A message appeared in my Yahoo mail account. I know. It happens, right? But, generally speaking I tend not to get any emails.
Worrying
I sat there looking at it and wondered what I was supposed to do. I bit the bullet and decided to open up this email.
It turns out that it was a message from a member of my Yahoo Chinese Manhua group. I took a deep breath as it was shocking to find someone was still on the group. It turned out to be someone who had contacted me a very long time ago when he was trying to write a paper on Chinese Manhua for his university paper (back in the days when I helped all those students etc writing papers who then gave mne no credit).
In the message was a list of online blogs and web pages where my posts on Chinese Manhua and Korean Manhwa had been ripped off. Actual paragraphs just copied and pasted and images used (you won't see how but I do add an identifying mark to all images I post). So what was the point? He thought I ought to know how widely copied my posts were not to mention my work going uncredited.
Look, we are talking about the internet here. Do you know how much my British comic posts have been ripped off -a lot. It makes the thief -if you give credit you are just using the material but crediting the original source: use it without credit and you are a thief- look very knowledgeable but if you ask them to post some art from the books they mention you hit a brick wall because they do not have those books. I do. They are on the shelves right in front of me.
I know a good few artists who have found their work used on T-shirts, etc. -these internet thieves have no idea. They think "It's online so it's fair game" but they soon discover that they face legal action for using copyrighted material without permission. "Oh, I thought it was free to use" no longer works. I know creators who, even after an item has been withdrawn from sale, pursue legal action because once internet thieves realise they will be having to pay for what they did -one even had a visit from law enforcement in the US as copyright infringement was deemed very serious. Good.
I have found a number of sites dealing with UFOs and strange creature reports using my illustrations with no credit. Do I contact them and ask that they credit or remove the art? Yes.
Even chunks of my posts on the Anomalous Phenomena blog get stolen. I was reading an item on another blog and thought "This is like something I looked into years ago" but it wasn't because it was sensationalist and a lot of facts were wrong. Then I found that it was something I had investigated and written about. I contacted the blog owner who responded that what he had presented were the facts and he was not backing down as he knew the investigator. No. He did not know me. He did not even look at my name on the email when he told me "Terry Hooper sent me this case". No. I NEVER send people a case report. I gave him a link to my blog and to the book the item was published in and told him I would be writing a "big post" exposing what he had done. Within two hours the item was gone from his blog.
People do not research or read books. They will look on the internet and think "Hey, that'll get my blog noticed!" and then copy and paste. The galling part is people will then comment and congratulate these thieves on 'their' work. I tell you -there ain't no goddam respect! :-)
You have to expect that anything you have researched or written and posted online will be stolen in some way. Do that to my art and I will pursue the matter (as some have found out). I tend not to add lots of reference sources (though main sources do get mentioned) because people never read those but if they want the sources I DO pass them on.
I used to get angry about the "British comics experts" who used chunks of my work but then I started chuckling. You see, these people -mainly the British comics 'nice guys'- will spread lies and worse about me but have to copy my work to make themselves look good. And the thing is that they know that I know they have done this. No one else who reads their blog will probably know but I and they do. You have to see the funny side of that!
So if you use the internet to post and publish research or what you know then be aware that Intellectual Property theft is rife. Don't get bitter or scream about feeling like you've been "raped" (yes, one immature blogger actually wrote that ).
The 'nice guys' want to attack me on private forums with their pals (I'm quite sure that's like a sexual thing) let them. They mean nothing to me. They don't know me. Some have low esteem and ego problems. Do what I do. Read the words of the Master and be wise.
Worrying
I sat there looking at it and wondered what I was supposed to do. I bit the bullet and decided to open up this email.
It turns out that it was a message from a member of my Yahoo Chinese Manhua group. I took a deep breath as it was shocking to find someone was still on the group. It turned out to be someone who had contacted me a very long time ago when he was trying to write a paper on Chinese Manhua for his university paper (back in the days when I helped all those students etc writing papers who then gave mne no credit).
In the message was a list of online blogs and web pages where my posts on Chinese Manhua and Korean Manhwa had been ripped off. Actual paragraphs just copied and pasted and images used (you won't see how but I do add an identifying mark to all images I post). So what was the point? He thought I ought to know how widely copied my posts were not to mention my work going uncredited.
Look, we are talking about the internet here. Do you know how much my British comic posts have been ripped off -a lot. It makes the thief -if you give credit you are just using the material but crediting the original source: use it without credit and you are a thief- look very knowledgeable but if you ask them to post some art from the books they mention you hit a brick wall because they do not have those books. I do. They are on the shelves right in front of me.
I know a good few artists who have found their work used on T-shirts, etc. -these internet thieves have no idea. They think "It's online so it's fair game" but they soon discover that they face legal action for using copyrighted material without permission. "Oh, I thought it was free to use" no longer works. I know creators who, even after an item has been withdrawn from sale, pursue legal action because once internet thieves realise they will be having to pay for what they did -one even had a visit from law enforcement in the US as copyright infringement was deemed very serious. Good.
I have found a number of sites dealing with UFOs and strange creature reports using my illustrations with no credit. Do I contact them and ask that they credit or remove the art? Yes.
Even chunks of my posts on the Anomalous Phenomena blog get stolen. I was reading an item on another blog and thought "This is like something I looked into years ago" but it wasn't because it was sensationalist and a lot of facts were wrong. Then I found that it was something I had investigated and written about. I contacted the blog owner who responded that what he had presented were the facts and he was not backing down as he knew the investigator. No. He did not know me. He did not even look at my name on the email when he told me "Terry Hooper sent me this case". No. I NEVER send people a case report. I gave him a link to my blog and to the book the item was published in and told him I would be writing a "big post" exposing what he had done. Within two hours the item was gone from his blog.
People do not research or read books. They will look on the internet and think "Hey, that'll get my blog noticed!" and then copy and paste. The galling part is people will then comment and congratulate these thieves on 'their' work. I tell you -there ain't no goddam respect! :-)
You have to expect that anything you have researched or written and posted online will be stolen in some way. Do that to my art and I will pursue the matter (as some have found out). I tend not to add lots of reference sources (though main sources do get mentioned) because people never read those but if they want the sources I DO pass them on.
I used to get angry about the "British comics experts" who used chunks of my work but then I started chuckling. You see, these people -mainly the British comics 'nice guys'- will spread lies and worse about me but have to copy my work to make themselves look good. And the thing is that they know that I know they have done this. No one else who reads their blog will probably know but I and they do. You have to see the funny side of that!
So if you use the internet to post and publish research or what you know then be aware that Intellectual Property theft is rife. Don't get bitter or scream about feeling like you've been "raped" (yes, one immature blogger actually wrote that ).
The 'nice guys' want to attack me on private forums with their pals (I'm quite sure that's like a sexual thing) let them. They mean nothing to me. They don't know me. Some have low esteem and ego problems. Do what I do. Read the words of the Master and be wise.
