Help Is On the Way!

Take a look over there on the top of my right sidebar... you'll see a new link list titled 'Dealing With Online Content Theft: Tips, Links, Resources, and Words of Wisdom'. I've added the resources I've discovered while on this strange and enlightening journey lately, in hopes that if YOU have the certain displeasure of being a victim of online content theft, you will have somewhere to go to assist you as you start taking action. If you know of other resources, please leave a comment here and I will gladly add them.

I appreciate all of the links, information, and assistance that my dear readers and friends have offered over this past month. It's been hell. I've experienced every emotion possible, compounded with looking like a huge idiot on my very own blog. But, again, I'm human. I fired first and asked questions later - and I've learned from it. Hopefully, so have you.

Please educate yourselves by reading through all of the materials offered - yes, including all of the links contained on the Google search page! - so that you are prepared to defend your intellectual and creative property. Because it WILL happen to you at some point. Yes, it will.

Seriously, if you still don't see how this is problematic for anyone with their business presence online - whether it's a Facebook page or a blog or a web site or an ad - let me put it to you this way:

Sitting back and letting online content theft happen without taking action is just like sitting behind your cash register and letting people walk into your store, pick up things they like, walk out without paying for them, and then put them up for sale in their stores.

We all have to act. We all have to stand up and protect what is our property. Just because it exists in text and images, instead of 3-D merchandise, does not mean it is not valuable and considered 'inventory' or 'assets'. It costs us money that we can't recoup.

The words 'Inform. Educate. Empower.' are in my mission statement for a reason!

Blogging With Integrity

Now THIS is a cause I can certainly get behind! And frankly, should 'he-who-shall-not-be-named-because-it-gives-him-a-higher-Google-ranking' steal THIS post, I'll be THRILLED to see it appear on any of his twelve blogs!

Sasha at BloggedyBlogBlog brought this movement to my attention in her recent post. An organization has been formed, and people are banding together to pledge that they will display integrity, fairness, honesty, and good conduct in their blogging practices. Well, I never.... what a FABulous idea, no?!

Go here to read about the organization, their mission, and sign the pledge.

Then get yourself one of these hot buttons to place on your blog, and let the blog thieves out there know that they are up against a mounting army of legal beagles who are paying attention!

As a part of this pledge, I'll remind readers that I do not offer ad space on my blog. My recommendations for books, videos, web sites, and blogs are made because I am familiar with the products & people providing them, and believe they are valuable resources for your business. (I do not get paid anything at all for doing this. I only get a small commission (1 to 3% of product cost)from Amazon and Artella if you click through and purchase any of the books I have linked here.) I do not offer product or service reviews for a fee or for compensation of any kind (products, bonuses, trips, gifts, or otherwise). If I discover something and am wowed by it, I share it. Without any strings attached.

I get dozens of inquiries for link exchanges and ads each week, and I turn down 100% of the ads and over 95% of the links because my goal is to offer you only the best retail & visual-related material & resources. Just today, a local merchant whom I was speaking to on the phone made me an offer for my blog readers - and it is one that I may take her up on during the upcoming holiday season. If and when I do, the connection between us and the terms of the 'deal' will be clearly posted here.

I will continue to endeavor to provide links and credit for any content I use that is not my original work. I may miss something one day, like when I credited one source for the wine shop display photos but missed another. (This can get VERY convoluted with all the linking & sharing going on, and I spend a lot of time searching for the originator and asking permission/notifying of linked posts.) My GOAL is to have proper credit & access to all of the materials, content, and resources included in this blog. If I do miss something, please email me or leave a comment with verifiable info and I'll add it ASAP.

And because of the convolutedness of this whole issue, I will endeavor to produce my OWN content, including subject matter, text, and images, on much larger scale than I have recently. Even WITH permission from the originator, I need to work harder to offer originality here - not a regurgitaion of content discovered elsewhere. I think my links to other online resources will suffice in helping you locate what's already out there.

Likewise, if you see something of mine on another web site or blog, please shoot me an email and let me know where it is.... it helps to have other pairs of eyes looking for that! I may have granted permission for its use already, but then again...... ;0)

(BTW, I'll have a post up soon with all of the resources I've discovered in regard to combating blog content theft....)

Image Credits: www.BlogWithIntegrity.com

Best Eco-Friendly Store of the Bay?!!

And the winner is... for Best Eco-Friendly Store in the Best of the Bay Reader's Poll... Tampa Street Market!?! You know that little shop on the corner of Florida and Osborne that you keep thinking about checking out and then the light changes and you quickly go back to your dinner planning...? Well obviously not everybody keeps driving and hopefully winning an award will get a few more people to stop. I am so amazed and floored that people voted for us. The contest is a funny mix of Editor's Pics that give out eclectic awards of their choosing and Reader's Poll Awards that involve write-ins that sometimes hit the mark and sometimes go awry. Well we are happy, stoked, pumped, and thrilled that enough people wrote in our name to get us an award!

Congrats to Ernie from Nervous Turkey on winning Best Frontman and Rebekah Pulley (my personal favorite female local singer/songwriter). Also, the oh-so-deserving Cafe Hey (chocolate zucchini bread anyone?) and Cafe Nola (beignets take me back to N'awlins) both won awards and are frequently frequented by the TSM crew.

Some very in tune readers chose Tweeprints as the best recycled product and I am so sorry to say it was the first we had heard of these beautifully designed modern cards from local designer and architect Thuy Ma. Check them out at http://www.tweeprints.com/

Last, shout outs to It's Our Nature and Why Not Boutique, the runners-up in our category. They both are definitely worth checking out with Linda at ION making awesome eco-tees at the Saturday Morning Market and Jennifer at WNB rocking great green fashions in South Tampa.

Park(ing) Day Photos of other Parks

Very cool, and all very different. Way to go Tampa!

Photos from TSM at Park(ing) Day

After

Before

Thanks for all the hard work from the folks at Supertest and the Tampa Downtown Partnership!

We got plenty of questions and funny looks from our park visitors, but

as long as we can get people talking and interacting we feel it is a good thing for the city!

No Dessert for YOU, Mister...

If you are reading this post anywhere other than a site/page that is licensed/owned/maintained by Debi Ward Kennedy, you are viewing stolen content that is being used without permission.

To my devoted and very supportive readers, I offer my thanks to you. To new readers/visitors, please peruse the plethora of resources that are in my archived posts, sidebars, and links to find helpful information for your retail businesses. You may contact me via my email link posted in the left sidebar. For the past three years, it has been my privilege to offer you helpful and inspiring resources & information that will help you build better businesses...I just never realized that all of my hard work to that end was also helping criminals build THEIR businesses.

Readers, I am going to let this blog go idle for now.
It will languish awhile, as I will be adding no new posts or information so that I may starve Mr. Jeschke out - I figure that if I don't feed the little pest, he will stop setting up new sites to steal my content from this one. I am still pursuing him with legal action, but in the meantime I am cutting off his feeding frenzy on my knowledge, experience, skill, and effort.

he knows what he did is wrong and illegal. He took his site down for several days and then put it back up with the archives disabled. However, he is still uploading my blog posts to his site.

If you would like to be of help in this horrendous situation, please note the contact information found online for Mr. Jeschke:

www.hrantiques.com
IP 70.32.68.86
created 19 sept 07
expires 19 Sept 10
Hosted by MediaTemple.net

Registered Owner:
hr GMT Inc.
601 Cleveland Street Suite 950
Clearwater, Florida 33755

727.443.4800
727.443.2200 fax

ALSO: 'Viva Vita Inc'
www.jeschke.com
Hans Peter Jeschke
1684 Pine Place
Clearwater, Florida 33755

727.641.7186
727.446.8482
727.446.7979 fax

Administrative and Technical Contact:
Hans Peter Jeschke
hp@hrgmt.com

I'd love to see a slew of people send him emails, faxes, and snail mails demanding that he cease and desist from ALL forms of internet content theft on ALL of his web sites. I, and many others whose content is being stolen by this criminal, thank you if you stand up to this bully.

image credit: Facebook 'Flair' button, hosted at data.rockyou.com, uploaded to Facebook for public use.

All content in this post is original to Debi Ward Kennedy/DWK/DebiWardKennedy.com and DecoDivaDebi.blogspot, unless otherwise credited. As such is protected by Copyright. Reproduction or rebroadcast of any content in whole or part without express written permission is prohibited. Content copyright 2009 DWK; All Rights Reserved.

If you are reading this post anywhere other than a site/page that is licensed/owned/maintained by Debi Ward Kennedy, you are viewing stolen content that is being used without permission.

The Face of A Thief?

Do you know this man? This picture appears on his Facebook listing - but I'd bet it's not really him! He's probably stolen the photo just as he has everything else he puts up online. (Funny that he didn't find a more handsome guy to impersonate....) He is cowering behind his computer screen and stealing property that belongs to other people to make a profit. I did a Google Search on Mr. Hans Peter Jeschke, and found out some interesting info... one thing is that he owns many, many web domains and spam sites. Another is that he's selling a link building service. Check it out: http://jeschke.com/link-building-service.html

So not only is he getting paid for Google ads on his site, generated by stolen content, but he's being paid from $9.90 to $14.90 per link by hapless and greedy idiots who think he'll drive traffic to their sites with his links. So THEY can make money from Google ads. I love how he says he has 'collected' his web site and blog links himself. That makes it sound SO much nicer and friendlier than 'I have a long list of blogs and web sites whose content I am stealing and whose links I am selling you without their knowledge or permission', doesn't it?

This guy is a piece of work, as an old friend of mine used to say.

Thank you, Andreas, for the heads-up on this. I'll send off another DMCA notice.

All content in this post is original to Debi Ward Kennedy/DWK/DebiWardKennedy.com and DecoDivaDebi.blogspot. As such is protected by Copyright. Reproduction or rebroadcast of any content in whole or part without express written permission is prohibited. Content copyright 2009 DWK; All Rights Reserved

HE'S BACK AT IT AGAIN

Hans Peter Jeschke put his site back up, (apparently he took it down before, not his web host) and it now includes all of my posts which appear below talking about this very situation. How ridiculously STUPID is that? Interestingly enough, I can only access one page. I can't access older posts or sidebar archives. But it's still loading my newest posts. And others'.

To quote Julia Roberts in 'Pretty Woman': "Big Mistake. HUGE."

This is not over. Not by a long shot.

All content in this post is original to Debi Ward Kennedy/DWK/DebiWardKennedy.com and DecoDivaDebi.blogspot. As such is protected by Copyright. Reproduction or rebroadcast of any content in whole or part without express written permission is prohibited. Content copyright 2009 DWK; All Rights Reserved

Park(ing) Day Activism This Friday!

Photo courtesy of Park(ing) Day / Rebar














This week I got an email from Creative Loafing informing me that I was nominated for Best Green Activist in the Best of the Bay competition. After spitting out my morning latte uncontrollably in a fit of surprise, I decided that one of two things had happened. I had been chosen based on our people's confused definitions of activism (which would have been a sad commentary on the understanding of activism) OR there was a horrible mistake! Luckily after a few confirmation emails, I was slightly reassured by the reply of "Sorry that was a typo." I think we were nominated for Green Retail Shop but I'm not sure at this point if the voting process has the surety of a modern day democracy like say... Afghanistan. Anyhow, all joking aside, I guess we are in the running for something. We'll see.

The best irony is that this week we are actually doing something that is sort of activist like. No, we won't be carrying any obnoxious Obama = Dracula signs at a rally, but we will be having a sit in of sorts. We are participating in a mass demonstration / installation called Park(ing) Day. Our part of this involves taking over a parking spot in downtown Tampa for a Friday, paying the meter, and converting it into a miniature park. Ours should be a restful spot with native greenery and benches made in TSM fashion from scrap wood and steel. The idea is to promote a non-commercial agenda of reclaiming our underutilized space from cars and giving it back to the people. If all of these parked car people could get to downtown easily on mass transit then maybe our little 9X20 could be a greenspace in the future! Anyway, there will be about a dozen micro-parks on the Franklin corridor so grab a bike or your walking shoes and help us take back our public areas, one metered space at a time.

P.S. We get plenty of confused looks when we talk about this project to folks, but basically we are optimists and when it comes to activism, we prefer funny, positive, visual, and experimental over screaming fits of rage any day.

-Charles

Squeaky Wheel

This morning, I received a comment from a reader telling me to check out the offending web site. It's been taken down. Not sure if it's been removed by the owner or by the web host in response to my filed complaint, but it's down. 'The squeaky wheel gets the oil' indeed.

For now, this hot mess has exhausted me and I'm taking some time off the computer. I'll be checking email and comments, but no new posts for a bit. Sometime in the next few weeks, the info about internet content theft resources will post here. Once that's up, I really hope to not cover this subject again!

and now we return to this episode of 'How the Blog Burns'....

To Recap:
For all of the people who have read the first and second posts in this blog soap opera and then neglected to read the third, may I ask that you please stop sending me comments until you catch up with where things stand now - including my public session of 'eating crow'? Scroll down a bit and read 'em ALL. In the meantime, Lemme’ ‘splain. No, it takes too long. Lemme’ sum up: (Thank you, Inigo Montoya*)…

Andreas is listed on the offending site as ‘Designed by Andreas Viklund’, with a link to his site. It does not say ‘Template Designed by…’ therefore my impression was that the SITE was designed by him. I myself have designed blog sites and set them up for clients. I am responsible for how I set them up, and if I had set them up to pull RSS feeds and post them as content, then I would indeed be responsible for any claims of theft of content. So would the owner, but I would be implicated and morally responsible. This is what my impression of the situation was.

He was also the sole person with a working link on that site, with no other contact info available. This is why I suggested to Andreas that he have that notation amended to read ‘TEMPLATE Designed by Andreas Viklund’ - because, of his own admission and that of other designers on his site, this is a misconception that happens quite often. I’m not the first person to make the incorrect assumption that the ‘designer’ is involved with the site itself. And now that he knows that this site is a problem, he's likely to get at least one more victimized person who reacts as I did.

As a patient and professional creative person and businessman, Andreas took time out of his life to respond to me and to educate me about the situation. And while I read some sarcasm into his first response, I was wrong in doing so. He did not become rude nor did he admit wrongdoing. He simply explained why he was not involved in the situation. It took the poor man two lengthy emails to get that fact through to me in my highly agitated state. As soon as light dawned on my marble head, I thanked him, apologized both privately and publicly, let everyone know what was happening with the situation, and began directing my actions toward the web site owner.

If you are coming here via the conversation links from Andreas’ site or haven’t read that post, please catch up. If you are a tech designer God who wants to rip me a new one for my lack of knowledge of web protocol - save it. I’ve heard it from oh so many of your contemporaries in the past few days. And to counteract your comments: I’m not an idiot, I behaved like one. I’m not a moron. I’m feeling decidedly foolish right now, a bit embarrassed, and that’s not fun, but the name calling is not necessary and makes you look pretty ridiculous yourself. I’m not unprofessional, I acted unprofessionally. I have tried to the best of my ability to repair the damage my words may have done to Andreas – if I still look dumb, fine. People make MISTAKES.

As I said to Andreas, I’m pretty sure he (and perhaps many of you) view me as a knee-jerk reacting hotheaded creative (and add ‘woman’ in a derogative tone to that, for the many men who have sent me such undelightful comments) but then you are entitled to your opinion. I was hotheaded, I did react before researching, and I was aggressive. I don’t apologize for the aggressive part. Nor for being a woman. (Note please, all you tech Gods on high horses, that my original comments to Andreas attack him for his actions – I did not accuse him of being a horrible person and call him names. Let's talk professionalism now....) A reader on my Facebook page said ‘Your reaction was not out of line. The issue was a serious concern. As it played out we all learned something. I think that is a valuable lesson to all of us. There is nothing wrong in that what so ever. Thank you, Deb, for putting yourself out there. We are all the better for it.’ She was right in one definite sense – my reaction was not out of line, it was just mis-directed.

The comment means a lot to me and also makes me laugh. ‘Yep’, I responded, ‘that’s me – just puttin’ myself out here to take the lumps for the good of all concerned!’. I DID put myself out there by sharing all of this here. I did that to inform & educate – which are both elements of my mission statement and this blog – even tho it hasn’t exactly reflected well on me. I hope those of you reading this DID learn something from this situation. If you are faced with something similar (which I would only wish on my worst enemy) I hope you have an easier time of it because of what I’ve experienced & shared here.

All of the resources that I’ve discovered and that kind people like Andreas and Randy and Monica have shared with me are going to be compiled and posted about soon. I think I’ll even add them in a new sidebar box… that way, if you are ever the victim of online theft, you’ll know where to start. And that’s what got me in the first place – I am a victim of theft. So are the other photographers, artists, and writers that Hans Peter Jeschke (owner of the web site) is stealing content from. I rose up to protect myself, and others. And ‘aimed in the wrong direction’, as Andreas said (not sarcastically!).

I've not had any response from Hans Peter Jeschke, the owner/administrative & technical contact for the offending web site. Legal proceedings have begun from my end and I'll keep ya' posted. In the meantime, I'm on my soapbox posting here on my blog about this issue so that my posts will pop up on his site! And if they don't, well, then I"ll know that it's not an automated RSS feed doing this but a MANUAL choosing, copying, and posting of my content on his site. (Smart, eh?)

Thank you for following along. And now, if you'd like to send me your comments, please do.

*Inigo Montoya quote from 'The Princess Bride' film, Act III Communications, 1987. Info from IMDB

....and more..... with apologies......

More from Andreas...
____________________________________________________________________________________________
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 10:12 AM, Andreas Viklund wrote:
Hello again!

I could answer in the same aggresive spirit, but I won't. I am a bit too friendly to do that. I'll give you one more chance, in all kindness, to understand what you are doing wrong here. Here are the URLs you should see first:

http://andreasviklund.com/general/on-the-move/
(here is the one and single comment you have posted on my site - and my replies.)

http://andreasviklund.com/contact/read-this-first/
(here is a page explaining why questions, comments and inquiries about any other site than andreasviklund.com should NOT be sent to me - not even if I am credited as the original designer of a site - as well as a short explanation of the concept of website templates that you need to understand to avoid wasting an awful amount of energy on something that will not take you anywhere.)

The short and very simple point is that I am a website template designer. You can see the original XHTML/CSS-based website template named "andreas09" here:

http://andreasviklund.com/templates/andreas09/

That template, which can be freely downloaded by anyone, has been downloaded in hundreds of thousands of copies. It has been ported by other designers into themes for numerous content management systems (including WordPress, Drupal, blogspot, Etomite and many others). These themes are also freely available to anyone who wants to use the designs through a simple download. Most ported versions keep my name in the footer, crediting me as the original designer of the layout.

What you have seen on the spam blog you have found to use your content, is a WordPress (www.wordpress.org) theme called WP-Andreas09 - a theme created by Ainslie Johnson based on my original Andreas09 template. You can find the WP-Andreas09 theme for WordPress here:

http://webgazette.co.uk/wordpress-themes/wp-andreas09/

That theme is currently used on a lot of websites and blogs all over the world. A Google.com search for "andreas09 by andreasviklund" gave me millions of hits. The spam blog you have found is one of those blogs. There are many others (as well as spam blogs that use other designers themes and templates). Not one of those millions of blogs and websites are run, managed or even supported by me. I run andreasviklund.com only, and I am not in any way affiliated with the spam blog you have found. I have no contact information (I couldn't possibly have that) for the blog owner, and there is nothing I can do to help you in your fight - other than telling you to make sure that you aim at the correct target. In this case, that would be GoDaddy if GoDaddy is the host of the spam blog. Targeting me, andreasviklund.com, Ainslie Johnson, WordPress or anything or anyone else than the actual spam blog is not just wrong, it is a waste of time, money and energy.

The only thing I have done to get involved in your situation, is that I have designed the original CSS template, which someone else (in this case Ainslie) built upon and created a WordPress theme from. That theme was then downloaded by an unknown person, who applied it on his/her blog. What this means in reality is that the blog owner could have used any of the tens of thousands of available WordPress themes that can be freely downloaded. If the blog owner would have used a theme by another designer, you would have seen another name in the theme design credits. And with your way of reasoning, you would have ended up being angry on a completely different person - who would in return have given you the same answer as I did: "I am not the right person to contact".

Of course, I can't stop you from trying to take legal action against me. But it would be a bad idea, since any legal representative that would get involved would make sure to do their research - and they would write me off in a minute. And you would still end up having to apologize for forcing me to spend my time on handling a situation which I am not in any way involved in.

During the four years that I have worked as a professional website template designer, I have seen many misunderstandings like this happen. I have been threatened, yelled at and verbally attacked many times. In every single situation, I have been able to get my point through sooner or later, and got the apology I have deserved. In several cases, I have considered legal counter-action to defend my reputation and business. So far, it has not been needed. I hope it won't be needed in this case either. As said, I am a friendly person - often too friendly...

Now, I have spent working time on explaining things that you should have figured out before even considering to accuse me of content theft. I am happy to do that to avoid further misunderstandings. But I don't want to continue discussing a situation which is none of my business. I am providing you with all the information you need to understand what you did wrong, what "aim at the right direction" means, why I can happily wish you the best of luck with resolving your situation - and why I deserve an apology. I won't discuss this topic further, so I hope that you understand my point and can move on to spend your energy on finding the real spam blogger and content thief, and get his/her blog closed down through the blogs hosting company. And, of course, stop attacking website template designers - because that is generally not a friendly thing to do!

If this information doesn't sort out your misunderstanding and you make any kind of move to put my name, website, profession or templates in the dirt, I will post all correspondence on my blog to make sure that both visitors and template users can see the facts that you have so far missed. Please don't push this that far, I'd rather spend my time on building more website templates for the world to use. :)

Best regards,

--Andreas Viklund, andreasviklund.com
________________________________________________________________
My email response WITH APOLOGY:

OK, Andreas, I give you credit for maintaining a somewhat level tone in this latest email. Your first one was rather sarcastic.
In all fairness, you can certainly understand WHY I am aggressively pursuing this, yes? You would do the same if your web template designs were being used by the same person on a regular basis, helping them make money, without proper credit to you. Of course you would. I am a friendly person too, and I love helping people make connections to others who can help them build better businesses. It's a large part of why I have a blog. But this kind of underhanded behavior gets my hackles up - I have to protect my business and my reputation. You landed in my 'sights' because of the link to you as being involved with this website.

I have read your responses, and I thank you for your concise explanations and the links to further info that you provided in them and in your email. After reading them all, I see your well-made point about the limits of your responsibility here. Unless you are responsible for creating the settings that use RSS feeds to upload content to the hrantiques.com site, you are apparently not responsible for this situation. I will post this response to you on my blog, my Facebook page, and as a comment on your own site.

In addition, I offer you my most sincere apology for jumping on the first name found on the offending site - your name - and accusing you of wrongdoing. Again, if you had nothing to do with the programming of settings for this blog, then you are not responsible for the theft of content. I apologize for any ill will that I or others have expressed against you because of this situation. I will post this response to you on my blog, my Facebook page, and as a comment on your own site to ensure that anyone who has read my previous statements regarding this situation sees that I am recanting my accusation and hoping for absolution for it. But oh, believe me, I am still all over this situation.

I know that keeping track of the many uses of your templates is impossible, but now that you know this particular one is putting you out there as the single available contact for it, you may just want to have that link and your name removed. It may prevent you being contacted by other writers whose content is being stolen. (Although I sincerely suspect that that site is about to be shut down.) When faced with this kind of heinous offense against them, many of us creatives whose very livelihood is threatened act first and think later. I am sure, as a designer, you understand this. I was thinking when I wrote the comments to you and on my blog, but needed to do further research before sending them. This is a mistake that many others may make when seeing your name associated with a site that has no other visible contact information.

I have obtained the information on the registered owner of that site, and am pursuing action against them. In the case that you wish to do so as well, here it is:

www.hrantiques.com
IP 70.32.68.86
created 19 sept 07
expires 19 Sept 10
Hosted by MediaTemple.net

Registered Owner:
hr GMT Inc.
601 Cleveland Street Suite 950
Clearwater, Florida 33755

727.443.4800
727.443.2200 fax

Administrative and Technical Contact:
Hans Peter Jeschke
hp@hrgmt.com

Dear Mr. Hans Peter is going to get an earful from me, let me tell you....

Again, Andreas, I thank you for your professional conduct in your last reply, for your patience, and for allowing me to see the entire story. I hope that my apology is sufficient to end this communication between us, even though I am quite sure that you regard me as a hot headed artist at this point. ;) It's ok, I can deal with that. Passion drives creativity.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Off to post on Facebook and send emails to Hans Peter......

Ongoing...

I received a reply from the web site designer of hrantiques.com (the site that is stealing my content and that of many other people), and decided that this is an issue which impacts us all. So, in that light, I'm going to share our email interaction as it unfolds. Below you'll see his response to my comments left on his sites, followed by my email response to his.
__________________________________________________________________

Email response from web site designer:
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 6:35 AM, Andreas Viklund wrote:
Hello there!

I have replied to the comment you posted on my blog. I suggest that you read my two replies, and then do what is proper to do: apologize for accusing me of being a spam blogger and a content thief. Such claims can seriously hurt my reputation and my business, even if the claim is completely invalid and not backed up by any kind of reason. It would be for your own benefit as well, since that claim reveals that you do not do any kind of research before you go into attack mode - which doesn't look pretty at all.

I'll be awaiting your reply, and as written on my site, I wish you the best of luck with securing your content - by making sure to aim in the right direction before you fire. :)

--Andreas Viklund, professional website template designer, Jokkmokk, Sweden
________________________________________________________________

My response to his email:

You are listed as designer on the web site that has stolen my property. Andreas Viklund and Ainslee Johnson are the only links/contacts listed in conjunction with that site. If you designed the site, and its format to auto upload RSS feeds directly as new content, you are at fault. The link to Ainslee leads to another similar site with no contact information AND no comments allowed. Therefore I will proceed with action against you. If there is another party involved with the hrantiques.com site, please immediately forward this email to them and send me their contact information.

I have searched and do not see a reply/response to my comment anywhere on either your site (andreasviklund.com) or the hrantiques.com site. Please send me the direct link to the response you reference in your email. As for 'doing what is proper to do', that is exactly my intention:

With my previous comments on your blog (in lieu of sending an email, since you provide no direct contact information on your site) and this email response to you, I am informing you and any and all parties involved in www.hrantiques.com that you are violating my copyright. I will take legal action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act unless you remove my content from your site immediately. You have 24 hours to comply.

For your information:
The 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act governs copyright infringement as well as technology whose purpose is to circumvent measures intended to protect copyrights. Under the DMCA, rights-holders like me can complain to services like GoDaddy that content uploaded by users infringes their copyrights. This act criminalizes the act of circumvention of a technological protection system put in place by a copyright holder -- even if one has a fair use right to access that information, they do not have implicit right to use it.

I am also contacting the company that hosts your Web site, GoDaddy, as well as advertisers on your site and search engines, providing the necessary evidence of your theft of my property via mail or fax, as required. The DMCA puts the onus on advertisers, Web hosts and search engines to remove copyright violations if you should so choose not to remove the content you stole from me. Ultimately the site can be shut down completely for this offense, as I suspect it would be due to the many blogs you have stolen content from.

It is one thing to reference another person's writing/content in your own post, and provide a link to them. This is an acceptable use of second party content - however, it STILL requires permission to do so.
It is quite another to reproduce exactly that person's writing and photography in their entirety. This is an express and clear violation of international copyright laws and a blatant attempt to gain advertising revenues for yourself based on the content you steal from others.

"Good luck securing your content' - was this sarcastic? I hope not. Intellectual Copyright laws protect my content from the moment I publish it on my own blog - this is how it is secured. You are breaking the law. In the UK, Sweden, America, anywhere - your practice is not acceptable nor allowable. Your actions are illegal.

Yes, DO talk to me about reputation and business damage, Andreas. I am not a contributor to your site and yet you list me as such. I am not writing blog posts for you but you publish them as such. This is a gross misrepresentation of an implied business relationship that does not exist. As it stands, you have stolen property from me and misrepresented me professionally. 'Not Pretty' indeed!

You have also stolen property from third parties - the photos that you published on your site of various antique dealers and of Columbia Winery that are contained in my original posts are private property. I obtained permission to use those photos from the businesses. This permission does not include rebroadcast or duplication on any other source/medium in any other way. You are in a very serious legal situation with this. I've notified each business involved, given them the links to your blog and the posts containing their photos, and they will take it from there. Suffice it to say that Columbia Winery has a very large legal department with endless resources for pursuing theft of their property and brand collateral.

What you don't seem to understand is that taking a high tone and throwing attitude does not make what you did right in any sense of the word. You do not scare or intimidate me, Andreas. I have a well-known voice in my industry and can shed a substantial light on what you are doing through many media outlets who already publish my work - PAID publishing, which is how I make my living. I give them permission to republish my blog posts and articles because without that permission they would be committing a crime. As you are.

You suggest quite sarcastically that I 'aim in the right direction before I fire' - no problem.
I will continue to post on my blogs about your practice of stealing content. I will also be sharing our email conversations publicly on my blog. I will continue to share the link to your site so that people can see what you are doing and flood you with comments awaiting moderation. I will continue to notify each of the other 'contributors' to your blog that they are being robbed and misrepresented. I will spearhead a class action suit against you if I have to to get you to stop stealing the artistic and intellectual property of the photographers, writers, artisans, and others whose original content is appearing on your site. I am sure they will join me in this pursuit of justice.

Far simpler for you to cease and desist your illegal activity and remove all of the stolen posts from your site. IMMEDIATELY. Again, you have 24 hours from this time (9 AM PDT 10 September 2009) to comply before further action is taken.

Debi Ward Kennedy

Seeing Double

I've just seen a mirror image of something, and I have a question for you business owners, bloggers, and readers out there...

A Google alert just revealed this to me: A site I just discovered , http://hrantiques.com, has several of my posts on it. In their entirety. Not a link, not a mention, but posts that I wrote on my own blogs - text, images, all of it - on their blog. Then in the sidebar, they list me as a 'Contributor'. Twice, for the two blogs of mine that they are pilfering to get content for their own.

I'm mad as a wet hen!

Need I say that I work really hard to discover, research, create, and write content for my blogs to inspire, empower, and educate people who take the time to read them? It's important to me NOT to copy someone else's work - if I use their photo, I credit them. If I think what they have to say on their site is important, I link to them. I try to use my own photos as much as I can, and to utilize content that is something I have personally experienced, seen, created, etc. more often than not. And I'm so not a proponent of filling a post with images snagged from magazines and other blogs and saying 'Isn't this DREAMY?' and also not crediting them. sigh. I think of that as lazy blogging. Again, I work hard on this stuff.

As I told the unidentified blog owners in a comment (which is 'awaiting moderation' and most certainly will never appear on their blog) if they would have asked me to contribute to their blog 'about antiques', I would have said yes. I also reminded them that I own my content and images and they are in dangerous territory here. Following RSS feeds, finding interesting stories, and sharing them via a linkback is fine. Reposting the whole thing? SO rude.

I think this is unacceptable behavior. What do you think? Before you answer, think of it this way: It's your online marketing collateral, or your web content. Or your etsy page. NOW tell me how you feel.......

Table for Twelve....

So.... Deb's been saying for ... oh, how many years now???.... that using thrift shop furniture as fixtures & props can be fast, cheap, easy, 'green', and add tons of personality to a retail store. Yes I have. Some of you listen and get it. Some of you frown and shake your heads and say 'TACKY'. Yes, you do. Admit it.

Well, thrifted furniture fixtures & props just hit the big time, my friends....
Check out this SWANKY style, presented by Le Vigne, a new wine shop in Greenwich Village, New York City, that is style personified. Working with a small budget ($25K) to open a new store left the owner with limited funds and options for merchandising. (Sound familiar?) Resourcefulness, imagination, and creativity turned out to be far more valuable than greenbacks in this case.
They've taken a slew of thrift shop furniture, restyled it, reformed it, redesigned it, and repainted it to create wholly unique and original fixtures to display their wine on. Genius. Brilliant. Stylish, Eyecatching, and a bit humorous - sort of makes me think of what a house might look like after a GREAT party with lots of good wine! If this doesn't prove my point that it's easy to be creative and green, well, I don't know what does. Apartment Therapy has a great write-up and photos of this shop... get over there!

(How I wish any one of the wineries I've worked with would have let me do something this amazing!) The idea would translate for any kind of merchandise at all, though - so get busy!

Image Credits: Sparrow King for Apartment Therapy, as found through VMSD search for La Vigne NYC.
Apartment Therapy asked me to 'also credit the photographer, Sparrow King'. So I added that.

On September 27, Spurse asked me to include the following credits, which include photo credits... I'm not certain, but I believe the Apartment Therapy article/post was written by Sparrow King, using photos by Madlab. In any case, here are the design credits:

Design credits for the entire brand and installation go to: MADLAB + SPURSE, a collaborative effort between an architectural design firm and an artist collective. Photo credits: MADLAB

More information about MADLAB and SPURSE is at:
http://www.madlabllc.com
http://www.spurse.org

I recommend that you check their sites out.... amazing inspiration!

Letter Perfect Displays

I was at the Sand Point Antique & Design Market on Sunday, and the vast array of great merchandise was astounding - second only to the marvelous displays that dealers created to show them off. Above and below, you see the stunning booth created by DeWayne Lumpkin. He's an interior designer and the owner of Home Economics, a home decor store in Grants Pass, Oregon. This was his first time at Sand Point, hot on the heels of a successful showing at the Seattle Gift Show. I love the graphic impact of the white mannequins against the black backdrop.
DeWayne's product offering was mainly the 'hot item of the moment' bus destination rolls. Graphic and contemporary, they have a vintage charm that works with varied design styles. DeWayne shared with me a few of his incredible ideas for a product line utilizing these materials - he is right on the cutting edge of the trend, folks. Brilliant mind for merchandising & sales! He shared his space with veteran antique dealer Susan Wheeler of Pink Lemonade (no web page, sorry) and their combined products made for a very intriguing booth.
People obviously loved it, as it was busy all day long. If you'd like to see more of DeWayne's merchandising magic, including shots taken in his store, check out his portfolio. Great ideas there!
Above are a few shots of our Retreat space at the show. Designers, decorators, and shop owners bought nearly everything in sight. I take great pleasure in hearing comments like 'I NEVER would have thought to do that with it!' and 'What a GREAT idea... Inspiring!' because to me, it's as much about providing inspiration and ideas to customers as products. Bring the goods, then show 'em what to do with it!

My booth designs for our products are like rooms in a home - only accessorized to within an inch of their lives. I create an environment that immerses them in our story. Retail is theater and I go BIG! And it works - attracts attention, inspires, and facilitates many conversations about what we do and how our customers benefit from it.

I do wish I had snapped photos at more booths.... I was just too busy. I will say that Linda at LuLu's, JoMarie at Rose~Marie, the guys at JohnBob CoolJunk, and Debi Burton at Ormolulu had absolutely beautiful displays! Suffice it to say that display is important in every kind of retail venue.