Friday 26 December 2014

Stealing other people's music - or pictures - is not cool

One of the (very small number of)  interesting-minded conservative-Catholic bloggers that I sometimes read recently got pinged for image copyright violations.

Not so seemly that she then posted complaining about the complainers, rather than just quietly cleaning up her act.


So there are people that troll the internet .. scouring through blogs and wesites looking for image copyright violations.   These people have apparently set their sights on Patheos ... this holiday I have the joyous task of removing all the images from every post I've ever written


The post is now gone from the website, so I'm guessing that the commenters gave a fairly sharp reminder about the commandments in general and Thou Shalt Not Steal in particular.   Unfortunately RSS feed-readers mean that many people will see it anyway.    A good reminder to always, always think before you post.

Copyright law is hard.   It's difficult for musicians and liturgists.    Most of us break the law at least sometimes, usually for "good" purposes that don't benefit us personally.   I have a lot of sympathy for the struggle.   I believe in being honest, but even so I take liberties sometimes.

But systematically stealing other people's images to use on your own posts is Just Not On.  The worker is worthy of their wages, and all that.




Saturday 13 December 2014

All musical instruments have a place in church

A fact worth remembering:
Psalm 150 mentions all 4 classes of musical instruments - strings, woodwind, brass & percussion. There is no Biblical justification for banning anything that's used to the glory of God.