We’ve had some nice days this past week. Days warm enough to melt a LOT of the snow we had on the ground.
Of course some areas don’t get as much sun than others.
Some get a little bit.
Some get a lot.
And then some get flooded.
It makes for a lot of mischief on a walk. 🙂 Which makes for the Monday Mischief Blog hop, hosted by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Blog and My Brown Newfies.
A few weeks back we had quite a discussion about using photos from the internet as well as from fellow bloggers.
I’ll be the first one to tell you that I don’t make the extra effort to protect my photos with a copyright mark. I have a copyright caveat at the bottom of the blog and that’s as far as it goes.
This isn’t a hugely popular blog with tens of thousands of readers so I don’t worry too much about someone stealing my work.
Besides, how easy is it to take a photo and cut a copyright out?
No, this isn’t Delilah, this is Freighter from the 2 Brown Dawgs blog. The blog information was in the grass just below Freighter’s feet. I cut it out. (This photo was used with permission from 2 Brown Dawgs.)
The whole copyright issue dawned on me this past Follow-Up Friday when Beth said, “So if I understand, what you did was just add the copyright line in text on the photo? I get that…in fact, I’ve figured out how to do it with Pixlr, which i think is similar to PicMonkey…So I should just add text to any photos I post on the blog and that will deter unauthorized borrowing.”
Except that I’ve just shown you how easy that is to get around, right?
I think what you need to do to protect your photos, is to add a watermark to it.
Dictionary.com defines watermark as “A figure or design impressed in some paper during manufacture, visible when the paper is held to the light.”
The obvious solution is to add your text to your photo in a place where it can’t be cropped out.
Nobody would want to gank this photo, would they? But it does take the cuteness factor down.
If we manipulate the text, we can add it, but make it so faint, it’s hardly discernible. Can you see the mark? Hint: it’s right across the top of Sampson’s head, between his ears. (I could probably have gone a bit darker.)
Now the question becomes, is it really necessary to take this type of precaution with our photos?
And to go a step farther, what about our words?
During that discussion many weeks back the term “Creative Commons” was mentioned by Lexy from Gone For a Walk and Pamela at Something Wagging This Way Comes.
If you don’t know what Creative Commons is, quite simply it’s your permission for how others can use your work. I took some time yesterday and added a Creative Commons button to my side-bar.
My Creative Commons says any of my photos or words can be used Non-Commercially as long as you give me credit.
Is it too easy? Or am I too trusting? What types of precautions do you take with your precious work?
Of course our Monday Mischief post today just HAS to be on the “Blizzard of 2013.”
Saturday morning after we finally got the dogs outside to potty, Sampson, Delilah and I headed off to our park to check out the situation.
Our park sits smack dab in the middle of a cul-de-sac so naturally all the snow from the plow gets dumped in front.
The plow had already been through at least once, so there was already a good pile of snow in front of the entrance.
You can barely make out the sign for the park but the gate is to the left of the sign and behind all that snow.
I was a little surprised that the dogs just went straight for it, by the time I got my camera out and set to video I missed a good bit of it.
It made me laugh so hard, watching them. (If the video doesn’t work, you can watch it here.)
When we went back later in the day there was SO much snow, we couldn’t even SEE the park sign.
They tried anyway, but gave up pretty quickly. (If the video doesn’t work you can see it here.)
Still I’m a persistent one, so yesterday I threw my shovel in the car and drove up to the park. Using my shovel I notched out ‘steps’ so we could make a final effort.
They ran straight for the opening I’d made. The ‘steps’ worked for climbing up, but I hadn’t thought about the descent. As you’ll note from my comments, one of my legs sank up to my knee and it took a bit for me to get out. While the dogs did get to the gate, the snow inside was too deep for us to walk.
Finally accepting defeat, we walked around the block. (If the video doesn’t work you can view it here.)
I’m fairly certain it will be a while before we can walk in our park, although I may attempt it from the other entrance next week and see if someone has forged a path.
What do you do when you’ve exhausted every means to get what you want?
This is the Monday Mischief Blog Hoop, hosted by Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Luna a Dog’s Life and My Brown Newfies.
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