If you didn't create it, it's not yours to take (at least not without asking permission)

I was led to this site by a tweet from UT Libraries.

 utlibraries UT Libraries

Great photo of the Architecture Library RT @hellosole: Photo: Paper-writing on campus today in the Architecture Library http://ow.ly/48XIa

The blog belongs to a University of Texas student named Kayla Moses.  There was a great photo of the architecture library at University of Texas on her blog. Kayla took the photo and owns it.  This is her property.  By posting it she does not relinquish ownership.   If I want to use that photo on my blog, I need to ask permission from Kayla. 

Photo used with permission of Kayla Moses.  

Photo of Architecture Library at the University of Texas at Austin.

Kayla posted the following on her blog about rights and requesting permission of artists and authors (see end of this post).  This really caught my attention because I know many college students don't seem to notice or care about copyright and intellectual property.   So, before you take something you didn't create, please take a minute to send an email, tweet, or IM to the owner and request their permission before you use it.

I sent an email to Kayla and she very nicely granted me permission to use her photo and to use the information I posted below that came from her blog.  She told me she hopes it will make students more aware of the need to ask first.

For any NMCC students reading this please share your thoughts.  Do you respect the rights of authors or do you think anything on the internet is free?  If you created something and put it online and saw it reposted without your permission, how would you feel?

Hey, also: Don't be a naughty thief.

Don’t steal, kiddies.

I’m serious. There are things in life that are just abhorrent. Stealing someone’s writing, images, or anything - even if it is just from some nonsensical bloggy business - does not constitute it as any less miserable.
Don’t do it. Ask nicely. You’ll find that most people will smile, perhaps offer you coffee, and be quite pleasant.

Sole. by Kayla Moses is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.