A few photos

Available here [flickr.com] and here [picasaweb.google.com].

Today, I met byGin

Today, I met Craig, originally uploaded by byGin.

My first ever blog post. Not good... Anyway.

I like to favorite pictures (like the one above [thumbnail no longer available], by the user "byGin") on flickr, usually to imply the photographer that I really liked their work, and also to be able to go back from time to time and review them. Seeing pictures you like from time to time is like training your eye :)

But sometimes, I come across interesting (!) people, who have a lot of money that was not spent on education/manners... One was "byGin", who accused me of theft, copyright violation, and then threatened me because I favorited her work. Go figure.

We live in very sad times where (among other problems) people feel free to threaten others because of their obsession with copyright, protection, restriction, and prosecution... The systematic abuse of the commons and the continuous rape of the free culture by corporate entities isn't helping us either.

For anyone who is interested in our contemporary obsession with "the Copyright", and the destruction of the free society, you might want to check this excellent presentation [lessig.org] by Lawrance Lessig.

Lessig makes a very interesting argument regarding the abuse of copyright...

For those who might be curious, the following is the accusations and the threat that byGin sent to me via FlickrMail...

It's a pleasure to see my pictures favorited and I thank you. However, here is my warning. You only have two photos of your own posted in the last three months, so you're not here to show your pictures. You have also no profile, no ID, no contacts.
You also collect photos by searching tags, which is what people who are copying our photos to print, publish or use do. I have had several sites like this closed and it only take a few minutes to have it done.

Please let me know what your intention is, why you add favorites by group, and what you do with the photos you collect. If you are a photographer, please add information on your profile, some photos of your own, and an ID photo would be a plus.

If I don't hear from you in the next few minutes, your site will be reported as possible threat to copyright violation.

Plese action on this.

byGin

And here is some advice to those who find themselves in byGin's position: don't threaten people... You'll get nothing but bad PR. It's a better approach to "assume good faith" [Wikipedia] from the beginning.

Note: I do not have a site.

Update - 04/14/2007 Today I noticed that byGin deleted my comments to her photo above (thumbnail is no longer available, even though it was fair use [avivadirectory.com]), where I exposed her rudeness. The deletion of my comments was expectable. But I honestly do not want other flickr community members to be harassed like this. And I do not want people to harass others either. So I left a few comments here [flickr.com] (a group where people talk about stolen photos) and there [flickr.com] (flickr's help forum) to suggest a different approach to 'suspicions'...