What would you do if someone stole from YOU?

Hello wonderful person!

If you have been reading my blog, you can be nothing but wonderful! How are you on Day 22 of Lockdown?

Today, my fitness coach (and friend) Neel,  messaged me. He keeps posting fitness challenges as well as daily workout (There's a lot of stuff  for beginners) too  on his page.  A couple of days back put a challenge on his page which was an original challenge by him. Someone completed the challenge and then posted it as their own, with no credit to  Neel.

It has happened to me many times. My content has been stolen, quotes from my books are taken and people put it up as their own quotes. Same happens with photos I click. Sometimes pictures of me, are used without my permission. One time, someone stole a pic of my garden and used it in their ad! (Can you believe the cheek?)  Another time they stole a picture of my mother and me, and used it in an article. You bet I raised hell and got them to take it down!

Using something without attribution to the creator is plain wrong unless it is taken from sites specifically for that purpose. There are many sites from which you can take content without attribution. (Still, I always try and give credit.)

It reminded me of this incident which happened many years ago, on my birthday. Satish had written this post for me on my birthday:


The next thing we know, someone on his friend's list copies the exact post above, word to word..And he posts it on his page, changing the last name to that of his wife!!  (It was his wife's b'day )

I was outraged!  How could he do this?!
I asked Satish why he didn't call him out for blatantly lifting off such a heartfelt note dedicated to me.  Satish said that initially he was angry too. Then he  went to that person's page and  read the comments beneath that post. Everyone was praising that person for coming up with such a lovely post .This person was acting as though it was he who wrote it.
 Among the people praising him, his daughter who had said 'Papa, you have written it so well.'
Satish said that, even though the person had stolen the post, in his daughter's eyes, he was a hero. He didn't want to expose him, because he didn't want that person's daughter to  think less of him.
I found that magnanimous and kind. Imagine that guy's loss of face, if Satish had called him out.
Now  after so many years, we're just amused about this.

People shouldn't  be passing off stuff as their own, if they didn't have anything to do with it in the first place. Only the creator knows how it is so hard to come up with something original. Many do not understand the importance of giving credit to the creator. I think it is extremely essential. After all, it is recognition  and acknowledgement of one's creative worth that the artist craves--be it a workout challenge, a facebook post or a quote from a book you wrote.

What do you say? Tell me in my comment box, please.  If you are reading this in your inbox, or an aggregator site,  may I please request  you to head over to my blog and  use the comment box?I would love to know what you think.





That's all from me, for today.

See you again tomorrow.

Lots of love
Preeti
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Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash


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