Helm's Deep

middlemanagementlivingthedream:

baffledinbrooklyn:

Doot doo da doo doo

Doot Doot De Doot!

Doot doo da doo doo
Da doo doo
Da doo doo
Da doo doo doo doo
Doot doot doo doo doot

spasian-invasion reblogged your photo: Oh look, spring is back. = 👎

OH GAWD WHERE’S THE SOURCE TO THIS???!!!! HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO KNOW WHAT PHONE IT CAME FROM???!!!!! MY LIFE IS OVER!!!!!…

Hey look, everyone! Now I’m being attacked because I’m sticking up for content creators and people who make cool stuff. This is one of three reblogs the Spasian Invasion decided to hit me with. You should also see the inbox messages from one of the people I called out on it earlier today, not to mention the fact that they stole 3 of my images from my blog and posted them on theirs, then promptly deleted them for some reason. Not sure what the point was they were trying to make. It was lost on me.

(sigh)

I wish I could say I’m surprised, but this is the culture we live in. Despite the overwhelming positive response I received from my post, I knew there would be those on Tumblr, and the internet in general, who see absolutely no problem with stealing people’s stuff and not trying in any way, shape, or form to find out who created it. It’s blatant, it’s deliberate, and they feel no shame at all.

Mostly, it’s sad. It’s sad because they don’t even see it as theft. In their eyes, and their skewed worldview, it’s simply how the internet works. I messaged this person and told them that had it been their original content,  I would have defended them just as strongly as anyone.

Maybe I’m being too optimistic that this space can, and should, be a safe place for content creators to share their intellectual property freely, and that people would respect that and want to promote them and their work, so they continue to create cool stuff for the community.

I hope not.

These reports coming out of Oklahoma are overwhelmingly sad.

Seriously, hug your loved ones extra tight tonight. And every night.

middlemanagementlivingthedream replied to your post: On Sourcing | A Rant - Update

I can’t wait to save this post and repost it myself under my own name. ;-) I think public shaming is required.

You totally should.

A few months ago, I wrote this post about how to properly source material that you found on the internet, here on Tumblr, or even add your own info if you in fact were the one who created said content, and want others to know how cool you are because you’re proud of what you’ve done.

On Sunday morning, the following image came across my dash via a reblog from one of my followers:

If you look at the image, it is very clear who created it: the blogger apolloablaze. And here’s the link to the original post, which now has over 66,000 notes as of this writing. It’s very clever, and apolloablaze deserves credit for creating this.

Now, a short while ago, I saw this from Buzzfeed:

Notice who they put as the “source” of the image? Themselves. You’ll also notice that the image has been slightly altered, with the “Tumblr” logo looking more like the Yahoo! font.

Not more than 15 minutes later, what comes across my dash?

Notice it’s the altered image from Buzzfeed. And also notice that this person has not only stripped it of its source, but reuploaded the image to their own blog and replaced it with THEIR NAME as the source. If you take a look at the particular blogger in question, they are notorious for doing this, not only on their own personal blog, but on two other blogs they manage.

So my question is this: what should we do? Start publicly shaming these people? Create a new blog called “stopstealingotherpeoplesstuff.tumblr.com” and let people submit obvious attempts to snag other people’s original content? Flood their inboxes with messages telling them to stop? Start stealing anything original they post, strip their names from the “source” and replace it with our own? I’m not sure.

Personally, I’d just like to make sure that original content creators are always credited for what they make, and that their work is properly attributed. I know the reblogging system here on Tumblr isn’t the greatest, and that’s part of the problem. I’d love to see the actual “source” of an image be retained no matter how many times it’s reblogged. that would be a good start.

Regardless, if you didn’t create it, it’s not yours. Don’t attribute yourself as the source. You’re breaking the #1 rule of the Internet as given to us by Wil Wheaton: Don’t be a dick.

Rant over. For now.