I added a copyright notice to my posts. At least its clear now that they are my posts: Pirate Blog.

garden blog PIRATE site

Check out this pirate site! Gardening Realm Boo! Is it just me they're stealing from? Do you recognize your material here?

I didn't give my permission for them to use my material and I left a comment today for them to remove it. Let's see if I get a response.

By the way, thanks to Mostlypurple for finding this lousy this.

unattributed photo

I've probably seen this one before and forgot about it, but its still up: http://gardeninggarden.com/tag/vegetable-gardening/. My photo, no permission, no link. This site gets a negative rating (booo) from Skippy and me.

just borrowing bloggers photos?

Well, another site is using garden bloggers' photos and posts without permission. I'm not going to post a link.

Presumably they make enough from ads to make it worth their time to set up the site and copy posts. Its a pretty small world, though, and things get noticed pretty fast (Here's Tyra's post). Many bloggers' told the site to remove their photos.

Several of my posts and photos remain. These photos link back to my FLickR site. I've added a note to the photos that links back to Skippy's Garden. "This photo is from Skippy's Vegetable Garden. If you are viewing it at another site, then it is being used without the owner's permission." Maybe I can get more traffic through them?

In any case, if you see my photos (or other bloggers' content) somewhere else without acknowledgment (I do often give permission to other sites), please don't go back to the site and DON'T click their ads.

Skippy is in a gardening catalog - but I never new this

Last week, this advertisement at a small on-line vegetable gardening store was brought to my attention by a reader of this blog. http://www.tastefulgarden.com/store/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=36 Hmm. There's Skippy, and there's my garden. The photos are from my blog in June 2006. Funny no one contacted me the ask about using these photos.

So I've been looking into copyright issues and blogs. Here's a good site with lots of information: Internet and the Law at Web Developer's. This is a quote from Thomas G. Field, Jr. from the same page:

Copyright arises automatically once an original effort has been started and some aspect of it has been fixed in a tangible medium. One need not even have notice on published copies. Registration is required only if legal action is warranted (and the work originates in the U.S. — ...

I've seen copyright notices on other gardening blogs and it seems to me they clutter up the site and distract from gardening. Nevertheless, I have now added a notice to my sidebar.

I suppose this happens to other blogs too. I'm interested to hear any stories of yours. Drop a comment below. I wonder if other sites are using my photos?

Of course, I'm thrilled if other blogs use my photos and refer or link to my blog. Also if you print or otherwise copy my work for your own personal purposes. The bottom line is : Please don't use my photos or text for commercial purposes without my permission!