For ten years, this blog has been under a deadline. I made a commitment over a decade ago to approach posts at least monthly, and that’s a long time and a lot of dedication in finding words to share. It has also become a challenge that I can no longer maintain, so it is time for a change in direction.
For a while, I considered deleting the blog entirely after the start of this year. I reached a personal milestone of blogging for ten years, so shouldn’t that be enough? Time to move on, forget, and start something fresh? I’d grown tired physically and emotionally, with too many other things demanding my attention. And as I’ve written here before, the Internet World isn’t always a pleasant place to be.
Then there is the “borrowing” that subtly (and often blatantly) occurs. If you don’t know the meaning of the words Intellectual Property, then please look up the definition. Theft is theft, whether it’s the pick-up truck stolen from the owner’s driveway, or the photograph or story idea stolen from a person’s blog or website (or Facebook page). Copyright protects just like the lock on that truck, but things still get stolen. And for those who say I shouldn’t post something online if I don’t want it taken by someone, then I’d respond with perhaps you shouldn’t park that pick-up truck in your driveway, or on a public street or parking lot if you don’t want the same fate.
When I was a kid, I learned the hard (and humiliating) way about plagiarism. I got “called out” for something I had made my own. Other than it being youthful stupidity on my part, there was no excuse for it. I’d been lazy and didn’t take it seriously at the time. I needed the embarrassment to learn a lesson, and it has stayed with me ever since. From that point on, I never claimed anyone else’s work as my own.
In 2014, I published Daniel’s Esperanza and shared the book cover on my Facebook page. Within seconds, a Facebook friend shared the image. Done the right way, I would’ve been grateful and appreciative. But it wasn’t. She had cropped the title and the byline out, and simply shared the image which was that of a wild horse, offering no explanation of where she got it, what it was for, or who took the photograph. I owned the copyright to that image because I took the photo; it also came from a copyrighted book. She ignored all of my attempts at getting her to at least state where the image came from; eventually, she simply did the “unfriending” thing. I was shocked with the whole experience because it was someone I actually knew.
Facebook forced her to remove the photo, but not until I proved the photo belonged to me. It was an inconvenient, time-consuming nuisance, and so unnecessary. It’s sort of like where the burden of proof falls in most cases. The years and work it takes to create, from idea to work to completion, not to mention your own personal cost, to simply have someone snatch it away and claim it. It’s discouraging when it happens. However, I appreciate it very much when people share what I’ve created while attributing it to me. There’s a difference. Something similar happened with my book, Williamsburg Hill, but it dealt with the storyline and not the cover, and it wasn’t on Facebook, but with a literary agent.
As for the available content here: this is a public blog and it’s free. Anyone can read the posts and no money is made on it. Any references I’ve made to other artists’ work, I’ve given the appropriate credit to it. I’ve never attempted to sell any of it. While I’m not aware I’ve violated anyone’s copyrighted work, I won’t say my copyright has been honored in the same way. It hasn’t been, and that’s the biggest obstacle in continuing this blog in the same manner it started. It’s also the greatest frustration. The content here isn’t up for grabs. Credit, appreciation, acknowledgment…do the right thing, sort of like that ‘do unto others’ thing.
So instead of deleting the blog, at least for now, I’m posting when I feel like it. No deadlines. There won’t always be monthly posts, or there could be. Whatever happens is the new approach. Breathing room, a break, time off.
As always, thanks to those readers…the loyal, regular ones, and those who drop in and visit every once in a while. It's appreciated.
