Melville Nailed It

"It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation."
H. Melville

This is the best title I could summon after what I experienced last evening. Once a week I check the stats on the Web sites to determine the value of what we do. Upon opening the stat chart, I see that a slew of folks are coming from... a personal wedding site??

Immediately I discover that an image that I illustrated two years ago for my wedding has been pilfered. They didn't do it the smart way, but, well, I'm not going to tell you how because I don't want any other miscreants illegally yanking copyright images from other sites -including my own!


This is where they pulled the image: http://www.ecstewart.com/sp-wedding-all.html

I blasted a note to the offending parties. I also suspected that the engaged couple were innocent since they had the site designed by 'a friend.' Nevertheless, I caught their attention with both the note and the new image they now sported on their Web site.



The image enlarged for better viewing: http://www.ecstewart.com/selfpromo/wedding/heart.gif

Indeed I did. A few hours later, I receive this retort:

"We were certainly not using the images for any commercial purpose and did not see harm in it. The images were found at google/images. The images have now been removed from the site. Thank you for pointing out the copyright violation." Signed, the Webmistress

Thank you for pointing out the copyright violation?? Puh-leeze!

Hence, my final blow:

"Regardless of how the images were harvested, Google or otherwise, does not make pilfering ethical. Double it goes for not using it for commercial purposes.

As a Webmaster yourself, you should become acquainted with copyright infringement otherwise you could damage your reputation as a designer among your cliental."

***
Please, whatever you do, do not compromise the integrity of your value system to make a few bucks. The heart on this personal Web site didn't even add value to their overall personal brand. Additionally, the webmistress had pilfered a German artists work to include on this site, unbeknownst to the couple that hired said designer.

The German designer has been notified.