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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Everything's Coming Up Roses...And a Sidenote on Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

I love all the roses in my garden but I'd have to say Double Delight is my favorite. The bud starts off mostly white, and as it blooms becomes redder and redder. But the mix of white and red changes with each bloom, and each bush.

The first three roses are all Double Delight.




Don't you love the variety of color in just one rose bush? If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know how much I love my garden. And not just my garden, I do enjoy sharing some of my favorite restaurants and recipes with all of you.

Blogging has no hard or fast rules since it's an unregulated medium. But I do abide by my own set of rules. I always give credit to the source of every recipe I use. I don't copy anyone's photos. If I like something, I give a link to the proper source. And if you read my copyright notice over there to the right ==>, you'll also notice that I don't give permission for anyone to copy my pictures or text either. Every once in a while, I do a search for my blog and see what pops up. Several people have liked some of my food pictures and copied it to their own blogs, but they gave credit back and a link back to me, so I'm not going to be anal about it.

Which brings me to my point about roses and plagiarism, or copyright infringement. My favorite Double Delight rose picture was originally on my Best of 2006 Roses post in January. So I was very surprised to see my picture on Huong Le's blog. (The picture has since been removed.) Without any credit given. It's definitely my picture. My Double Delight rose bush, my marigolds faded into the background. Granted she's only using the photo and not precisely claiming credit for it herself. But you see, it's not her photo to use in the first place.

Several times, I commented and asked her to please credit the photo to me, or to remove it from her site. No response. The irony is that the friend she credits for getting her started with blogging is an amateur photographer who watermarks all her photos.

Now, in the overall scheme of things, I realize this incident isn't as bad as what happened with Eating Asia, in which a Shanghai Daily reporter stole whole sections of her text and fake-quoted her. But Huong Le taking my photo and publishing it on her blog, and not deigning to respond to several requests to credit me or remove it from her site? Yeah, I'm annoyed. Very annoyed. Very, very annoyed.

How does this affect you? Well, it certainly doesn't since it wasn't your blog she copied from. But it could be. I know a lot of my blogging friends have copyright warnings on their blogs as well. I'm not going to sic a lawyer on her or anything. I'm just annoyed.

But I'm not going to let a bad apple ruin blogging for me.

So now, back to my rose pictures. Please enjoy. I like sharing my beauties with you. Just don't take without my permission, OK?

Angel face

Donna Darlin'

Paul Ecke Jr.

Chicago Peace

Peace (I hope I got these right. I'm always mixing them up. My mom planted the Chicago Peace and Peace rose bushes.)

Ramblin' Red Climber (These are on both sides of my front door and hopefully will frame an arch of red roses over my door one day.)

Grenada

Scentimental

Mister Lincoln

I think this is Paradise? Heirloom? I can't remember. :( It was $1.97 bare root rose so I don't have the bag saved.

Iceberg

Autumn Sunset Climbing (This is climbing up the side and over the roof of the gazebo.)

Ambassador

Updated May 4, 2007: Thanks to everyone who went over to Huong Le's blog on my behalf. After repeatedly ignoring my requests, she acknowledged your comments and finally gave credit for the picture.

The blogosphere can be pretty small, it's simply common courtesy to acknowledge your sources.

Updated May 6, 2007: Do I have that many lurkers who came to my defense? I truly didn't want to hound the poor girl, but I wasn't getting any response before this post. The photo has now been removed. I've decided to keep the post largely as-is though because while a non-credited photo is merely an annoyance, I think the issues I raised about blogging, plagiarism, and copyright infringement are valid.

14 comments:

  1. Those are stunning! I hear you on the photo's. Although I doubt anyone would ever 'borrow' any from my blog, the common courtesy of a response ans removing what was never hers to post is the right thing to do.

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  2. I'm so jealous of your roses. I left a comment for huongle regarding her stealing your picture, let's see if it gets published...

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  3. It's fun to see many of the same roses in my garden growing in yours. And, yes, you got the Peace/Chicago Peace ID right. Love the fabulous colors of CP - mine were HUGE this year, easily 7" across.

    I'm sorry about the photo thing. I know a rose breeder who photographs gorgeous roses only to have them stolen by an eBayer who won't stop, despite many many requests to cease and desist. I think the last I heard, he had his lawyer write a letter.

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  4. Wow! What beautiful roses you have, Chopsticks. I don't have a single rose, so I really appreciate seeing such gorgeous specimens.

    I can't believe that person wouldn't give you credit when you asked. It looks like the site is down, as the link you provided didn't take me there.

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  5. Hi Deb,
    Thanks. I know! I just have a point and shoot camera so it doesn't take the best photos, but I didn't think I'd have to worry about this issue either.

    Hi Vicki,
    Welcome! And thanks. Your comment didn't get published, but at least she acknowledge the photo is mine now.

    Nikki,
    Your rose photos are much nicer than mine so maybe you should watch out too... My Chicago and Chicago Peace were huge as well. I don't show too many overall rose bush shots huh? Hmm. Maybe next time I will.

    Zoey,
    Roses are the easiest thing for me to grow! It's sheer laziness. :P

    I just checked and her site is back up, with a footnote to me. I think I'll just let it rest now.

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  6. First and foremost, I would like to apologize to "Wandering Chopsticks" for not knowing it was her picture that I used. I google it and I like that picture and use it without knowing it came from your site.

    Secondly, you mentioned that you leave several comments regarding this matter but I did not see any, HONESTLY. I would have taken care of it if I see it. Which I already did took care of it now.

    To all other that leave a comment on there, you should be a grown up about it. It was not nice using foul language and such. That was not cool and certainly not appreciated. Know the fact before you start judging. If you guy/girl read that blog, it was about the incident in VT and that was a tribute to them with a nice rose picture. I did not mean any harm by it.

    Once again, my sincere apologize to Wandering Chopsticks.

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  7. Hi WC - Well, I'm glad She did credit you, and also is apologetic about it. I was ready to jump on over there....

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  8. Hi Huong,
    Thank you for apologizing. And I'm sorry some of my readers used foul language.

    Hi Kirk,
    Thanks for being willing to jump in there for me. :)

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  9. Hi,
    Don't take me wrong, but aren't you a little overreacted? Just a reader, I'm not trying to take anyone's side, but try to read what was written under that picture, aren't you all being quite a bit insensitive?
    In the end, it's just a picture dedicated to the people you have died. It doesn't harm anyone in any way. The power of internet nowaday I think you should know better than anyone else.
    Just my 2c. I don't mean to offend anybody.

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  10. Hi Patty,

    So b/c my photo was used on a dedication about the VT victims, it was OK to not give credit? If you read what's under the picture as you said, you'll notice a poem. What if she didn't credit the author of that poem but merely printed the words so it appeared to be written by her? Would that be acceptable to the poet? I don't think so. But there's no harm you say. Well, copyright laws exist precisely because there is harm when such things happen.

    Was it intentional that my photo was used? I don't know. But you see, several times I commented and told her that photo was mine and requested she credit it as coming from me. After not receiving any response the first time, I gave her the benefit of the doubt that she might not have gotten the message and commented again. Again, no response. She says she never got the comments. And while I don't want to argue that point, I was annoyed that none of my messages were acknowledged at all.

    "The power of the internet" as you say does make capturing images and text readily accessible, but it doesn't make it acceptable to take it without acknowledging where you got it from.

    Thank you for your two cents, but this is my point of view.

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  11. Thanks for sharing the pretty flower photos and recipes! Just started viewing your blog and love it... Thanks and Happy Cinco de Mayo!
    debbie in ontario

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  12. Your roses are stunning! I'm envious of your green thumb. ;D

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  13. Whoaaa... drama mama!

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  14. Hi Debbie,
    Welcome! And Thanks!

    Amy,
    Roses are really easy to grow. :)

    Anon,
    ...Oookay?

    ReplyDelete

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