Can't Help It....Must Chime In....

Maddie would like to speak to someone about The Secret, maybe Oprah Winfrey.

"Dear Mrs Winfrey,

Every day since fourth grade started I have prayed to be sick. I have thought about what kind of illness I would like to have (a low fever with a stuffy nose perhaps) and have envisioned my day wrapped in blankets on the sofa, but most importantly, not at school.

Yet I continue to be a perfectly healthy child. The neighbors are sick and get fevers and still, I do not. Now my brother, who never wished to be sick at all, has a fever and gets to stay home from school.

He is only in first grade! First grade is EASY.

Please advise.

Maddie."

Max is home sick today with a fever and a throat which is sore "when I swallow my spit." This sounds like strep and God help me Oprah, I better not get it. I'm not even giving that thought any attention.

There's a little shit storm going on over at Sweet Juniper and I have to tell you when Dutch emailed me about this, I thought 'Wow that was stupid.' I was annoyed and surprised and it sealed my decision to officially cut ties with Strollerderby because I'd been thinking I needed to give more time to other projects but also because it felt weird having my name tied with something I found so....unpleasant.

However, I still wasn't particularly outraged.

But since then more people have come forward saying Babble did the same thing to them. More (copyrighted) pictures from Flickr users have been identified on the site and the Nerve CEO has lashed out in a defensive and unbecoming manner.

At Strollerderby there's a post about how they said they were sorry so why can't we just move on? They are not just a faceless corporation there are people behind the scenes here and they are sorry! (For the 3,4....5th time....because they've been sorry all along....I mean every time they've stolen other people's photos they've been really sorry!)

There are two messages coming out of this story currently. One is, "We're not just a big faceless corporation! We're bloggers too! We're part of this community!" The other is, "You're taking this out on us because we're a big corporation!"

Let's say tomorrow I create a new masthead with an image of someone else's child from another blogger's (copyrighted) Flickr stream. I think people would be a little annoyed with me and might wonder why I'd do that.

So I'd apologize, take it down and move forward. Until a few months later I do the same thing, someone catches it, I apologize again and take it down. Then a few months later I do it again.

I have a feeling the outrage would be pretty similar in this community and rightfully so.

I don't think any blogger would be surprised at this reaction. I suspect the reason Nerve Media is so defensive and surprised by the reaction here is the exact reason people are a little turned off by corporate blogs especially in the parenting realm.

Speaking of writing for commercial sites where we do not steal images from others and apologize for it 35 times before being taken to the mat for it, new posts!

What not to wear this Halloween @ The Buzz Off

and

My very boring but very exciting new workspace is taking shape @ Ordering Disorder.

Comments

[lousoz]

Up until last night I used to read babble. I think I started to read the site because of Dutch. I was quite surprised to go there yesterday and see their "but we said we're sorry" blurb about the whole thing. I jumped over to Sweet Juniper and read the whole story there. After which, I removed all bookmarks for babble, stroller derby and fame crawler. I have often wondered who did their photography, now I know the answer. NOT THEM.
I think had the Junipers been the first people they had done it to people might not be as outraged, but for it to surface that this is not the first time and that others have sued, AND YET THEY CONTINUE TO DO IT AND LIE ABOUT IT BEING AN INTERNS FAULT, they deserve every nasty thing that comes their way.
I also have say it is quite unbecoming and gives their image an even worse tarnish that their CEO is behaving like a 2 year old in flickr comments.

[Ella]

So how do these folks find their kids pictures on Orkut?

After reading/hearing other bloggers and flickr users having this same problem I went to check it out.
Maybe I'm lazy but it seemed confusing to me to actually navigate or spend the time "browsing".

Anyways, I'm headed over to Sweet Juniper now to read.

[Cadbury]

pet peeve: why do people think that saying sorry makes it better? why do they think that as many times as you complain, or say that you are frustrated, or point out where they are contradicting themselves they can say sorry and everything will be ok?
When people say sorry to me, I respond:
don't say "sorry"... just don't do it!

[d.regina]

FYI, you're still listed on the site as a Strollerderby contributor. Not a huge deal, but their track record is shitty enough that I imagine they would leave you up there if you don't ask to come down.

[choice]

I am one of the people who emailed Dutch when I saw the stolen photograph. Somehow I just knew it was stolen the moment I saw it, and I was furious to see the image of someone's child exploited in that way. Once he wrote me back and confirmed the theft, I removed Strollerderby from my rss feed. Now that I've read the comments and the accounts of Babble's repeated photo theft, I'm disgusted and saddened and taking measures to protect my images as well.

[Ashley]

I am usually a lurker, but this really makes me angry. I am ADDICTED to Flickr, and because I am as blind as a bat, I often view them in large size. However, more and more of my favorite bloggers (Melissa included) are being forced to take that option off their accounts because of Babble and others like them.

Also, I used to be an intern, and in my experience, when you first start out, you are much MORE careful, because you really need that reference. What a shitty excuse on their part. How lame.

[Kate]

What kills me about his post is that some people in the comments actually make it sound like it is his fault for putting pictures of his daughter on the web.

Call me crazy, but I thought stealing was wrong. I didn't realize that it's justified if you have shown people pictures of your children.

[Suebob Davis]

1. The Secret fucking sucks, no matter what Oprah may say. I occasionally write a post about how much it sucks, because it continues to irk the hell out of me.

2. It appears that Babble or Stollerderby or whatever it is, sucks too. I suppose hiring a professional photographer to shoot some images would just be totally unimaginable??

[KYouell]

This reminds me of the frat boys that moved in next door while we were on vacation. They were warned by the owners (who only moved down the street) that we had 2 small children. We tried to cut them some slack for the mid-week late night pool games in the garage, complete with lots of beer, shouting and music, before the semester started. We figured that once school was in session it would stop; these were just end of the summer blowouts. Wrong.

It's one thing if they keep me awake (I'm a mom so I can function on no sleep, right?), but when they wake my kids I'm going to get pissed. Both times that we had to go over and talk to them it was well after midnight and one guy would say, "Oh, that's totally my fault. I'm so sorry." Then he'd turn down the stereo. It's almost like they had predetermined which guy's turn it would be to throw himself on the mad mommy grenade.

As Cadbury said, sorry doesn't fix it. Stop doing it!

PS -- Can you tell that they are loud again tonight?

[kate]

Ick, Ick, Ick!!
That charming CEO, Rufus, kept referring to the *very* limited number of times a rights issue has popped up. What about the people who don't know their images have been pilfered? I can only imagine that, if they were willing and able to snag a well-known blogger/photographer's pics, there have been repeated instances that have never been reported. Creepy.
I'm about to go check my Flickr settings.

[merseydotes]

I was wondering if you were going to keep writing for Strollerderby, especially since this seems to be very near and dear to Dutch's heart and y'all seem like good pals. (says the woman who spent her Capitol Hill career working for Democrats and married a Republican campaign consultant)

That Rufus guy seems slimy. Maybe you should hook him up with that Today Show producer...what was her name? They'd be quite a team.

[Melissa Summers]

KYouell: Oh my god your comment made me want to scream with the memory of our own Over Grown Frat Boy neighbors in the old neighborhood. Oh my God it was horrible horrible horrible. Touch football in the front yard, outside our bedroom window at 2am. Screaming leaving from the bar at 11, coming home at 2 for the 'after party' in the house. Listening to the throbbing bass all night long.

Oh god the terror. I wish you peace and quiet neighbors. I know your pain. I'm having flashbacks.

[KYouell]

I think I found the solution to the frat boys and it is deliciously evil. At 8pm or so on the next party night I took the 2yo over and introduced him. That way they could look at his beautiful Down syndrome face and tell *him* that they will be quiet. I think that they needed to see exactly who they were screwing with -- it wasn't me, it's the poor little guy. I know that in a way it is using him to get the neighbors quiet, but it is also completely honest.

He now seems to have a house of buddies next door. For now anyway, it has worked.