My title may make it appear like I’m gloating about this outcome or rubbing their noses in it. Far from it. But I want to strongly make the point that our actions have consequences.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/american-crow-2192-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-crow-2192-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
This crow isn’t eating crow, it’s only eating something<\/em>. But I had to come up with a photo of some kind and I figured readers were tired of seeing my pilfered magpie image…<\/p>\n Late yesterday afternoon I finally heard from Susan Eirich, Executive Director of Earthfire Institute, the organization that stole my magpie image, used it on their website and attributed it to another photographer despite my copyright watermark being on the photo<\/a>. She sent me two emails within an hour while I was napping.<\/p>\n Short of copying and pasting her emails into this blog post I’ll try to accurately paraphrase her primary points while quoting her at times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Susan obviously understands Harry Truman’s “The buck stops here” principle and that’s refreshing. I appreciate that she took responsibility for what a previous staff member had apparently done.<\/p>\n My only disappointment is that it took as long as it did for them to contact me. Earthfire Institute obviously knew about their culpability at least as early as Monday morning when they deleted my image more than 24 hours after I published my first blog post on the infringement. But they didn’t contact me until nearly a day and a half later after I’d published my second blog post on the subject.<\/p>\n And that makes me somewhat suspicious about the motivation for the apology. Was it because they sincerely regret their lapse in judgment and ethics or because their only concern was trying to repair their public image after I’d published two blog posts on the subject and many of my readers publicly expressed dismay and disappointment that I hadn’t at least received an apology, especially from a non-profit organization like Earthfire Institute that on the surface at least has admirable and honorable goals.<\/p>\n At this point I’m prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. Susan’s apologies seemed heartfelt and sincere and after all, who among us doesn’t make mistakes. And at least on some level I can’t blame them for wanting to repair their reputation.<\/p>\n Readers can now breathe a sigh of relief – barring unforeseen developments this will be my last blog post on the subject. I’m getting tired of it and I’ll bet everyone else is too. But quite a few readers asked me to keep you updated and I promised I would.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notes: <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The final update on my stolen magpie image. My title may make it appear like I’m gloating about this outcome or rubbing their noses in it. Far from it. But I want to strongly make the point that our actions have consequences.<\/p>\n\n
\n