One of my favorite quotes about integrity and character is by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”  How do we determine the character and/or integrity of a person or business…do we listen to what they say or do we pay attention to what they do?

Because so many of our daily interactions now take place online through forums, social networking sites and shopping venues, words have taken on a whole new level of importance. The small print that is presented upon joining a new social website or purchasing an item can no longer be glossed over and tossed into a virtual trashcan.

“ms. understood” ©kellyangard

Anything we are asked to “agree” to online needs to be examined and questioned, because these contractual agreements “tend to end up being one-sided in the service provider’s favor and are often designed to be beyond any judicial scrutiny”, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In an article titled, Terms of (Ab)Use, the EFF states, “using a TOS, online service providers can dictate their legal relationship with users through private contracts rather than rely on the law as written.” The EFF‘s message is loud and clear…we must pay more attention to the words a website chooses to represent itself and its services, especially when we are asked to “agree” to said words.

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Last week a fellow photographer on Etsy sent me an email claiming she saw a familiar photograph on another seller’s store. She provided me with a link…sure enough, I found the seller was using one of my copyrighted photographs to sell some of her products! Not only was it infuriating to find someone using one of MY images to sell THEIR products, but it was a major time and attitude sucker. This person not only stole my creative work…she stole some of my creative time, energy and ideas.

While this is just the latest issue of copyright infringement I’ve dealt with…it certainly won’t be the last. With the advent of new social media/sharing sites exploding on the internet every few months (like Pinterest, Tumblr, Food Gawker, We Heart It, etc.), so too increases the speed and frequency of copyright infringement.

Now before I am told to “get a life” or that I “should not put anything out on the internet that I don’t want to be taken”, I would like to clearly state the following: I am not writing about this issue to simply bitch, raise my fist about the evils of the internet, or be a sounding board of rampant negativity. Rather, my goal here is simple: to increase awareness and educate people about the consequences of copyright infringement and provide resources for Creatives (artists/photographers/designers, etc.) who want to take swift and effective action against those who have taken and/or used their work without permission.

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