All of the articles, poems, stories etc here are copyrighted and are my intellectual property. Just because something is available to read freely on the internet doesn’t mean it can or should be appropriated for your own use. The same applies to photographs and pictures. The vast majority of those on this blog are my own photos or drawings but a very few are copies of famous works of art which I have obtained without violating copyright.
I have no objection to people linking to posts but I do not wish pictures to be nabbed for anyone’s Pinterest board. Reblogging is perhaps unavoidable since WordPress equips blogs with a relog button, but I am generally uncomfortable with this as it often strays far from source the more people reblog a post.
I do not court advertisers but in the last year a number have approached me asking to use my blog to advertise. While many people would consider the income from a few ads a bonus, I would prefer to be able to recommend products, books or other things from my own personal experience of them rather than because a company is paying me X amount of dollars to put an ad on my sidebar.
The same goes for people who ask me to host graphics for their site, company, project etc. Some of these have done their research and bother to find out my name but those who begin an email Dear Editor are barking up the wrong tree. Unless I can see a very good reason why I or my readers would consider a graphic of interest, I shan’t be doing this.
I am open to both writing guest posts for others and also for hosting them for other bloggers, provided the topic is in keeping with my areas of interest. If you wish to use any of my work, please ask permission and provide clear links and sources.
Finally, may I reiterate that purloining material from a blog, a website or the internet in general is still THEFT and while the hassle of tracking someone down and taking legal action is probably not worth it, I do believe that what goes around comes around. KARMA visits thieves in due course. I work hard to run this blog and provide interesting material for my readers.
Thank you for reading this.
Zen and the Art of Tightrope Walking 
Well said, Vivienne! When we were debating whether to showcase my husband’s artwork on one of my blogs, we considered the question of copyright. He didn’t wish to add a watermark to the images, as he felt this would spoil the effect. Eventually he decided that if anyone were to save and print a picture and make money from it, it would be on their conscience. So we asked readers to use our material responsibly because stealing it would bring bad karma!
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It’s always a worry when you put work out there, but I hope that generally people are good and decent in their use of it.
I do think that there is some self governing aspects at play, when it comes to these things, though I don’t think always. But what choice does an artist or writer have but to share and risk loss?
xx
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