I have very recently found out that my photographs and blog contents have been copied off my Flickr account and from this blog to be featured on another blog - WITHOUT my permission or knowledge. Needless to say I was very angry when I found out....it really is just plain theft. I did visit the site (which I'm not going to promote by giving out the address) but apart from it being written in what I believe is Burmese, there is absolutely no contact information on the blog. After my initial anger had died down, I was going to pen a very polite message to this person asking for the removal of all copied material - a heck of lot more courtesy than this person ever showed me! But with no means of contacting this person, I seem to have hit a bit of a dead end.
However, an interesting view did come out of all this. On the day I found out my material had been copied, I was letting my frustration flow out to Stuart (alright - having a bit of a rant and rave) and he said I should be flattered that someone wanted to copy my work. Interesting viewpoint but I still rather sticky hands be kept away. I take the photos and write my blog purely out of enjoyment and love for the subject matter. I don't particularly go out of my way to advertise my blog but if others do come upon it, I hope they enjoy it as much as I do. I have, however, decided to mark the photographs that I post through my Flickr account. I never thought I would have to, but hopefully it will act as a slight deterrent to those terribly syrupy sticky (honey or golden syrup?) fingers from flinching any more of my stuff.
French Apple Cake
3 days ago
7 comments:
this person could be contacted via mbs http://myanmarbloggersociety.ning.com/profile/SoeMyaNandarThetLwin
sorry..here is the right link
http://myanmarbloggersociety.ning.com/profile/SoeMyaNandarThetLwin
Hi
Why not inform to the google and the blogspot.com about http://soemyanandarthetlwin.blogspot.com/ whose stole your materials
I am very sorry to know and ashame that the person who steal your job is burmese as i am also burmese. But the person who give u information is burmese too. I just don't want you to think all the burmese are theif like her. We all don't encourage her from stealing. Guess u get what i mean. BTW, ur blog is really nice blog. The pictures make me hungry. :)
Anonymous - thanks for the link
mabaydar - Hi and thanks for stopping by. I definitely do not think all Burmese are anything like the person who stole stuff off my blog. There are people out there who think it's easier to steal than to spend a little of their own time coming with their own material. I'm glad you like my blog :)It's something I really enjoy doing, which is probably why I was so annoyed when I found out someone had copied right off it.
When that first happened to me (eg theft), I was furious and filed a DCMA (I think that's what it's called) complaint to Google and wrote directly to the site. Eventually the posts were removed. But I don't bother even checking now, so I don't know if my work is being copied. To be honest, life's too short! And I suppose it could be seen as a compliment...
Helen - I was initially really, really annoyed and had all sorts of plans to write to Google, Yahoo and who knows who else. But after a few setbacks - the inability to read Burmese (I could only guess by the smattering of English words on the the blog that the person had more or less copied my whole entry) and the fact there was no way to contact the thief.
In time I realised that this person may be the first but will very probably not be the last to take something off my blog or Flickr. Life's a little too short for me to run around like a headless (directionless) chicken everytime. And yes, I think I will take it as a compliment. My pleasure is still in taking the photographs, writing the blog and of course, eating the food. In that at least they cannot steal :)
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