The internet is a big sandbox, and when I play in it I tend to share other kids toys without asking. Technically, I hate when people use our photos without permission, but we almost always say ‘yes’ when we are asked. (And we are asked a lot.) The number one reason I’m possessive is just that I think anyone could get wonderful photos of their own if they just worked on coexisting with beaver in their own neighborhoods. They wouldn’t need to steal OUR photos if they just learned how to stop killing beavers.
But when I do something criminal to copyright law myself, (and I do it a lot) I prefer to think of it as “Quilting“. Putting existing fabric together in new artful ways to create a finished piece that is warmly useful and belongs to the quilter. I say this in preference to the product of my greatest copyright-violating-quilt yet. Yes, these are images I hunted for and stole out of the ‘sandbox’. Yes, the quote is from the recent BBC earth article and not original. I didn’t make the font either. But isn’t it beautiful?
