Plaigarism = Bad

Poor, beleaguered Immaculate Conception needs all the help it can get, so I was pleased to stumble across an alumni Web site, The Friends of Immaculate Conception. It's a robust little site with events, a photo album and even a discussion board. Neat!

The photo album was naturally of some interest to me, and I was initially pleased to see that, in addition to some images of Immaculate itself, they also have an album for other churches in the area.

So far, so good. But then I discovered that the latter album, unfortunately, has stolen three images from me. Namely, my diagonal shots of St. Athanasius, St. Francis of Assisi (the old washed-out one, not the current one) and the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal. No permissions asked, no credit given.

The Project will deal with the Friends of the Immaculate Conception in its own way. The rest of you, please pay attention. I've said it before, but apparently it bears repeating. DO NOT STEAL FROM THE PROJECT. We have gone to great expense, in both time and money, to provide the content here. The only thing we have ever asked in return is for you, the readers, to respect that intellectual property.

I'm sure that there's no real insult intended here. But bear in mind that when you take our images and / or text, and publish them elsewhere on the Web without asking and without crediting us, you are committing theft, plain and simple. And as church-going people, I'm pretty sure you all want to avoid that.

The Project is reasonable, and will gladly discuss any requests. Our mission requires that we "get the word out," after all. We recently approved the use of the Athanasius photo for their alumni Web site. They, however, went about it the right way, and contacted us before using the picture.

Ask, and ye shall receive. Otherwise, the Project will track you down, and neither of us wants that.