ACOT Message Board

 I just got an email from a friend asking the MOST ridiculous question about my digital scrapbooking (for her relative).

For Christmas this friend and I made our families a little 4x6 ABC books.  She was emailing  for her SIL to ask if she could copy them and SELL them to her friends!!!!  I was totally taken off guard.  First of all, it was offensive that we madea these for gifts and then her SIL would turn around and try to profit from them, why wouldn't she send her friends directly to us if they wanted books.....(We are talking IF this was legal.) That is just on the basic moral level. 

I had to go on and explain how these digital elements that we used to create the book are NOT ours and they are still "owned" by the designers who created them. We cannot sell them and she SHOULD NOT especially be allowed to sell them because she never purchased them in the first place.  We would have to buy a commercial license from every designer for every element/kit that we used. 

I emailed her this link http://jenjen.typepad.com/stoppiracy/  to pass on.  Hoping her SIL just wouldn't just go out and do it any ways against our wishes and more importantly LEGAL terms. 

I am not sure why, but I got my panties all in a wad over this and feel like it started out my day all wrong!

 I don't blame you, Janell!  To try and profit from a gift seems so tacky!  Not to mention, legally and ethically wrong.  Hopefully, she will get the message!

 I don't blame you for being angry at all! You're on a creative team - you don't want designers to think *you're* the one pirating their work.  And I agree on a moral level it's just offensive, and additonally, illegal.

Go read the LOL Doggie thread, it's hysterical and maybe you'll feel better after!

 Wow, yeah, that's definitely not kosher or cool!  Hey at least the silver lining is that she loved the gift....? 

 WOW!  She has STONES!

 Arggg, i'd be irate! I get sooo angry when people steal images let alone try to sell someone else stuff as their own! arg! Sorry your friend wasnt very bright.

I would be angry, too! That is just wrong on so many levels.

 wow, what a friend!  man, she has brass ones!

 Wow!  I would be upset too!

Weird woman. Guess she won't be getting any more digi gifts from you.

 What the bleep??  Is she that desparate for money??  At the very least she should of offered you a cut of the money she made since it was your work!! 

That's craziness on so many levels! I would never "buy" my friends pictures/scrapbooks anyways, I can't imagine wanting/needing them that badly.

 Wow. You need to get better friends. I'll be one!

 What Diana said.

How rude to ask such a thing! My first response would have wanted to be "Are you F*ing kiding?!" but of course I would have restrained...I think.

I hope instead she realizes what she asked and does the right thing by sending them to you if they'd like one of those books.

 that is strange that she would even THINK about copying and selling something she received as a gift. If she liked it so much, you're right, she should have given out your name OR figured out how to make the things herself. not copies *ugg* some people just don't understand

Uhh...  You need to ditch that "friend."

Yeah, you don't need stinky friends like that! We're way cooler anyhow!

 Thanks guys, I have calmed down about it and writing a long email to her helped, that and looking at the Dogsnesday thread.   Those made me laugh! 

Yeah, I am reconsidering this friendship and have been for sometime.....maybe it's time to phase her out!

Hon, has she done stuff like that before?  If not, I'd wait to see what she says.  She might have been TOTALLY clueless...  Although that's hard for me to believe.  But if she has behaved like that in the past, you really need to ditch her.  You're way too good for that.

I guess she didn't have her brain turned on that day?!  YIKES.

Anyway, if anyone ever runs into this problem again, you can always give an analogy to the music or movie industry.  If you give a DVD to a friend as a gift, they cannot legally make copies of the DVD and sell it.  Most people can wrap their brain around that logic pretty easily.