Last March, I wrote a post about cleaning up dog shit in my back yard. There was so much crap out there that I didn’t know where to start. I likened it to picking blueberries. Well, I really like to illustrate my posts, so I decided that I would include a picture of blueberries. So, I went picking blueberry pictures using Google Images. I perused dozens of photos and finally chose a beautiful picture of blueberries. I completed my post and it garnished three, count ‘em, three comments. All in all, a resounding success by OMeN standards.

Or so I thought.

I got an email today from Michele Stapleton. Michele is a very talented photographer from Maine who politely informed me that I had stolen her copyrighted photo:

Hey, do me a favor, will ya? Please take my very nice copyrighted blueberry
picture off your website.

It’s bad enough that you used my copyrighted photo without permission, but to
use it to illustrate a diatribe about doggy do-do??? That’s just not cool.

Please email and let me know as soon as you’ve removed the photo.

Funny thing is that I didn’t get the photo from her site. I found it somewhere else. (Those buggers stole her photo. I simply found it for her!) When I attempted to explain the fact that I didn’t realize I was taking her copyrighted photo, she set me straight. I’m paraphrasing here, but she said my explanation simply told her that I stole it from someone who stole it from her. Same difference; stealing from a thief is still theft.

Good point, Michele. You have shown me the error in my ways.

So, I went to Google, found another photo of blueberries, downloaded it, and posted it in place of the original.