Stealing Graphics & Content

This week a very nice gentleman e-mailed me to make me aware of a site that was linking to one of the graphics from one of my sites and thereby displaying my graphic on their site. Typically when this happens, the sites that do this kind of thing are not very well designed sites. They are home-brewed DIYers you clearly do not understand all the issues and variables — legal or otherwise — involved in having an online presences.

This site in particular was way bad and had so much scripty gobbly-gook that it almost crashed my browser! It was clear the site owner didn’t have a clue about most things important to online success. I thanked the kind soul who informed me and then took action.

What I do when this happens, is I first changed the graphic to reflect “This Site Steals Graphics Illegally.” This causes the graphic they are linking to on my server to display this message on their site. When you do this, be sure to rename the original graphic to something new and be sure to change anywhere in your code that you point to it so that you don’t have a broken icon (or that message) on your own site.

I then e-mail the Web site with a sternly professional demand to remove the link to my graphic immediately or they will be reported to their host. This e-mail does include some scolding about integrity and ethics although I know it is because they simply didn’t know any better. Call it baptism by fire!

I also mention the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and send them a link to my article on Online Copyright Myths so they then have the opportunity to become informed.

The bottom line is you should not link to, steal or display other’s works or graphics so they display on your site without their permission. Nor should you assume by using a photo server such as Google or AOL’s picture search services that graphics are then yours to use as you please.

If you didn’t create it or write it — you need to ask to use it.

At your service,
Judith