A quick post to let you know there’s a new gift for you in the store especially for St-Patrick’s day:

Tout nouveau dans le magasin également pour Pâques cette fois-ci:

Also new in the store for Easter this time:

Otherwise, I hope you are all doing well and I apologize for not giving news more often, bit busy…

Autrement, j’espère que vous vous portez bien et je m’excuse de ne pas donner de nouvelles un peu plus souvent, occupée un brin…

Et la jolie Aby:

Va vraiment falloir qu’on apprenne à résister… 

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Two new additions to the family, meet Derby:

And the pretty Aby:

Now we really have to learn to resist… 

People have often called me an artist and even though I’ve never really believed I was one, I used to think it was flattering.  In my mind, it meant something for some reason…  When I see something like this being called a piece of art, I can’t help but feel like art is being ridiculed, I almost find it sad and when someone calls me an artist now I got to wonder if they’re poking fun at me or what?  lol  If this wall is considered a work of art, then anyone can just make a mess, call it art and I’m sure if they have a way with words and they wouldn’t even need to be that good with words, they’d manage to convince the world that it’s a brilliant work of art created by a genius.  I mean come on!  A work of art has to be created intentionally, some thought has to be given to colors, composition, light, shadows, shapes, atmosphere, it has to be done with the intention of provoking an emotion, a reaction etc…  Ok, granted, this wall provokes reactions and emotions, it’s pretty disgusting when you think about it…  A squished bug on the windshield of a car is kinda disgusting too…

Please, if you believe this wall is a work of art, don’t consider me an artist… 

Juste une petit message rapide pour vous laisser savoir qu’il y a un nouveau petit cadeau pour vous dans les cadeaux mensuels du magasin.  P’tit cadeau sucré pour la St-Valentin!  Il s’agit de petits coeurs en bonbon (vous pouvez voir les détails en cliquant sur l’image):

J’ai aussi découvert un site de textures qui a l’air vraiment bien ce matin, les termes sont très amicaux, avis aux intéressés, c’est Lost and Taken .

Bonne fin de soirée!  : )

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Just a quick message to let you know I have uploaded a new small gift for you in the monthly freebies in the store. It’s a little something sweet for Valentine’s day. little heart candies( you can see the details by clicking on the image):

I’ve also discovered this morning a site that offers a lot of textures that look really nice and the terms are very user friendly, thought I’d share it with you, it’s Lost and Taken.

Have a good evening!  : )

Parlons d’abord de la loi…  À plusieurs endroits, il y a des lois en place qui interdisent de nourrir les animaux sauvages, Mongrain semble dire que c’est une loi tout à fait stupide, comme il dit:  “On n’est pas au Kénia!  C’pas un lion!   C’t'un écureuil! C’t'un rat avec une grande queue!”  Chacun son opinion…  Moi j’ai plutôt pensé que bien que ça ne soit pas un lion, un écureuil peut quand même causer pas mal de dégats sur une propriété, peut-être que c’est pour ça que cette loi-là est en place?  Quand un écureuil décidera d’aller faire son nid dans le toit de la maison de ces gens qui trouvent donc que Mongrain a été génial ou encore quand le gentil écureuil décidera d’aller laisser des écailles de peanuts et autres déchets dans le moteur de leur voiture, peut-être que la lumière se fera et qu’ils comprendront pourquoi certaines lois existent.   Mais ce n’est pas tellement la loi-même et le fait qu’elle soit stupide ou pas qui m’embête…

Parlons de l’infâme policier qui a osé faire sa job!!!  Ben oui, parce que, que la loi soit stupide ou pas, la job du policier, c’est de la faire respecter cette-loi-là, peu importe si elle est intelligente ou pas.  Ce n’est pas lui qui l’a écrite, si ça se trouve, lui aussi il la trouve stupide, mais en tant que policier, s’il voit une infraction peu importe ce qu’il en pense, il n’a pas le droit de l’ignorer, il est dans l’obligation d’agir, c’est ça sa job.  S’il n’agit pas et qu’il fallait que ça tombe dans l’oreille de Mongrain hey!   Je suis pas mal certaine que ce dernier s’en réjouirait, de la nourriture pour son show!  “Un imbécile de policier voit une infraction et l’ignore complètement!!!  Hey!!!  C’est nos taxes qui les paient ces enfouerrés de policiers-là!”  Probablement que 90% des policiers aimeraient bien pouvoir décider quelles lois ils vont faire respecter et quelles lois ils vont ignorer, quelles plaintes ils vont accepter, quelles plaintes ils vont refuser, mais ce n’est pas dans leur pouvoir, leur devoir c’est de faire respecter la loi telle qu’elle est écrite.  Alors, quand un policier est dans l’obligation de renforcer une loi qu’on juge stupide, c’est pas au policier qu’il faut s’en prendre, c’est à ceux qui ont écrit ces lois-là.  Ça me fait toujours un peu enrager quand je vois des gens qui chiâlent parce qu’un policier fait son travail.  S’ils font leur boulot, ils se font donner de la merde, s’ils ne font pas leur boulot, ils se font donner de la merde, faudrait s’brancher un moment donné!  Est-ce qu’on veut qu’ils la fassent leur job ou pas?  C’qu’on voudrait vraiment, c’est qu’ils la fassent juste quand ça fait notre affaire n’est-ce pas? Sauf que quand ça fait notre affaire à nous, ça ne fait pas l’affaire d’un autre, la loi qu’un juge stupide, et bien l’autre va la trouver très bien fondée.  On est ben content quand le policier donne une contravention à l’osti d’bozo qui nous a coupé sur l’autoroute à 130km à l’heure, mais c’est un maudit chien sale s’il nous donne une contravention à nous pour avoir fait de la vitesse de la même façon quand on était déjà en retard à un rendez-vous pis qu’en plus on est cassé!  On est bien content qu’il donne une contravention au bonhomme qui nourrit les écureuils si les écureuils ont décidé d’élire domicile dans notre toit, qu’ils sont entrainde faire un méchant dégât là-haut, mais sinon, ben sont mignons les écureuils, c’t'un maudit épais d’avoir donner une contravention pour ça!  Un accident a probablement été évité parce que le policier a donné une contravention à la bitch que j’hais donc qui habite deux rues plus loin parce qu’elle jasait sur son cellulaire en conduisant, elle l’a mérité et c’est tant pis pour elle, mais le maudit salaud avait pas d’affaire à m’en donner une à moi aussi parce que j’envoyais un text message à mon chum pour lui demander d’aller acheter du lait en finissant de travailler! Y’a une p’tite phrase en anglais qui décrit bien ça:  “Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t!”  Tout ça pour dire qu’il y a toujours des mécontents, les policiers sont toujours pris entre les deux et sans choix vraiment et bien sûrs, les mécontents sont toujours plus vocaux que les autres.

Pour un homme qui est sensé être très intelligent, il me semble que Mongrain aurait pu réfléchir un peu plus à tout ça avant d’aller dénigrer un policier qui ne faisait qu’accomplir son travail comme il le devait.  À mon avis le bonhomme pourrait se servir de sa popularité un peu plus intelligemment et pour supporter des causes qui méritent d’être supporté mais non!  Il a décidé de suivre la mode et la mode ces temps-ci, c’est de critiquer pour tout et pour rien le travail des policiers, et d’ignorer complètement le bien qu’ils font malgré tout dans nos communautés.

Chapeau Monsieur Mongrain, votre quote d’écoute a dû monter quand ça a joué à la télé et mon mari qui est policier, qui fait très bien le travail qu’on attend de lui malgré les insultes et le manque d’appréciation, mari dont je suis vraiment fière, se fera surement traiter de maudit cochon sale encore un peu plus grâce à vous!

J’espère que vous avez tous passé de belles fêtes et bien que je suis en retard pour vous souhaiter Joyeux Noël, j’en profite pour vous offrir mes meilleurs voeux pour 2011.  Que la santé, le bonheur, l’amour et l’harmonie soient avec vous tout au long de l’année.

J’ai passé de très belles fêtes!  Nous sommes tous allés passer Noël à Québec chez Maud et Yann (soeur de Marc et son homme) et chez la mère de Marc.  On s’est bien amusé, on a bien sûr trop mangé et ça faisait longtemps que je n’avais pas ri autant!  Évidemment, on ne pouvait pas aller à Québec sans aller faire un p’tit tour chez mon grand frère et c’est toujours le fun de les revoir lui et sa petite famille!  : )   Hey!  Je pense que ça faisait plus d’une quinzaine d’années qu’on passait Noël seulement nous cinq (Marc, les enfants et moi)  C’était quelque chose de spécial de pouvoir célébrer avec d’autres membres de la famille, Alain n’avait jamais connu ça, Kim et peut-être même Vincent ne doivent pas vraiment en avoir de souvenirs parce qu’ils étaient encore très petits la dernière fois qu’on a fêté Noël au Québec.

P’tit retour en arrière maintenant!  Avant les fêtes, Kim et moi on s’est amusé à faire un p’tit bricolage de Noël.  Une copine à moi a partagé un lien vers un tutoriel pour faire des cocottes (en anglais) et on a essayé, voici le résultat:

Super facile à faire et le résultat est pas si mal quand même!  : )

Bien sûr on s’est promené un peu et j’ai pris des photos, je vous en présente quelques unes ici, mais pour les voir toutes, faudrait encore une fois aller voir ma gallerie sur DeviantArt.

Pour finir, et bien dans mon magasin à moi, il n’y a qu’un seul nouveau produit et ce sont mes fleurs et flocons de Noël style Kanzashi que vous pouvez voir en cliquand sur l’image:

Mais exclusivement sur le site de Jaguarwoman se trouvent deux autres produits par Jaguarwoman et moi-même et les voici:

Je sais, un peu tard pour vous faire voir des trucs de Noël, mais pas grave, je les trouve encore beaux et j’en suis bien fière même si les fêtes sont finis!  ; )

Sur ce je vous laisse, fais tard et retour au travail demain matin!  Prenez soin de vous!  *cocolles*

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I hope you all had a good holiday and ethough I’m a little late to wish you a merry Christmas, I would like to wish you a very happy new Year, may health, happyness, love and harmoney be with you every day during 2011!

My holidays were great!  We spent Christmas in Québec city at Maud and Yann’s (Marc’s sister and her better half) and at Marc’s mom.  We had lots of fun, ate way too much and it had been a long time since I laughed as much as I did over the Holidays!  Of course we couldn’t go to Québec without paying a visit to my big brother and it’s always a lot of fun to spend some time with him and his family.  I think that for the past 15 years, Christmas has always been just Marc, the kids and myself, it was something special this year to be able to celebrate it with other members of the family, Alain had never known this, kim and Vincent were probably too young to remember, I’ve really appreciated it this year!  : )

Before the holidays Kim and I decided to do some crafts together.  A friend of mine had shared a link to a tutorial to make pinecones for the Christmas tree and we gave it a try, here’s the result:

Pretty easy and it looks good I find…

Of course we went for a few strolls and I took some photos.  I’m only showing you some of them here, if you would like to see them all, make sure you visit my  galery on DeviantArt.

Finally, in my store, there’s only one nw product and it’s my Christmas flowers and snowflakes, kanzasi style that you can see by clicking on the thumbnail:

But exclusively on Jaguarwoman’s site are two more products made in partnership with Jaguarwoman, here they are, once again, clicking on the images will take you there:

I know, it’s a bit late to be showing you Christmas stuff, but I still think we did a darn good job with them and am proud to show them off even if the holidays are over!  ; )

And that’s it for now because it’s getting late and it’s back to work tomorrow morning!  You all take care!  *hugs*

Encore une p’tite histoire qui a pas d’allure!

Y’a un p’tit bout de temps, j’ai acheté photoshop CS3 extended sur Ebay, c’était un très bon deal, la boite était encore sellée toute neuve, j’étais bien contente de mon achat.  La semaine dernière il y avait une promotion sur le site d’Adobe, en achetant l’upgrade pour photoshop CS5 on obtenait 30% de réduction sur Lightroom 3.  Je voulais vraiment photoshop Cs5 et mon homme était très intéressé par Lightroom 3 donc on a décidé d’en profiter.  Après avoir downloadé, j’essaie d’installer mon upgrade pour CS5.  Comme c’est un upgrade, on me demande le numéro de série de ma version précédente.  Je la tape en m’assurant que je n’ai pas fait d’erreur, mais le logiciel me dit que ce n’est pas un numéro de série valide.  J’ai dû essayé 4 fois avec toujours le même résultat, pas moyen d’avoir mon Cs5.  J’assume que ça doit être un glitch dans le logiciel alors le lendemain matin j’appelle le support chez Adobe.  On me demande mon numéro de série pour CS3.  Après vérification, je me fais dire que ce numéro de série là n’a jamais existé pour photoshop CS3, la copie de CS3 que j’ai acheté était donc surement une copie piratée.  En fait ils ne m’ont pas dit directement que c’était une copie piratée, je pense qu’ils essayaient d’épargner mes feelings et m’ont laissé conclure par moi-même…   Je suis un peu choquée parce que si j’ai acheté photoshop CS3 sur ebay, c’était pour avoir une copie légale du logiciel.  Si j’avais voulu une copie piratée, j’aurais été la chercher moi-même sur le net, Dieu sait que des sites de warez y’en a en masse, je serais niaiseuse pas mal de payer pour ça!  Ce qui m’a choquée encore plus, c’est les efforts qui ont été mis dans ce produit illégal pour duper les acheteurs.  La boite, la paperasse dans la boite, les deux CDs, l’emballage sellée, c’était pas artisanale l’affaire, ça avait vraiment l’air d’une copie de photoshop comme celle qu’on acheterait chez Future Shop ou autres grands magasins d’ordis.  Même le formulaire pour enregistrer le logiciel m’a donné l’impression que je l’avais vraiment enregistré avec Adobe.  Ça m’épate vraiment.

Tk, Adobe aurait bien pu m’envoyer promener, ils avaient pas vraiment de raison de me faire confiance, mais ils ont été très compréhensifs!  On m’a tout de suite offert un remboursement pour l’upgrade que j’avais acheté et que je n’ai pas pu installé à cause de cette fraude.  Ils m’ont quand même laissé Lightroom 3 avec le rabais de la promotion et comme j’ai offert de leur envoyé la copie piratée, on m’a aussi offert un rabais pour la version complète de photoshop CS5 que je vais certainement me procurer, directement chez Adobe cette fois-ci!  On ne m’aura pas une deuxième fois!   Adobe est une très grosse compagnie, je pense que je m’attendais à un peu plus de froideur de leur part, j’ai été agréablement surprise de leur attitude et de leur service.

Si j’en parle ici, c’est un peu pour vous mettre en garde quand vous achetez ce genre de trucs-là en ligne.  Marc et moi, on se croyait quand même assez endurcis en ce qui concerne les achats en ligne, on est assez vigilents et prudents et on se croyait quand même très bien informés…  Ça ne nous a tout de même pas gardé à l’abri de ce genre de fraude-là et on s’est quand même fait avoir par ce vendeur illégal.

Mon opinion personnel…  Si vous voulez un logiciel légal, les bons deals de ebay, c’est probablement pas la meilleure idée, même si selon toutes les apparences, ce que vous achetez semble très légitimes!  Méfiez-vous!!  À l’avenir vous pouvez être certain que je n’acheterai plus de logiciel sur Ebay!

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Another crazy story!

A while back, I purchased on ebay a copy of photoshop CS3, it was a very good deal, brand new photoshop still in the sealed box, I was very happy with my purchase.  Last weel Adobe had a promotion where if you bought the upgrade for photoshop CS5, you got 30% off Lightroom 3.  I really wanted to get CS5 and Marc was very interested in Lightroom 3 so we decided to go ahead and take advantage of the offer.  After downloading them, I try to install my CS5 upgrade, since it’s an upgrade I’m asked to provide the serial number of CS3 of course.  So I type it in, being very careful to type it properly but it tells me that my serial number is invalid.  I tried 4 times always with the same result so I thought maybe there was a glitch with the program or something.  I called Adobe the next morning and after verification of my CS3 serial number, I’m told that this serial number never existed for photoshop CS3 so most likely I got a pirated copy.  Well they didn’t actually say it was a pirated copy, I guess they have to be careful when they say something like this to clients, they kinda let me draw my own conclusion.  I’m a little bit shocked because if I spent money on a copy of CS3, it was so that I would have a legal copy, if I wanted a pirated copy, I wouldn’t have paid for it, God knows there are plenty of warez site on the internet, I’d be pretty dumb to go and pay in order to get it.  What shocked me even more though is the effort that has been put into this illegal product in order to fool the buyer into thinking that what they are buying is legitimate.  The box, the papers in the box, the CDs, all of this sealed like it was brand new…  It didn’t look at all like something homemade, it really looked like a copy of the program you would purchase at Future Shop or some other big computer stores.  Even the form to register the software gave me the impression that I had registered it with Adobe but it never was registered with them.  I’m really amazed by all of it.

Anyway!  Adobe could have told me:  “Too bad, so sad…”, they didn’t really have any reason to trust me, but they were very understanding.  I was offered a refund for the upgrade I had bought since I couldn’t install it, they’ve let me keep Lightroom at the reduced price and after I offered to send the the pirated software I was also offered a reduction on the full copy of CS5 which I will be getting of course, this time directly from Adobe, I won’t get fooled a second time!  Adobe is a big company, I think I was expecting them to be a little bit colder or something, I was pleasantly surprised by their attitude and service.

If I talk about this here, it’s a bit to let you know about this kind of stuff online,to warn you to be careful.  Marc and I thought we were well informed about this, we’re always cautious when we buy online but despite all our caution, we’ve still been fooled by this illegal vendor…  So here’s my personal opinion now…  Be careful of good deals on software on Ebay, while it looks really legitimate, it may not necessarily be so, best bet is probably to check with the real owner of the software first!  In my case, well you can rest assured that I will not buy this kind of software on ebay again!

Je pensais à mon blog ce soir et je me disais que ça serait peut-être grand temps que je donne des nouvelles. Ça fait longtemps, j’en ai beaucoup à raconter, je vais essayer encore une fois d’abréger le plus possible…

L’école et les mousses…  Vincent semble se débrouiller à merveille à St-Andrews avec des notes au-dessus de 80, plus souvent au-dessus de 90 même, ça a l’air de vraiment bien aller son affaire! Kim fait aussi beaucoup d’effort puisqu’elle a l’intention d’aller continuer ses études aux États et pour qu’elle puisse y arriver, ça lui prend des super notes, elle y arrive assez bien quand elle y met du sien. Pour Alain, ben c’est toujours pareil, il est un p’tit génie! Donc petite maman pas mal fière ici… : )

-Y’a deux nouvelles additions à la famille, Mrs Tribble et Mrs Wiggle:

Avouez qu’elles sont mignonnes!  : )

Nos activités depuis septembre…

Je suis pas certaine d’en parler dans le bon ordre, mais pas grave n’est-ce pas? En septembre nous sommes allés faire un tour au festival de Jazz de Frédéricton. Ça a été une super de belle journée ensoleillée, à se ballader dans les rues de Frédéricton, prendre un bain de foule et écouter de la musique, super agréable comme petite sortie en famille, juste un peu dommage que Vincent n’y était pas, il aurait surement aimé ça lui aussi. Voilà quelques photos…

On a aussi un festival de Montgolfières au Nouveau-Brunswick!!  Oui oui!!!  Et ça, c’est quelque chose que j’ai ajouté sur ma “bucket list”!  J’ai peur des hauteurs, plus pissou que moi pour ça, ça s’peut pas, mais pas grave!  Un jour il faudra que je fasse un tour en montgolfière.  Me semble que ça doit être tellement beau, pas aussi haut qu’en avion mais avec une super vue quand même, toujours assez haut pour se casser le cou vous me direz, mais ça doit être tellement beau!  J’pense que j’arriverais à surmonter ma peur juste pour voir, je pense…  Tant qu’il n’y a pas trop de vent…

On est aussi allé aux pommes, ça faisait tellement longtemps qu’on n’avait pas fait ça, y’a pas de verger pour cueillir des pommes à Terre-Neuve.

Marc et moi on s’est payé une petite ballade en kayak en automne aussi, c’était bien agréable de pagayer sur la rivière avec les arbres bien colorés.  Un peu triste quand même de penser que c’était probablement la dernière fois cette année qu’on allait pagayer.

Ce n’est qu’un aperçu des photos que j’ai pris au cours des deux derniers mois, si vous voulez voir les autres, allez faire un p’tit tour dans ma galerie sur DeviantArt (lien dans la colonne de droite).

Y’a un nouveau p’tit cadeau pour vous et ce sont deux encriers pour aller avec  mes plumes.  Cliquez sur l’image pour vous rendre à ces derniers.

Et pour finir, il y a un nouvel ensemble de photos dans le magasin, cette fois-ci, ce sont des photos de cimetières:

J’en oublie surement, mais bon, en gros, c’est tout ça le nouveau.  Jusqu’à la prochaine, prenez soin de vous!

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I was thinking about my blog last night and thought I was overdue for an update.  It’s been a while, I have a lot to talk about but I will try to make it short.

School and the kids…  Vincent seems to be doing really well in St-Andrews with marks above 80 and more often then not above 90 so things are great for him!  Kim is also making lots of efforts because she plans on finishing her studies in the states and in order to do that, she has to get good marks right now, when she tries she sure can.  Alain, well it’s always the same, he’s a little genius!  So I’m a very proud little mom…  : )

-We have two new members in the family, Mrs Tribble and Mrs Wiggle:

You got to admit they are really cute!  : )

Our activities since september…  I’m not sure I’ll talk about it all in the right chronological order but it doesn’t really matter right?   In september we went to the Jazz festival of Fredericton.  We had a wonderful and sunny afternoon walking in the streets of Fredericton, meeting people, listening to music.  It was a really nice family outing, it’s just too bad Vincent wasn’t there, he would have enjoyed it.  Here are some photos of the event.

We have a Balloon festival in New-Brunswick!  That’s something I’ve added to my bucket list.  I’m afraid of heights, but it doesn’t matter, one of these days I will have to fly in a balloon.  It must be really beautiful from up there, not as high as in a plane, the view must be fantastic.  Still high enough to break your neck, but it must be worth the risk!  ; )  I think I’d manage to muster the courage just to be able to see, I think…  As long as the wind isn’t too strong…

We also went to pick apples at the end of september.  We hadn’t done that in a very long time since there are no orchards in Newfoundland where we could go and pick apples.

Marc and I also went to do some autumn paddling, it was really nice to be on the river with the trees on each side very colorful.  It’s a little bit sad to think we now have to put away the kayaks for the winter.

Those photos are just a small glimpse of all the photos I took in the past couple of months, if you want to see the rest, make sure to visit my gallery on DeviantArt (link is in the right column).

There’s a new small gift for you in my store, they are two inkwells to match my  Feathers and Quills.  Click on the image below to get to them.

Finally, there’s a new set of stock photographs in the store, this time they are photos of cemetaries:

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but briefly, that pretty much all the news.  Til next time, take care!  : )

After I posted the previous blog I’ve exchanged several emails with Mrs T. where she apologized for the tone of her email, made sure I was aware of how miserable her life has been because I posted about this on my blog, I’m mean and cold, but she  tried to apologize and on friday night I had said all I had to say (or so I thought) and I put this all behind…  That was on friday.  Two days without thinking about any of this, but last night I received another angry email from Mrs T. accusing me of spreading all my infos about her like I’ve been spending my week-end trying to ruin her completely and how I really won’t let go.  It seems people have found out who she is, some are giving her a hard time, not too sure what’s going on, but it’s all my fault it seems.

I’ll skip all the ways people could have found out who she was without my blog post (that excluded her name) and without my starting a discussion on a forum (that also excluded her name) because that’s not so important and I’m also getting sick of explaing in details what is kinda obvious to me, you’ll have to forgive me for skipping that part.

Do I feel guilty?  No.  Do I feel like I should delete my post on both my blog and that forum?  Heck no!  I feel even more strongly that it was the right thing to do!  The main reason I made that blog post was to expose something that happens way too often in this industry and discuss ways to eliminate at least some of it. It seems people are using this as an opportunity to give Mrs T. a beating and this was not the purpose of this blog, that’s the reason why I had left out her name in the first place.

All this makes me feel even more strongly that something has to be done to reduce the risk of this happening.  The angry emails, all this time wasted, the embarassment, the bashing, the stress, all the foolishness that has been going on since last week, none of this would have been necessary if some prevention was done by store owners when products are uploaded in their store. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! store owners, consider what I posted in my previous blog entry.  Also please, if you know of stores that are already asking ownership statements and list of resources and where they were obtained used in the creation of each product uploaded to a store, let me know the name, maybe I’ll try to make a directory of safe stores to shop at or something.

As for Mrs T.,  she was caught, the infringing product was pulled right away and two of the three stores have pulled all her products from their stores.  Maybe I’m naive, but I think she will be more cautious in the future so you can put away the pitchforks, it’s not necessary, it’s the ones who haven’t been caught yet we need to worry about the most.

This will be a long read, I apologize for it, but it has ruined several of my days since last week and I really feel the need to discuss this, get it out of my system and maybe get some folks to think about this problem and maybe find a solution.

It was brought to my attention last week that a designer was reselling some of my painted feathers as is in a certain scrapbook store. I went to have a look and recognized my feathers right away. My terms of use are really clear on this, I don’t allow my work to be redistributed as is or only slightly altered nor do I allow them to be used in the creation of a product that would enter in direct competition with my own. After a little bit of investigation I found out the infringing product was resold by this designer in 2 other stores. I will not name these stores because they were quick removing this product when I asked them to. I will not mention the designers name either because I think sometimes I’m too nice for my own good. I purchased said product from one of those three stores to be able to compare them side by side even though it was obvious from her promo images and description that they were the same, I didn’t want any doubts. Here’s a screenshot of what was in this vendor’s product against my own painted feathers, you can click on the images to view them larger:

She took the time to rename the original files which are otherwise exactly the same and included a version of 3 of my feathers with little diamonds and recolored bows pasted on them. The pack also included the two recolored diamonds and two of the hue shifted bows. You may wonder if she had only included those feathers that have the diamonds and bows and excluded the feathers that were exactly as is, would it have been ok? The answer is no. My terms also say that my products are not to be used to create a product that enters in direct competition with my own product.

After pulling that product from the store, the store owner gave me a refund which I also appreciated since I hadn’t even asked for it yet.

Later on that day I received an email from this designer saying she was sorry, that she had made those years ago and probably before she knew about terms of use and copyrights. She also asked how else she could use my feathers because she didn’t have the terms of use for them, must have thrown them away or something…

It seemed sincere and I almost didn’t question it, almost… But a few things bugged me a bit. I’m willing to believe she may have put together this product a long time ago before she knew about terms of use, it’s possible… This seemed to imply that she is now aware of terms of use and copyrights so that’s good. However, this product was uploaded in those three stores between the middle of july and the middle of september of this year and the readme in the zip is dated 2010. So those uploads were fairly recent and I’m thinking that if she is now more aware of copyrights, surely she remembered that those feathers had been painted by someone, not by herself, she didn’t know how she could use them since she had apparently lost the tou, and therefore this product should not have been uploaded in those three stores under these conditions. She should have kept from uploading this product till she could find a way to verify if she had the right to resell them this way or not. Like I told her in the email I sent her, this is like copyright 101, everybody who offers images on the internet should either have made those images themselves or made sure that the authors of the images are ok with that kind of use. Most artists I know of won’t allow for their work to be redistributed as is, even she had that bit in her own terms of use that was in the zip with my feathers. She also said in her email that she would never do this intentionally. I’m sorry, but the readme in the zip was dated 2010, she had uplodaded it in not one, but three different stores to sell them and make a profit knowing she hadn’t made those images herself, I really don’t see how this could be a mistake and not intentional.

Since she said she had made this a long time ago, said she wasn’t aware of tou and copyrights back then and said she had no tou with them, she also didn’t seem to know about me because she would have known that my terms are right there in my store, easy to access, (she’s not amongst my costumers either) it shouldn’t be such a surprise if it made me wonder if she had indeed paid for the license or if she might have acquired them through a filesharing group because I know my feathers have been redistributed this way in the past. So I told her that before I answered her questions regarding how my feathers can be used, I would like to see a proof of purchase. A proof of purchase would not be difficult to acquire, I’ve only ever sold those feathers in two other stores besides my own, if she purchased them from one of those two stores, I’m certain she could easily get this a proof of purchase. This would not have made what she had done ok, but at least I would know that she had obtained those feathers legally.

Despite the fact that I was upset a little, I’m pretty sure my email to her was polite. Granted it was not super friendly, I’ve heard the excuses “I didn’t know” “it was not intentional” etc a little too often and I’m finding it harder and harder to be nice and forgiving about it, so my reply to her was direct, I was questioning and confronting what she had told me in her email, but I think that under the circomstances I managed to remain fairly polite and calm. She didn’t like my response and the content of her following email was very predictable, as predictable as the excuses that said it was a misunderstanding, a mistake, not intentional…

Here’s a copy of it with my comments in italic for the rest of this post I will refer to her as Mrs. T and wherever her name was written I will change it for Mrs T.:

Lucie,

there is no reason for you to be so snooty about this TRUST me I have no need for the stupid things…. (I wasn’t being snooty, I was merely confronting someone who had been reselling my work and was then trying to throw sand in my eyes with explanations that weren’t satisfying for me.)

i made something with them and back then i probably thought that was good enough…i also was trying to save space there fore the tou prob got deleted…. (tou don’t take up much room, it’s just a txt file, but even if they did, they are easy to find again, one just needs to go back to the site where it was purchased.)

doesn’t really matter what you believe cause i feel no need to be chummy with you nor do i care what you think. (I had guessed that much.)

I uploaded them a few months ago but i didn’t worry about what i made them with back in the day i uploaded some older stuff so what big freaking deal…. (The big freaking deal is she reselling something she didn’t have a right to resell and this is called theft.)

like i said i wont EVER purchase ANYTHING of yours again (did she ever? I’m still waiting for this proof of purchase.)

it way over priced anyhow your no better then anyone else in this field (Of course when you haven’t spent days painting something from scratch and when you are just reselling what others have made with no or not much input on your part, it may seem overpriced. It’s easy to sell cheap when you are reselling someone else’s labor)

you just obviously have more money then most…. (where this comes from and how she can possibly know my financial situation is beyond me, this is quite funny!)

I was only trying to get everything i can uploaded to try and support my family we have no income and I am sure you probably have none of this to worry about. (I don’t spend days and weeks painting products like the one she was reselling only for fun, yes, I also have a family and I do it for an income, if I didn’t need that money I probably wouldn’t care if it was redistributed, heck I’d give it away! lol I don’t know why she assumed I was so wealthy?)

Don’t EVER purchase anything of mine either i refunded your damn money (I didn’t purchase anything of hers, what I purchased was mine really and the refund I received didn’t come from her but from the store owner)

and well i want you to know i am being kind to you rite now because i am not really telling you what i think about you and your crap!!!! (My crap… We’re talking about the crap that she was trying to resell until she got caught and crap that per her first email she kind of would have liked to know how else she could have used.)

Don’t bother wasting your time writing back to me either cause i wont be reading it or replying to you again. You are a very greedy person and Karma will get ya. (a man works 40 hours a week, he gets a paycheck at the end of the week, it’s not very big but it is enough to care  for his family, he goes to the bank to cash it, when he gets out someone tries to take the money from his pocket, he notices and screams “thief!”. Is he being greedy for not letting the thief take his hard earned money? I don’t get a paycheck at the end of the week for painting and working on my products, I get a few sales here and there and the total of those sales probably only represent a fraction per hour of what this man is making, when someone puts his hand in my pocket to take a part of my modest income without asking, I scream “thief!” as well, if that make me greedy, then yes, I guess I am greedy.)

I don’t have to worry about that….Lord help you cause in the end you will need it for treating people the way you do…. (I’m usually a pretty nice gal, really… ; ) )

btw-Greed is one of the worst sins in the bible. (I wonder where theft ranks amongst the sins in the Bible?)

whatever,
Mrs T.

Now I also want to go through her readme/tou that was in the product containing my feathers because I was a little bit shocked by what was in there… I’m just going to quote parts of it and once again I’ve added my thoughts in italic:

*COMMERCIAL USE LICENSE – TERMS OF USE*
© 2010
Mrs T.   (How can she put her copyright on this product?)

-If you post completed projects online through e-groups, bulletin boards, galleries, forums, newsgroups, or submit to magazines for  possible publication, YOU MUST include the product title & Mrs T. in your credits.
-Scrap For Hire is okay as long as you provide a full credit to Mrs T. For any further questions, please e-mail  Mrs.T@whatever.com

(Notice the YOU MUST in capital letters… She is asking for FULL credit for something she didn’t make, has no right to offer and nowhere does she herself give credit to the artist whose work she’s redistributing. I also wonder how she could possibly reinforce this term? What if someone buys my feathers legally from my store, uses them in a layout while respecting my terms of use and doesn’t give me credit because it’s not one of my requirement that I be given credit? Is she going to write to this person and tell her she has to give HER credit for MY feathers?  Come on!)

-may not be resold as a stand-alone product. or Make it a stand alone kit for redistribution. (She has that in her terms, go figure…)

-You may use the graphics in your web design projects providing that proper credit is given on the website (graphics by Mrs T.)  (Asking credit again for graphics she didn’t make)
YOU MAY NOT:
-Claim these graphics as your own either in their original state, or in an altered state. (Reading this tou by her, it sure sounds like she’s claiming them as her own, there is no mention anywhere that she didn’t create them and she’s asking credit for them all over these tou…)
-Offer downloads of the kits/graphics in any way shape or form. Distribute these graphics in any format except for the uses defined above. (The saying: Do as I say don’t do as I do applies really well here.)
-Share these files with friends, family, etc. Please feel free to direct them to the store where you purchased your product. (Or better still, you can direct them to www.finfond.net because this is where those feathers really come from… )
-Sell these graphics through any means in their purchased format. (cough cough)


(And finally, my favorite bit in capital letters in her terms:)

STEALING COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IS A CRIME. Thank you for abiding by my terms of use! (She said it!!  I’ve put it in bold because it deserves it)

I want to finish this with a plea to store owners as an artist who has had her work redistributed against her tou more then once in this fashion by wannabe scrapbook designers who don’t know about copyrights or plainly don’t care. I know for a fact that similar things have happened to many other artists and designers…

I think illegal redistribution of copyrighted material or misuse of of graphic resources offered on the internet is a little bit of a plague in this industry and it would be nice to see more done to fight this. Every time something like this has happened to me, store owners have been really fast in looking into it and pulling the infringing products from the shelf and thathas always been greatly appreciated. But I’ve been thinkinga lot about all this over the past 4-5 days and there has to be a way to help prevent this from happening in the first place instead of waiting for complaints to come in from offended artists. One of the thing that crossed my mind and that has been suggested in the past is to ask designers when they upload a product to have a copyright statement in their readme and to provide a list of the resources used to create the product, name of the stores where they were purchased, along with proof of purchase to be sent to the store owner. It may not solve it all, some designers might omit certain resources (on purpose or not) but I think it would help diminish this at least a little and would also serve in educating new designers who may not be aware of copyrights and terms of use or only slightly informed about it all. Yes, it would be more work for the designer who would have to keep track of everything he/she uses in each of their products but in the end I don’t think this is a bad thing, on the contrary, I think it’s a very smart thing to do. It would be a little bit more work and organization as well for the store owners but if this means a little less illegally redistributed images in the products that are sold in their store it might be worth the effort? If a store were to start doing this, they could even use it to advertise their store, I’m sure buyers would appreciate that some actions are taken to fight this and to insure that the products the buyers pay for are indeed legal. As one who offers graphic resources, this store would certainly earn my respect for their real effort in this fight. I was told last week by all three store owners that it was hard to keep track of all the resources available on the net and know the tou etc because the internet is such a big place. Asking the vendors to provide a list of the resources used, especially when it’s obvious the designer is using resources and not drawing/painting/photographing all himself/herself, would probably help some?

I’ve also heard many store owners and very creative designers complain that the market was over-saturated… Fighting against illegal redistribution of images might help a little bit in this regard. There are many really creative designers out there, many who use graphic resources legally, but there are also way too many wannabe designers who take shortcuts and who grab images here and there without regards for copyrights and tou, throw those in a zip and call this a kit of their creation. Asking those designers to be accountable for the content they upload might help desaturate this market a little bit and give the designers who do things the right way the exposure that they deserve as it wouldn’t be so easy to just grab images from the web, in sharing groups, warez sites or other places, and illegally use those as resources for their kits, it wouldn’t be so easy to disregard tou and claim ignorance if/when caught.

Maybe by doing something like this, after a couple of years this market would be a little bit cleaner and hard working designers would earn more in the process for their labor.

This is just a suggestion, a thought to try and stir store owners and designers to think about ways they could take preventive actions instead of having to clean the mess after the fact, just asking that it be considered at least because I believe that if a little bit more prevention was done a lot less feelings would get hurt…