Cathartic Rant

 
5:20 am, Monday, February 22-- I should be working on report for my Psychology lab. I should be studying for my Physics exam. I should be writing HTML or editing graphics. If nothing else, I should be ASLEEP.

But I find myself unable to do any of those things at the moment- I'm too outraged. And I'm outraged over something silly and petty and unimportant, which just makes it that much worse. I'm one of the most even-tempered people you'd ever meet and it takes a lot to get me upset, but one young lady (and I use that term VERY loosely) out there has managed to do it this morning. I hope she's proud of her accomplishment.

It started last week when, while browsing through my server logs, I noticed some referrals from a URL I wasn't familiar with. I always check new referrals because I like to see how people are using my images, and also so that I can add them to my Reciprocal Links section. This one turned out to be the home page of a 14-year-old girl whom I'll refer to as Janice (not her real name). Janice was using three of my images on three pages of her site, but she was linking directly to the images on my site (No-No Number One) and none of the pages gave me or my site any sort of credit for the images (No-No Number Two).

Now, I don't initially get upset about this because I've found that very often it's an honest mistake and the site owners are more than willing to fix the error once it is brought to their attention. (I've met some very nice people that way, including several young ladies about Janice's age.) What I usually do is find the e- mail address of the site owner or designer and I send them the following note:

Nothing terribly offensive in that, is there? At least, I didn't think so. On the contrary, I spent a lot of time trying to make that note as non-offensive as possible.

Anyhow, Janice's page didn't give her e-mail address, so I posted that note in her guestbook as a private message so that only she could view it. After all, I didn't want to embarass her- I just wanted proper credit for my work.

I put the whole thing out of my head after that. (No reason I shouldn't have, as that little reminder note is usually all that is necessary.) I left town for a few days. When I came back late last night, I started sifting through a backlog of mail. And that's when I came across this little gem. (Names have been changed and expletives have been edited.)

It's difficult to say which part of that note offends me most. I suppose it's the fact she considers it "geneerous" [sic] to give me credit for my own creations-- the fact that not only does she have no gratitude or respect whatsoever, she doesn't even realize that she SHOULD have any. Now don't get me wrong- I don't expect people to fall at my feet with gratitude for the use of my images. I don't even expect a "thank you" (though I really appreciate it when I get one). All I expect is for people to be willing to give me some sort of acknowledgment for my work. But Janice seems to think that I'm being horribly unreasonable.

But there's more to it than that. I'm almost as outraged by the fact that a child can reach the age of fourteen and be unable to communicate in complete sentences and to spell common words. I'm outraged by the fact that a child can reach that age and have absolutely no concept of copyright law or intellectual property. I'm outraged by the fact that a child can reach that age and have no willingness to take personal responsibility for something that bears her own name and is supposed to be a virtual representation of herself in cyberspace.

Perhaps most of all, though, I'm bothered by the fact that her lack of manners isn't complete. Yes, I know that sounds strange, but in some ways I'd feel better about the whole thing if I thought Janice was just "a bad kid". The fact that she says "thank you for looking at my page" proves that she has at least some small concept of gratitude, of propriety, of manners. Coupled with the rest of her note, that simultaneously encourages and disturbs me in some way that I can't quite put into words right now.

In the mean time, I'm grateful that the Janices of the online world seem to be the exception to the rule. The great majority of the young ladies with whom I come into contact are gracious and literate, some amazingly so. But each develops at her own rate, I suppose. Perhaps Janice's manners will "grow up" along with the rest of her. For her sake, I hope so. Either way, I wish her luck.

She's going to need it.

9:12 pm, Tuesday, February 23-- Well, I've been waiting for another attack from Janice in response to the mail I sent her requesting that my images be removed from her site. Amazingly, it hasn't come. What HAS come, however, are a couple of notes from "Sarah", the girl who created Janice's site. Sarah, I was pleasantly surprised to find, seems like a delightful and very reasonable young lady. She not only explained her reasoning behind linking the images and offered to remove them from Janice's page, but she also took it upon herself to apologize for Janice's rude behavior. If you're reading this, Sarah, thank you-- you've restored my faith in teenage girls. :)

7:20 pm, Friday, March 5-- Silly me, I thought this whole unpleasant episode was over. But this afternoon I got yet another note from Janice. (Once again, expletives have been edited.)

Before you get the wrong idea about me, I want to clarify that part about me threatening her. What I did was point out that using copyrighted images without giving credit is against the law and that it could get her into serious trouble someday if she does it to the wrong artist. I went on to request that my images be removed from her site, and I told her that I would allow her a set amount of time to do so before I took further action. That last part could be construed as a threat, I suppose, but I feel that it was a threat that I was within my rights to make. And yes, I did comment that I'm grateful that most of the young people out there have better manners than she apparently does.

So what is the most offensive part about THIS note from Janice? I think it's probably the fact that she believes that having a parent who's a government employee excuses her from having to obey the same laws as the rest of us. I can almost manage to feel sympathy for her when I think of the kind of trouble THAT kind of thinking may get her into some day. (Assuming, of course, that she's wrong. If she's RIGHT, God help us all...)

I've written to Janice and asked her to please stop sending me e-mail. And as of today, my images have been removed from her site. Hopefully, that will be the end of it. This entire episode has left a very unpleasant taste in my mouth. It was only a matter of time, I suppose, but I can't help feeling a bit sad about it. Not specifically about Janice, though in a way I DO feel sad about her. It's kind of hard to explain... Basically, I guess that, in the year that this site has existed, I've really come to idealize the whole experience. What I'd been doing here had remained somehow pure, untarnished. I was giving to the web community through art and the web community was giving back to me by respecting and appreciating that art. Because of that, I was willing to give as much as I was able, and I never had the slightest hesitation about putting my work here for others to use.

It's different now, though. There's a bit of tarnish on the whole thing. Just a little bit, and it won't stop me from posting my work here, but from now on I think there will always be a small part of me that will hesitate just a little-- a part of me that's thinking of Janice and others like her, others who don't appreciate and don't care. And I'll wonder if they're going to be the beneficiaries of my labor. And I'll wonder if, in that case, it's worth it.

But it is worth it, I know that. Hundreds of you have told me so, and others have let me know indirectly by giving me credits and links on the sites where you've used my images. My heartfelt thanks to all of you.

In the mean time, I'm thinking of revising my usage policies. How about this:

"Please provide a credit and a link to my home page, put copies of the images on your own server, and don't verbally abuse the artist if you forget to do so and she reminds you."

Sound fair? :)

Missy

March 1999