Dinosaur brainitis

It's amazing what a difference a good night's sleep can make in one's views on things...such as copyright in this internet age. 

It also helps to have a husband who is far more internet savvy and can explain the internet culture in a way that even my dinosaur of a brain can understand and get around.

What helps even more is to have fellow artists share their view on the subject.

Thank You!

Last night's...hmmm...temper tantrum, rant, explosion of words, insanity, naivety...pick your favorite for they all apply - was an eye opener for me. Well, not the rant, but the discussions that have followed.

While I still don't want anyone taking my photo and claiming it or the subject matter as their own and certainly do not want anyone to profit from it, I have come to the realization that my view of copyright as it applies to the internet was very outdated and unrealistic on so many levels. 

As a result, I changed my copyright to one of creative commons this morning. It gives permission to copy and share my photos as long as attribution is given...which is exactly what was done with Pinterest anyway. 

My most sincere apologies to everyone for my outburst last night. I really should have refrained from hitting the publish button. Then again, it is great hear how others feel on the subject.

Copyright

I need your help, your advise, your wisdom...on the subject of copyright.

Let me start by saying that copyright is a serious issue to me. I have one listed in the sidebar of this blog. In fact, it's the second item in the sidebar, just below the photo of me, so it should be a bit difficult to miss.

Maybe I'm being naive, but I do expect my copyright to be honored by visitors to my blog just as I honor copyrights listed on other's blogs. If you want to post one of my photos from this blog somewhere, in this case to Pinterest, I truly do expect to be asked permission to use my photo.

While perusing the blog's stats tonight, I noticed that 7 visitors had come by way of Pinterest this week. It struck me as a bit odd considering that I do not have a Pinterest account. Tumblr and Flickr, yes. Pinterest, no.

So...how did Pinterest end up being a referral site for 7 visits? Good question. I checked out the referring url section of the blog stats and clicked on the referring url listed. Sure enough, there's one of my rusty circles photos with from jennifercoynequdeen.blogspot.com listed above it.

But wait...over to left is a box that says also from jennifercoynequdeen.blogspot.com and showing two other photos of mine. All of this done without my knowledge, without my permission.

HELP!!!

Right now I'm ready to fill out Pinterest's copyright infringement form for 3 people. One of whom is a mentor of a friend.

HELP!!!

I'm so furious that I can't think straight!!!!!!! It's taken 45 minutes to write this post because I keep making so many mistakes.

What would you do? Please. What would you do in this case?

I know that any photos I post to Tumblr are open for reblogging. If one of my Tumblr photos had made its way to someone's Pinterest page, that would be fine. The same holds for anything posted to Flickr. But not to this blog. Or am I being ridiculously naive?

HELP!!! PLEASE!!!