Doing the Right Thing

A dear friend of mine (Hi, Barry!) showed me a very funny and timely editorial cartoon that combines the recent hurricanes in the news with getting organized. It's very clever! Wish I could show it to you!

I wanted to put it in my blog post right here, but in the interest of "doing the right thing," I did not do so without getting permission from the cartoonist to use his work.

When asking for permission to reprint, they ask you about the readership numbers you have as well as your budget. I said my budget was nothing because I am but a mere blogger with 1400 readers. Then I got a quote for $300... I absolutely, wholeheartedly respect the right of this cartoonist to charge whatever he likes for his work, but I make virtually no money from writing this blog. It's only an awareness-generating thing I do to draw attention to my flagship site, www.clutterdiet.com (where we offer an amazing membership program, by the way!). I think I would have paid $20 or so for the pleasure of showing you the cartoon, but alas, I cannot justify $300.

I have figured out a "workaround," which is that I can link to this cartoon if you want to see it here on someone else's site: http://gocomics.com/brucebeattie/2008/09/04/ But I am not posting the work here because I have not received permission to do so.

I am writing this today because our industry tends to have a problem with intellectual property rights not being properly understood or respected, and particularly people have issues with this on the internet-- just copying and pasting without permission or even attribution. This has happened to me numerous times and to many of my friends. So I am trying to be a good example and just make this subject something that gets discussed more often.

Yes, this is off-topic of organizing, but it's on-topic for blogging. So there you go. Have you had problems with this yourself, with people using your work without permission?  Discuss in the comments! 

Comments

[Julie Bestry]

Amen! The internet makes it incredibly easy to "share" material. Sometimes, we wish to share our own work, but wince when the attribution somehow "falls off" somewhere down the line and others, intentionally or not, put forth the fruit of our labors as their own.

We want to share the work of others and give proper attribution, but find that following the rules and doing it the right way (asking permission rather than seeking forgiveness) puts the process beyond our capabilities.

We NAPO-ites have shared resources for checking the web to see where our purloined material may appear without attribution, and many of our colleagues are careful to look out for one another and alert us when they see our work used without attribution.

And yet, not everyone holds the value of intellectual property rights in as high esteem as it deserves. Thanks, Lorie, for bringing this up!

[Magda Byrne]

No one has used my work without permission but I will admit that I have not not used people's work but have listed them before in an article without permission because I thought it was useful information to have. I have tried to contact people in the past but no one ever responds. If I waited then I would never get my blog posted! And like the old saying goes - no news is good news! Not sure if it is exactly the same thing but thought I would share anyway. At least my intentions were good!
Magda
Your Virtual Assistant
www.FabulousHelp.com

[Jeri Dansky]

I've also seen cartoons I would have loved to include in my blog, but haven't because I don't have the right to them. The one time I pursued that with a cartoonist's syndicate, my request got lost in the ether. It probably would have been too expensive for me, also.

But I've had wonderful results in writing to individual people who say on their web sites that their photos (or pictures) are copyrighted and that I need permission to use them. Permission usually comes right away, and they are happy to have their images get a wider audience. Of course, I always give credit and link to the person's web site - and specifically note that the images were printed with permission.

And then there are sites where permission is granted up front, like people who use a Creative Commons license on Flickr. I'm so thankful to them, and they've inspired me to do the same. Again, of course, proper attribution is required.

[Clyde Lerner]

Lorie, in reading your post about posting comic, I think it's bizarre they want to charge you $300 to show the photo. Thanks to you, I actually found the photo. You are giving them free advertising. They should be paying you $300! I agree it's right to get permission, but you're not using the photo to make a product.

Whenever I show something on my blog, I put a link back to wherever I got it. Most people are quite happy about this.

[Org Junkie]

Just recently I had someone copy an entire blog post of mine and put it on their own blog, sheesh. They did link back to me (which is how I found it) but it is such bad etiquette to re-post the entire blog.

[Mrs. G]

I love the cartoon!

Clyde is right, they should pay you $300 for giving them free advertising.

[John Trosko]

Good conversation to have Lorie, for everyone. As someone who has copied/full credited artists and websites, I think it's legit to use things as long as you credit.

No one is policing this. People on both ends must look after their own property. It's only after someone blatently steals stuff from you without crediting, that's when it really stinks. Usually they are novices or third parties who don't know what they are doing.

John

[April]

As a musician, I freely share my creation with the world, and it's welcome to anyone who enjoys it (as long as it's not used for a car commercial.) It would be great to make money from my music, but I don't have the artist's backbone yet to make that leap.

As a representative for a video production company, I wish I had a dime for every time someone used "lack of budget" or "giving us free marketing" as an excuse for license violation. As for budget, how is it that your "lack of budget" is justification for our lack of compensation for use of our creation we used our budget of to make for your use?

As for marketing, all the best marketing is free (viral, word-of-mouth, testimonial.) So I was thinking of calling the Ferrari dealership to see if I could get a free car because of all the people that would see me driving it... think it'll work?

Sure, something for nothing is great, but it is intellectual property, and value of such is quite relative.

It doesn't sound like the value this artist placed on his work was arbitrary. It was based on hard figures he's developed from his own research. If he's depending on his art to make him a living, kudos to him for recognizing the value of his work and sticking to it. That's what I call an artist's backbone!

[allison carter]

You are one in a million - setting the gold standard with grace and poise.

[Amy Derby]

Hi Lorie,

What a great post, and a great reminder. I blog for lawyers, and I've had a few who when I started blogging for them used to rip stories from the Associated Press. The AP, through their plagiarism software, detects this sort of thing. Several of the lawyers I've blogged for received cease and desist letters for copyright infringement. So it just goes to show, even the folks who should know better often don't. They see AP stories plastered everywhere all the time and think it's ok. Or they think snagging a fancy image is fine as long as they say the found it on Google Images. Doesn't work that way.

I've had my own work lifted a few times. I've only had one instance where the person I caught refused to remove my work, and in that case I contacted his hosting company and had his site shut down.

It always amazes me how bold folks online can be about what they think constitutes fair game. (i.e., "you put it online, so that means anyone can use it.") Oy.

[sander]

Honestly, you're lucky to have gotten a response at all. One of my tasks at work is getting permission for using and adapting music, and about half the requests I send out are never responded to.