Holy mother of plagiarism

April 18, 2012 | 9 Comments »

ETA: The photo has been taken down as of Wednesday morning. For future references, if you’re going to use someone’s photo you should ALWAYS link back. Give credit where credit is due. But that just goes without say. Do the right thing, people!

holy_mother_of_plagiarism

So this isn’t REALLY a food post, but it is something that I just had to get off my chest.

Remember my last post where I went on about how awesome Native Foods Cafe was? Well, I thought the food was so good that I decided to check out their blog in search of some good recipes to try. I’m clicking through the pages when I come across this one. I’m staring at the last photo pretty hard because I can’t get over how familiar it looks. I recognized that bowl. Of course I did. That’s because it’s my mother-in-law’s bowl with MY spaghetti squash dish inside of it. Here is the original photo which I uploaded back in 2009 for Vegan Mofo (I believe).

Now I don’t know. Maybe some of you are thinking ‘What’s the big deal? It’s JUST a photo.’ Don’t get me wrong. A small part of me is extremely flattered that someone thought MY photo was cool enough to use in their blog post. But then I started to get angry. There’s no link back. No mention of it being MY photo. It’s clear someone just right clicked and uploaded the photo to be used in their blog post without my permission. That’s just not cool. Now I sent an email using the ONLY contact that was available on the site. I haven’t heard back yet. And commenting is conveniently turned off for all blog entries. I’m really hoping to get this resolved because I’d be really bummed out if these guys just acted as if nothing happened. I take time out of my busy day to put together my blog entries complete with my OWN photos. They might not be the best entries, recipes, photos, etc. But they’re MINE and I work really hard at what I do. A link back or simply just asking before taking isn’t asking for much at all. Quite frankly I’m shocked and rather turned off. It’s unprofessional.

I’d also like to point out that there isn’t an ounce of cilantro in that dish. It’s clearly parsley.

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9 Comments »

Reply to this comment Kimm     April 18, 2012

Wow! What they are doing is so childish it’s uncalled for.. I really hope that they email you back and either add a link back or take down your picture.


Reply to this comment Love     April 18, 2012

I checked some of their other blog posts and saw that below some photos it says “Native Foods Cafe uses this picture courtesy of…”. Then why can’t they link back to your blog the same way? Weird!


Reply to this comment Sarah @ OneStarryNight     April 18, 2012

I’d be furious. Keep contacting them. Do they have a FB page? Mention it there. Twitter? Same thing. I RT’d your post. Ugh, ridiculous!!


Reply to this comment Echo S.     April 19, 2012

You should post their reply here ; ) I love how they say they try to find the source but then just go on and use the image anyway if they can’t. Just linking back to the place they found it is something, you know? Heh.


Reply to this comment Lisa Marie     April 19, 2012

Thanks so much for the support, guys! It means a lot to me! The photo has been taken down.

@Echo S.: Echo, I was thinking about it, but I really don’t want to give them anymore attention on my blog. It’s done and over with now. But obviously there was NO source to link back to. Because these things just fall from the sky.

Do you know what the REALLY funny thing in all of this is? Do you see my screen cap? Notice the Amazon tab that’s up? I WAS planning on purchasing their cookbook until I ran across my photo on their blog without a credit link. The tab remained up for a few days. When my email went unanswered I was rather turned off and ended up closing the tab. The whole thing just rubs me the wrong way.


Reply to this comment Kiersten @ Oh My Veggies     April 20, 2012

I’m sorry this happened to you. People seem to think that the work food bloggers do is fair game & our photos and recipes are theirs for the taking. But this is even worse because a) they’re misrepresenting the photo and b) they didn’t even credit you. It makes you wonder where the rest of their photos are coming from!


Reply to this comment Lisa Marie     April 21, 2012

@Kiersten @ Oh My Veggies: You’re right. People do tend to think it’s fair game. But it’s SO not. I’ve eaten MANY cold meals just so that I could get a decent photo to share with everyone. One of the many sacrifices I make for my blog. :)

I’ve actually wondered about the other photos too…


Reply to this comment Kim of Mo'Betta     April 21, 2012

Unfortunately, I have heard many bloggers say the same things (not abt that site, but others). Apparently it happens frequently. It’s ridiculous, b/c it only takes a few seconds to link back to someone. And the last line cracked me up…geez, if they are going to plagiarize they could at least get the ingredients right ;)


Reply to this comment Lisa Marie     April 24, 2012

@Kim of Mo’Betta: It really does only take a few seconds to link back. It’s a shame not many people actually do it though.

Lol :)


 

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