! OMG I didn’t know this story! How can someone do this is beyond everything I can fathom. I am a “walk the line” kind of girl… Thank you Bentley!
I’m sorry this happened to you :/ It doesn’t take more than five minutes to google an image source and it harms no one to credit the original blogger.
Exactly Camilla! Thank you <3 <3 <3
I think that blogger googled it and that’s why I always put my name on the pictures as a watermark.
Sound advice Raven! Talia gave me the same and I’ll do it from now on!
I think when it comes to pictures you’ll find that some people just google something, and your picture will pop up. They don’t even think about giving credit, they just use it because it was found on Google. There have been quite a few of my own pictures I’ve stumbled upon while searching.
Everyone should give credit, at least. I’m sorry this happened.
Thank you Wendy! I think I will follow Talia’s advice and put my blog’s name on my future pictures. Sorry it happened to you too!
Hi Sophie, I’m sorry this happened to you. For some of the graphics in my blog, I put the name of my blog on a corner as a watermark, so that at least if it ends up being used, it’s auto-credited.
Good advice Talia! I already do it for my bookstagrams but I’ll add it to the teasers now 😉
Stupid Question time – what is a teaser? I know that a teaser can be like an excerpt from a book, or a small movie trailer, but I am not sure what it is in this case? Did you contact them and let them know they need to credit you? It wasn’t me was it? I don’t think it was because I haven’t taken anything from your blog, but if a Teaser is like a header picture from a tag I might have used it thinking it was part of the tag? I try and always give credit when I use other people’s work but sometimes its hard to tell!
Hi Brittany first don’t worry it wasn’t you! I know you always credit the blogs so relax 😉 A teaser is basically a “quote” from the book that you put on a picture or drawing or colored background. And yes I have contacted the blogger and thanked for using it but asking that they give me credit. As I say I’m not a petty person and maybe it was a mistake…
Whew! Ok thanks 🙂 haha sorry I worry that I don’t know blogging etiquette and making mistakes and I really don’t want to discredit anyone! I am sorry this happened to you! But thanks for sharing so hopefully it won’t happen again! And I know you aren’t petty 🙂 Otherwise you would have blasted their name across the blog haha.
Pfew thanks Brittany! I was embarrased by my outburst but I had to let it out without hurting anyone 😉