a little credit



a little credit

I’d mentioned before some of the benefits of hosting my haiku images on Flickr. Turns out there are drawbacks as well.

Yesterday I noticed one of the haiku I wrote a couple years ago (and scribbled for a handwritten post last year) was getting a noticeable amount of unattributed notoriety on various social networking sites. The same haiku has also gotten a bit of proper attribution in the past on some of the same sites, which I wholly appreciate, but lately a few Tumblrers with decent followings of their own have taken to simply copying the photo, or quoting the haiku, and giving no credit or links back to the original.

As someone who spends a lot of time creating these haiku and the corresponding images, this is frustrating. Nobody enjoys having their work go uncredited, or worse, credited to someone else. I’m no exception. It’s not that I expect to make large sums of money, or to achieve great fame, through my written efforts, but when a handful of these efforts gets noticed by a wider audience, it would nice to at least be recognized for the effort I’ve made.

I even have a specific license spelling out the terms under which I allow others to share my work. I have never had a problem with folks using my images or the haiku, provided they give me a little credit — or at least a little link love.


please, please, please, please, please,
please, please, please, please, pretty please:
don’t steal my haiku

View Comments

by howard

February 14th, 2010

Posted in handwritten haiku

Tagged with , , , , , ,

  • EllenS

    Creative Commons:
    Please share, but also cite me
    else you become thief

    do you know how easy it would be to form a group on a social networking site looking to get you your credit back? My wrist would need very little twisting, for example… My nephew made a group to get his roommate to reimburse him for a tv roomie broke.

  • http://nonbreakingspace.com/ howard

    good one, Ellen. maybe i'll steal it ;)

  • EllenS

    consider it gifted (or is that less fun). feel free to leave it in the comments of all the ne'er-do-wells.

  • http://nonbreakingspace.com/ howard

    you can't steal a gift — now you've ruined it ;)

  • http://nonbreakingspace.com/ howard

    as for the social networking site group idea, i'd be more inclined to try it if the abuse were concentrated somewhere, but there's very little direct feedback on most of the places i've seen it uncredited — mostly on tumblr, where you can say you love something, or you can reblog it, but there's no button for “hey you idiot, this is mine.”

    but please feel free to start a group, or advise further if you think it would help. and thanks.

  • PJ

    Wow, that does suck. I love your haiku pictures, and I definitely think you should be credited (especially for that one, which I love even more on Valentine's Day).

    I also like that you asked for a little “link love.” :)

  • http://nonbreakingspace.com/ howard

    and that reference, my dear, was the only concession i've made to Valentine's day this year ;)

  • somegirl7

    Hi, I just made a post on my blog featuring one of your images. I was wondering if you could possibly tell me if I've posted the credit correctly? :)

  • http://chrstn.tumblr.com/ christine

    i understand how you feel exactly. a little credit would be nice, and it always drives me nuts when people pass off things i've written as theirs. sometimes, they even change words around to “personalize” it. quite frustrating.

  • http://nonbreakingspace.com/ howard

    thanks. i've noticed that most of the people doing it have been younger, so
    i try to give the benefit of the doubt — remembering how i sometimes used
    to do things. but, yes, it is frustrating.

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