Stop Stealing For Likes

Day 30 of 31

STOP STEALING PEOPLE’S SHIT.

I am so over people stealing “sharing” the works of others without crediting the source. Instagram is loaded with stolen photos, long Facebook statuses are usually ripped off from articles online, and people are even stealing tweets. Stop it.

This month I saw a girl tweet a whole thread of someone else’s published article. Only after she got her retweets and likes did she mention the actual author of the story. Of course she left that part out of her thread, so anyone who read the stolen tweeted article would never see the credit.

I’ve been plagiarized before and it sucks. I was even plagiarized by a coworker when I used to write for another publication. (Oh don’t worry, I go hard when it comes to my work and best believe I got things right together. I don’t play that.)  I’m currently dealing with people stealing my photos on Instagram.

I don’t get why people do this. I mean:

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Number 2: You will get caught. As easy as it is to steal shit online, it’s even easier to check that ass with receipts. Girl, if any major media outlet ever credited you for stolen work, I guarantee there will be a flood of truth to debunk your bullshit. Screenshots, timestamps, and, OH MY GOSH GUYS, actual editors/publications/producers/creators (or even research!) will shut you down every single time.

Number 3: You won’t get opportunities from stolen work. Ok, so you stole a photographer’s image and now you’re getting gigs to recreate the same photo. What you gon do? You stole a model’s photo and now you’re getting requests to promote a fashion line. Who’s gonna show up on set, boo? You stole an author’s story and now you have an opportunity to publish. Who will we read now, girl? How you gon deliver these stolen goods on a regular basis?

It takes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to credit original sources. I promise you, you’ll still get your likes, your reblogs, and retweets. Twitter even makes it so you can add your own two cents to retweets. Girl, if it’s that important, add a little emoji face to your retweet. I’m sure your followers will still give you the attention you crave.

And for those Instagram pages that promote positive messages of beauty, black culture, body positivity, or whatever: it’s great that you illustrate your mission and message with content pulled from everywhere, but please credit the photos, photographers, writers, and models. Google is so bomb. And guess what, it’s available to anyone who has access to copy and paste stolen work.

Sometimes we see beautiful things and read beautiful stories and there’s no source available mainly because there’s no credit information in the place we found it. Clearly whoever shared it first knew where it was from. So if everyone shared with integrity, we’d never have to deal with (allegedly) “unknown” creators. I find it hilarious how anyone can copy an entire article word for word, yet somehow find the author’s name elusive.

People put a lot of time and energy into their work and while you’re worried about getting likes, these folks you are stealing from are more concerned with their career. When you don’t credit creators, you are robbing them and your followers a chance to know each other. You are stifling the artist’s network. It takes nothing away from your page to properly credit the source.

I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about A LOT of shit, especially my own. Stop stealing.

 
Check back tomorrow for the final #BlogEverydayInMay post! What a quick month it has been! Love you all.