Flattered? Or Irritated?
I have been debating for quite some time whether or not I even wanted to share this information. I think now its been going on long enough I am curious to what you guys think? There is another photographer who we are going to call photographer "X". Photographer "X" has been copying not only my designs (which I suppose I should be flattered by?) but has been pretty much plagiarizing my words that I post in my blog. I know we all look to each other for ideas and such and are always looking for how to improve. I also do some teaching to photographers so I am flattered that someone would copy the designs that I have done. However in the same breathe even when I find ideas that I like I still try to make them my own. I change how it looks to make it fit my business and my style. Photographer "X" took my Christmas card which I worked VERY hard on and just swapped out the photos for theirs. They made a couple really minor changes but all in all it was my design. I think I will take flattered on that one? I think I might just make it easier on them this year and send them the card in the mail :)
But when blog posts match that is crossing the line in my opionion. "X" copy/pasted specials that I had come up with. I have been semi watching "X" for about 6 months now...All the while hoping they would find their own voice and stop copying. Does not seem to have worked. The most recent one was a wedding copy that I posted in my blog was taken and used for their wedding copy on their blog. Awesome. Makes NO sense to me. The idea of writing a little something with my posts is my way of sharing a little about me as well as my clients. I do my best to get to know my clients so that I am able to share somthing about them or our time together. Why on earth would you copy/paste someone's post and use it for yours? How long does it take to write something about your client? If you spent an entire day with them it should be fairly easy to write one or two sentences right? And if your creative writing skills are not very good then just say Photos from So and So's wedding and call it good. At least it would be true.
I know many of you are photographers who read my blog (as well as friends and clients). I also know many of you have had some experience in plagiarizing. One fellow photographer actually had someone copying text off their website that he found. They even forgot to remove his name from the copy...nice huh? I haven't done anything about this other than this post which I figure they will read (heck I might even see this posted on their blog...ha ha. I hope I am kidding).
But curious...What do you think I should do? Should I be irritated or flattered?