Thief

I've been stewing over something for a week now, and thought I might vent it over here if you don't mind. I know of a few instances where people have been 'very inspired by' others' work, but this really takes the cake... Last week I heard from a friend that somebody had used my images on her Facebook page to sell 'her' products. She stole images from other crafters' shops and blogs, put these on her FB page and then made the products to order. Apparently many of these photos had watermarks that had been tinkered with or even just left on for all to see.

Thankfully by the time I heard about it, enough people had kicked up a stink and the page had been closed down... for now, anyway. I'd be surprised if she uses the same page name when she starts up again, so it's probably not even worth mentioning the name here. As worthless as it seems in this case, I think I need to start watermarking my photos. I've been thinking about doing it for ages now and the time has come. Can I also please ask anyone who ever sees or suspects that sort of thing happening, to take a screen-shot and let the original designer know. It's so easy to remove all traces of thievery like this and a screen-shot is great evidence.

I am obviously so angry about this. It took me many hours to come up with the design, many more to make those products and style them, get the photos, etc. and then just a click for someone to claim them as her own. Not good.