The wrong idea.

As in, "No, no, you've got the wrong idea."

I got the following comment the other day, which I actually thought was hilarious and clever:

DISCLAIMER: Please do not turn me in for sharing a tube of an apple. This apple may look like an apple in your kitchen but I can promise you this that I did not rip off your apple, I did not take a picture of this apple, and if you'd like to turn me in for downloading fruit, you have too much time on your hands. Please be kind, this apple was tubed by an individual on the net, this isn't your apple, I promise, she tubed her very own apple, not yours. No theft, no illegal act has been committed, it's simply a 45 cent apple, one you can find at any store. I admit, I did not create the name "apple" and copywrite it so technically I guess I could be breaking the law and I could be going to hell. If you do not want to go to hell with me, simply do not download this apple and delete this e-mail. Thank you.

Bwah ha ha ha ha.  Ok, so I think maybe I need to back up and clarify.

Random graphics and images and photos, I don't care what you do with, in the sense that I am not chasing every single graphic user on the internet.  I know there are "tubers" out there who share all sorts of graphics with each other.  And truthfully?  As long as it wasn't made by a digital scrapbook designer, I don't personally have a beef with that, as in I am personally not going to "come after you."  (This isn't to say that sometimes the things tubed are from copy-righted graphics or photos and is still WRONG and copy-right infringement, but like I said . . . that's not the battle I'm personally fighting.)

What I'm trying to do here is to help people understand that the kits, elements, papers, etc., created by digital scrapbook designers -- whether purchased or obtained for free -- are not to be redistributed in any way by anyone who doesn't have permission or a license to do so.

So spread your picture of the apple all over the internet.  It's all good.  And thanks for the laugh.

*Edited to add: I got the following comment today on this entry:

Normally I completely agree with what you have to say, but this time you are wrong. I would put it more politely, but I like to be frank :)

When you write "Random graphics and images and photos, I don't care what you do with." - you are WRONG. This IS the battle you are fighting!

Piracy is piracy. If you don't care about any copyrighted graphics except those that belong to scrapbook designers, then you are effectively using exactly the same rationale as the "tubers" do.

I hope that you will reread this article and decide to do a little editing, because what you are saying to people is "Copyright violation is OK by me as long as it isn't scrapbook stuff."

So now I need to clarify.  (Thank you for your comment, though.  I guess other people might interpret this that way, too.)

I did say that "This isn't to say that sometimes the things tubed are from copy-righted graphics or photos."  And I'm not giving permission to steal other graphics or photos that are copyrighted.  And it's not that I think it's ok to do so.  I don't like what I've heard thus far about tubers, but that seems to be a WAY bigger issue than I can take on.  It's just that I personally don't have the resources to know where all graphics and photos that are under copyright are originated from.  Thus I wouldn't know how to notify the copyright holder of the infringement.  These are not the groups we monitor and report.  I stand by the statement we often repeat here, that unless you did not personally create an image or have permission from the image copyright holder, you should not be distributing the image in any form.  That applies to many things, and as an educational effort, is at least a notice to tubers that they need to stop and think about the images they are working with.

The previous blog entry, "More websites about piracy" lists 10 websites of various industries and groups that are specifically about piracy.  Piracy of software, music, videos, books . . . I obviously can't fight these battles, either.  And while I support their mission, their individual industries have specific organizations to deal with the problem in the respective industry.  And that's what we're about here at the Stop Digital Piracy Blog, for the digital scrapbooking industry.

Perhaps there are groups like this for photography copyrights and general graphic copyrights.  If there are, I would love if someone let me know.  Then we could post their information for people to contact when they run across infringements and could help in this respect.  I've edited the paragraph in question, edits in italics, to help clarify the point.

I hope this clears things up.  Let me know.  Thanks again for the comment.