In the blush of innocence, back when I blogged with enthusiasm and vigor, finding fun little photos from the internet that would match whatever it was I was yammering about, I obviously did not understand the "concept" of blogging.
The word "blog" itself is short for "web log," like a diary, or a journal, my mindless stream of consciousness crap spewed out for all to see, comment on and hopefully agree with. Although I have also learned that there are internet prowlers looking for reasons to be a**holes to you behind the veil of anonymity afforded by "commenting."
There are so darn many of things now, so many reasons to read about .... well....anything. In our business, that of writing, we can find sites to feed our various obsessions and fetishes no matter how dark or "already done."
I participate in several, including this one, my own (www.brewingpassion.com), and a couple of other writer based sites (www.authorspromotingauthors.blogspot.com and www.sweetnsexydivas.blogspot.com). But, because I am so damned starry-eyed and naive and silly I kept putting photos that I assumed were public domain up there, entertaining fellow writers and hopefully snagging a few elusive readers.
Yeah.
Well, not anymore. I have been b*tich slapped by blogger one too many times thank you very much. And a goggle slap is not fun. There is no happy ending.
So, beware the innocent internet image. And if you are tempted to post anything that is not a photo of you, your kids, your dogs, your house, or your book cover don't do it.
Thus ends today's learning curve blog post eating of the humble pie.....
bewared the google slap!
Liz
The word "blog" itself is short for "web log," like a diary, or a journal, my mindless stream of consciousness crap spewed out for all to see, comment on and hopefully agree with. Although I have also learned that there are internet prowlers looking for reasons to be a**holes to you behind the veil of anonymity afforded by "commenting."
There are so darn many of things now, so many reasons to read about .... well....anything. In our business, that of writing, we can find sites to feed our various obsessions and fetishes no matter how dark or "already done."
I participate in several, including this one, my own (www.brewingpassion.com), and a couple of other writer based sites (www.authorspromotingauthors.blogspot.com and www.sweetnsexydivas.blogspot.com). But, because I am so damned starry-eyed and naive and silly I kept putting photos that I assumed were public domain up there, entertaining fellow writers and hopefully snagging a few elusive readers.
Yeah.
Well, not anymore. I have been b*tich slapped by blogger one too many times thank you very much. And a goggle slap is not fun. There is no happy ending.
So, beware the innocent internet image. And if you are tempted to post anything that is not a photo of you, your kids, your dogs, your house, or your book cover don't do it.
Thus ends today's learning curve blog post eating of the humble pie.....
bewared the google slap!
Liz
I know that I looked forever for a royalty-free image for my last post and finally gave up. I usually stick to my own covers or some of the royalty-free image sites have some clever images or anime` that sometimes correspond to what I'm blogging about. BTW, love your covers!
ReplyDeleteLiz--I've only used clip art for my blogs, but can you give me more info on what Google (or blogger?) does if you use the wrong photo? And are you talking about copy/paste something from the internet as opposed to something from a stock photo site? Thanks, Meredith
ReplyDeleteMeredith, I used what I assumed were royalty free images, never ones with any sort of water mark from a photo company or whatever. But in the past weeks I've gotten 2 "take down" notifications from Google telling me that "someone has filed a claim of copyright infringement" against me unless I remove the "offending photograph" immediately. I never take anything from stock photos sites that I don't belong to and purchase outright. these are photos as simple as ones I've seen all over the internet, of random couples kissing or whatever but the two in question were so innocuous as to be ridiculous. I took both posts completely down to not risk any more questions but realize now I am likely on a red flag list somewhere and am in process of removing ALL potentially "offending photos" from as many blog posts as I can manage
ReplyDeleteLiz-- I've been thinking about this blogging issue too, for some time. Unfortunately, I might have to change my marketing strategy.
ReplyDeleteBest--Adele
It's been a while since I've used a photobucket photo. Hope the next time I do, I don't run into any copyright infringements!
ReplyDeleteGetting to bet too dmaned many people out there trying to make trouble....why do they get kicks out of this?
ReplyDeleteOh dear. I am so timid about this issue, I only use free microsoft pictures. It's scary. And my men don't really want to be in a blog anyway. LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks for the words of caution, Liz. I've used Photobucket images on some of my blog posts. I'd better be more careful in the future. It's getting ugly out there.
ReplyDeleteI frequently use images. Yikes. I should look out for potential problems. I swear some people just like to cause drama. I understand wanting to protect one's rights but it gets ridiculous. If they want the world to know it is copyrighted, they need to slap a watermark on it or make it readily identifiable at copyrighted material.
ReplyDelete