I’m not even going to rant. What would be the point, since people are completely and totally incapable of understanding that a photo I capture with my very own camera belongs to me and not to them, and that to take it and use it — for any purpose, but most especially to make money — is wrong.

I don’t even think it’s that people are completely and totally incapable of comprehending this simple fact. I think it’s that they just don’t give a damn. Don’t care. Fuck me, right? I’m just the person who took the photos they found so awesome they had to use them, claim them as their own, and make money off of them. Who the hell am I to complain?

It also happens with the words too. I find things I have written scraped right off my site with no link back, no attribution to me or my web site, and nothing but disgusting money-making ads surrounding it. It’s as if because I don’t plaster crappy ads all over my web site, some people think it’s perfectly OK for them to profit off the things I have to say. Fuck me, right? I’m just the person spewing my brain-babble all over a web site every damn day without getting paid for it. Who am I to complain?

Well, this behavior doesn’t inspire me to keep creating, keep sharing, or keep spewing my brains all over a web site every damn day. It inspires me to yank down my entire web site, move over to Livejournal, make my journal Friends Only, and flip off anyone who wants permission to read it unless I have an establish relationship with them. I won’t, of course, because it is never wise to do anything in a fit of anger, but I will say the thought is seriously crossing my mind tonight. I am very close to reaching my limits of tolerance for the form of humanity that exists on the internet who believes anything they find thereon is fair game for their own personal usage and profit.

With that said …

Happy Anniversary to Just Orb! Seven years as a domain, twelve years as a regularly updated internet existence. Mostly it’s been a happy and fulfilling experience. It’s a shame I had to be reminded on anniversary night of the ongoing issue of copyright infringement on the internet. I’m going to go have a cocktail and talk myself out of the crappy mood I am now enjoying, before I start hating all people and do something rash with my web site. It’s time to enjoy that last glass of absinthe I have been saving for a special occasion. Probably won’t calm me down, but it will make me too lazy to do anything other than sit on the couch and stew quietly.

Some people really, really suck.

I have frittered approximately 27% of my life away doing what I do online, and right this minute, I am trying my best to remind myself it’s been worth it. That isn’t actually an easy argument to make. Sometimes, it is far more grief than it is worth.