11.20.08
A Formal Apology To The Blogging Community
posted by Sandy M. Bushberg | 8 comments
You may have noticed that there is currently no main image on Tuesday’s post. It came to our attention yesterday that we had three images on our Tieh Kuan Yin post that had copyright restrictions and that we hadn’t received permission from the photographers to publish. This was clearly unintentional on our part and was of great concern to us, but none-the-less was an infringement on the rights of the photographers. We immediately contacted the photographers to ask whether they would be willing to grant permission to publish their photos or would prefer we remove them. This, apparently, was our second mistake. We have since learned that in situations such as these, when notified of a copyright infringement, the accepted protocol is to remove the images immediately while waiting for a response from the artists. Once, and if, permission is granted, they can be put back up. We were graciously granted permission to use the image of the teapot by kama vex, and thank him for his willingness to share his art. One of the photographers insisted on the removal of her image from our post, which we did immediately upon hearing back from her. The third photographer did not respond to our inquiry by the end of day yesterday, so we removed that image as well.
As publisher of this blog, I want to apologize formally to the photographers as well as the blogging community at large. Obviously, we were not careful enough and our lack of diligence has caused at least one photographer and her friends significant distress. For this, we sincerely apologize.
Copyright infringement on other’s materials has become a significant problem on the internet. This is a serious issue and one we do not take lightly. As I continue to learn from this experience and from others who have been personally affected by it, I have come to derive a deeper understanding of the impact this has on the individual whose rights have been infringed upon.
This was a very unpleasant experience for us for several reasons. We never intended to infringe on anyone’s rights. Our primary objective is to educate and enrich people’s lives. The knowledge that we have caused someone emotional distress is quite abhorrent to us and we are deeply regretful. Equally distressing for us is how some members of the blogging community responded to this situation. As I said, I do understand and appreciate the pain that a blatant theft can have on someone. I also believe, however - no matter how naive this may sound - in the basic goodness of people and that people sometimes cause hurt to others unintentionally. It doesn’t necessarily excuse it, but I do believe that intention does make a difference. I would hope that in the future, when dealing with other personal blogs or business blogs, artists who have found their works infringed upon would consider approaching the offending source using a more diplomatic approach. We can accomplish a great deal more when approaching a problem with an attitude of mutual resolution rather than with blatant hostility.
As Michelle indicated in her comment on Tuesday’s article, we have now published everyone’s comments. I am trying to determine if there is a way to transpose them into this post, but until then you can find them at the bottom of Tuesday’s Tieh Kuan Yin post. Please feel free to continue to comment and share your thoughts and feelings here, as I am hoping that we can all learn from this experience. Thank you for taking the time to read this and share this with the community.
November 20th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
As the artist who is “angry” that you “stole” photographs, I would like to say that when this all started I was mildly annoyed that a commercial site was not respecting my licensing. It was YOUR RESPONSE that turned my irritation into anger.
And yet, here you are, still trying to make me out as the bad guy. Look, license violations are either stealing or they are not. It is NOT “stealing.” What is that anyways? Is “stealing” less than stealing? You were innocent of “stealing” because you did not know it was “stealing” to take images without permission? Even though your company has been through this issue before? I too am hoping we can “learn” from this experience. I will allow you to define what “learning” is to you. In my definition, it means you don’t do it again, and you don’t try to put the blame off on the artist from whom you “stole.”
Just so we are absolutely crystal clear: I am “angry and offended” by your response to this matter, and your continuing to try and make me look like an unreasonable individual. When you first “stole” my image, I was perfectly willing to assume that somebody made a simple error. At that point, I was still a blog reader and potential customer. It was YOUR RESPONSE, which continues to be disgraceful, that has not only lost you a customer, but will ensure that people in my circle are aware of how you deal with legitimate complaints.
November 20th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Still at it, eh? I notice that the text of this post has changed substantially after I posted my reply. You do not show good faith as a business owner. Your actions are disgraceful.
November 20th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Actually Stacey, it just so happened that it was deemed more appropriate by our editors to eliminate some of the text of the post for several reasons, some of which were purely to make it flow better and eliminate redundancies. Our managing editor was in the process of changing it when you wrote your first comment.
We made a mistake and I take full responsibility. I understand you are angry and feel we have behaved disgracefully. We have tried to remedy this situation as best as we can. I’m sorry that it has not been to your satisfaction.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Not to worry. I will still be reading this blog as usual. Although I understand the copyright situation and its consequences, it appears that what you did before, during and after was with the honorable intentions of educating your readers. Most sites I visit are quite clear in their intentions toward the good of the community. As a college instructor, I give the rights to anything I publish on the internet to anyone who needs it for educational purposes. The agony, pain and all that other stuff that “professional people” go through on internet copyright related matters simply means I will stay the heck away from them and their sites. Your site I will continue to read.
Thank you so much for continuing with this site and your intentions. You remain a link on my own tea site for my readers (mostly family members and friends)
November 21st, 2008 at 1:50 am
Thanks for your support Cecil. It certainly helps to know that some people appreciate our intentions.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:07 am
Instead of discussing about tea we are discussing about photographs and its ownership and copyrights, which certainly does not harm anybody since the healthy discussions done here are more beneficial to the society in particular and tea industry in general.
Can I request everybody involved here to be more true to tea trade we are all involved with. We sitting on the other side of the fence realise the value of such blogs like Tching, where cause of tea is always taken up in the right ernest.
We are proud to be involved with T ching.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
As Rajiv said, we need to move on. While this issue needs to be resolved and care needs to be taken to prevent future infringements, there is no question in my mind that the crew of this blog had no intention to harm. To those who feel strongly or voilated, I hope you can take a step back for a moment and allow them to be judged by their future actions from here on out.
For tching, my humble opinion is to regard itself as a commercial site, unless a reliable legal advice which determines this blog to be otherwise has been obtained. The last thing it needs is exposure from potential lawsuits.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Phyll - thanks for your support. We do ultimately view ourselves as a commercial site when utilizing photos. Our new photo editor clearly misunderstood the instructions and used a 9 images from the wrong category which clearly required approval from the artist. You can imagine the learning curve when beginning to post images on a blog and all the different requirements from each photo source. In this case, a genuine error was made. As the editor-in-chief, I take full responsibility for the error. I should have continued to check the new work for longer than I did. When I saw a week of no mistakes, I felt confident that the lessons were learned. I now realize I must continue to check for mistakes for a longer period of time.