I literally woke up this morning to an email from a kind lady named Bonnie, who sent me this link:
http://inthe-garden.blogspot.com/2011/05/mug-rug-with-free-pdf-template.html
which is MY mug rug tutorial, stolen and posted on In The Garden by ‘Mary’. The site has ads all over it, so clearly ‘Mary’ is trying to make money from my FREE tutorial, without credit or links back to me.
This is clearly copyright infringement.
The only way to let ‘Mary’ know that we, as a whole body of bloggers and readers, do NOT approve of ‘her’ behaviour is through comments – there is NO email address, and ‘Mary’, like many sploggers, has even disabled the ‘flag as spam’ button. (BTW, that’s how you KNOW the blogger site you’re looking at is spam.)
It seems that ‘Mary’ has done this to many other bloggers as well, and she deletes all unflattering comments every day.
Maybe we should give her A LOT of comments to delete today?
I’m not going to lie: I am hurt, angry, and feeling a little helpless. And I know a lot of you are new, and I am really asking a lot of you, but I am begging for your help. So, if you have a spare minute for the cause of me and all those other bloggers, please leave ‘Mary’ a comment letting her know you won’t condone this theft.
I have put in a formal complaint to Blogger, and if you have tutorials, you better check around her blog too – for maybe if we all complain Blogger will be forced to shut her down.
Guess I’ll be spending the entire day taking down my tutorial photos and adding a watermark to them to make it harder for them to do it again. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to that as I know it’s distracting. Sigh.
© J C Excell, 2011
You poor thing – it must be so dispiriting for that to happen – I really do sympathize with you.
Pomona x
Shocked!!!
What a shoddy thing to do!
На своё ума не хватает, крадут чужое.
WTH??? What is wrong with this world?? I left a comment on the tutorial posting. This is just insane. Seriously…if more people put the time and effort into making life better instead of using all that energy to steal, fight, plot revenge, etc. just think of the kind of world we would live in. Thanks for calling her out on this. It’s a positive thing for you to stick up for yourself. Keep your chin up and know that all of us are behind you.
xoxo
I commented on her blog… (well..it’s not a blog is it…but I don’t know what to call it).
And posted on two other stolen posts. And messaged the author of the newest one with a link.
She doesn’t even change the TITLES so it’s so easy to google the specific title and find the original author! This is ridiculous!
🙁
Sorry to hear that Jenna, infact I remember your tutorial. I wrote my first tutorial yesterday with pictures, it will post in June. On my pictures I did add text with my blog name. You might consider doing that in the future. Glad you brought this to our attention.
I am so sorry this has happend to you. Shame on her!!
That is so sad to see. I hope that she responds appropriately and quickly. Your tutorial is an amazing one, and we are so blessed that you share with us. I hope this bad experience doesn’t change your mind. As Betty Lou said, having a watermark over your image’s will help others to always identify when someone else uses them. If you need help creating one, id be happy to help… let me know.
It is sad that people have to “steal” other peoples tutorials and claim them as their own. Definitely no integrity there. Sorry this happened to you.
Holy Shit! Very bad honey! At least you can hold your head up high! xx
it would appear that yours is not the only tutorial that was stolen, all you have to do is google “pacman plushie tutorial” and the very first image hit has a link to the original author for the latest tutorial, WORD FOR WORD! you must feel downright violated!
this sucks. I am sorry my friend, too bad we can’t find ‘mary’ and tie her to a chair until she apologizes and promises to never do it again! Good luck with the watermarks….now I know why bloggers take the time to do that!
Done!!!
Seriously! What a rotten thing to do. I mean really! Some people.
Hey, whatever you did must have worked somewhere–the link is no good! Maybe she got “her” tute yanked by blogger??
Shame on her or whoever runs that *blog*!!!
Tks fr letting us know about this.
xoxo
I follow Jess’ blog and commented on a few of the tutorials. The nerve of some people!
outrageous behaviour, I guess blogger or s/o did something because the link no longer works (I saw it this morning when I was at work), who’d have thought that people would stoop so low!?! From now on I will definately be putting my name on my photos, thanks for sharing this sneaky act. Fi
I’m pleased to see that your tutorial has now disappeared on the rogue ‘blog’ and there doesn’t seem to be much left after all the stolen posts have obviously been removed. On the up side I’m pleased to have discovered your blog today after someone I follow posted about such blatant plagerism.
Makes me angry! Another one of her posts is stolen too. The steiner chick is not hers. They are probably all stolen. That’s pathetic!
Well, I tried, but it’s gone. Scumbag.
That’s terrible. 99.9% of the crafting community are so lovely and helpful and generous with their ideas. What a bad egg 🙁
I am so sorry that happened to you, but at least it is off the web now.
I have left her a comment. I am subscribed to ‘Running with Scissors’ and found out about this through her. I am also a crafter. Please let me know how I can report her. I am new to this and didnt readily see a way to do so. You can email me at heddasurfs@yahoo.com Thank you!
So sorry to hear about this theft. I went to the link posted and it’s no longer available. Maybe Mary decided to do the decent thing.
Jenna, that stinks! I would be furious! I want to support your cause, but I will support by NOT going to her site and telling people know not to go there. If she is a “splogger,” then she is “earning” money from ads based on how many people visit the site (or so I have been told of how some of those work- i’m not positive about that). Thus, I will boycot her crappy site instead; and enjoy yours!
Hi Jenna,
The same thing happened to me last week with a different blog- Suzyhomefaker.blogspot. She posted three of my tutorials as her own. I did a post about it last week. Unfortunately there is always at least one bad apple. I am sorry this happened to you.
I guess we need to all watch out for each other.
suzy
I am so sorry this happened to you! The fact that someone is doing this is very distressing,(not that I am good enough at any thing to have a pattern or a tute) but unfortunatly things like this are becomming more and more common in our world! It seems blogger has taken the blog down, good for them! Thank goodness someone saw it and let you know! I will now be on the lookout for things like this as I would not want to be using information from a theif! All of us could help by notifying each other when we think we are seeing something that was first posted somewhere else without credit given!
I went to leave a comment but it would seem she has taken the post down?
Bad Bad Bad Mary !! !! !!
I went to leave a comment but now blogger says that this ‘blog’ does not exist which is (I hope) a victory – either blogger has done as you requested & closed her down or Mary knew that she was busted & got scared & shut it down herself. It’s such an awful thing to happen & as someone who loves tutorials & has learnt all I know about quilting & sewing from them I am really outraged.
I can’t imagine why anyone would pay to advertise on ‘Mary’s’ site, it’s such a boring non-personal layout.
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery but it’s not, when someone copies your original work it’s just nasty & theft. Let’s hope it’s taken down soon.
Luckily the good guys far outweigh the bad ones. 🙂
That post has gone now but I have left a comment on another plagiarised one expressing my feelings
On a brighter side it is so lovely to see people looking out for one another – the absolute opposite of that shady, lazy blog