~ web thieves ~
i just realized that there are many “web thieves” outthere. if you use someone else’s work, whether it is an art work (digital or non-digital), HTML, javascript, and other codings without any consent from the artist or programmer, you are stealing!
the way the web works make it easy for someone to do that act of stealing. just a click of a mouse, you can download graphics or cutting and pasting some codes.
maybe they do not realize that they are *stealing*. but if you can expose these people to sites that explains about this kind of things, then there will be more people know that using any kind of work without a permission is WRONG. that’s why i think it is good to involved in this kind of rings, or be a supporter of GreyDay, Set of the Week and some other organizations which promote non-thief behavior. ideally, it would eventually reach out to every corner of web community.
i have encountered this kind of problem a couple of times. i caught two sites using my graphics without my consent (only two, my graphics are not that good, i guess… hehe). i do not understand, i have a whole section of free — linkware — graphics, and someone just have to grab images from somewhere else on my site. i put it clearly that the only downdable graphics are the one on the free graphics section. the other one used the graphics from the free section, but did not put the credit nor the link. there is a list of rules on the first page of the free graphics section explaning that you should put the button and link it back to here… i guess some people are just too lazy to read.
yesterday, on one of the mailing list i join, there is a huge argument about this stealing problem. one of the members of the list uses several background sets and did not put any credit. to make the matter worse, she even out a button saying “graphics by (her name)”, suggesting that she was the one that made the graphics. uh, things got really ugly when the artist contronted her (and she had been confronted by the mailing list members prior to that). she refused to appologized to the artist, although she later on put the credit and the link. that means, she didn’t think she has done anything WRONG, while what she did was actually VERY WRONG.
i just hope people would recognize the hard work of a creation. maybe someday…. :)