On Tumblr and on the fan pages of Facebook, there is a common phenomena sweeping around the masses. The hard work of the people that is posted on fan pages is being shared to personal profiles without permission. Worst of all, instead of simply saving the wanted image to a file on their desktop, any copyrighted work, such as a story...or a post with a celebratory announcement on it, is shared as well.
As an admin, I have had this happen first hand. As well as quoting Shakespeare to accentuate my posts, I also started posting "imagines", stories created on-the-spot for my viewers, who would give me a character and a scenario. It is because of these "imagines" that I did so well and interacted well with my fans.
It became apparent to me that images with my imagines attached were being shared to pages. That upset me because it was an unauthorized reproduction of my hard work. I did not give permission for them to take my imagines and they had the gall to do it anyways.
Images are a different story because you can find them all over the internet. People save images all the time and use them elsewhere.
My imagines were my personal work. None of those who shared them had any right to take them and post them to their profiles.
Eventually, I put that it was copyrighted and posted several warnings on the page to let the offenders know I was onto them and that they were not allowed to share my work. Sadly, it was all in vain as my warnings went unheeded and my work was still being saved to profiles. It was time for me to take action.
I posted a final warning, letting them know I would ban them from the fan page if they continued to steal my work. I loved writing for my fans and I didn't want to have to stop...it was my life blood. So, when the repeat offenders shared my imagines with the corresponding image to their profiles, I had each and every one of them banned from the page.
Do I regret it? HELL NO. I worked hard on the stories and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to protect my work.
So, when you decide to reblog or share something to your profile that has copyrighted material on it and no authorization to take it, ask yourself: "Is it worth the risk?". A simple right click will get you further by showing you that you can take the image without taking someone's copyrighted work.
There are many of us out there who are struggling artists and we don't want to see our hard work copied and spread without our permission. Think about our struggles the next time you want to reblog an image you like or share it to your profile.
To us, it's like taking a personal photo of us and sharing it with the world when we want our images to remain private. Perhaps you would like your personal photos shared with the rest of the world the way you have done so with our copyrighted work?
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