Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Inflamed and Untamed (REPOST)

What you are reading below was not written by me; but it spoke so much to me that I had to repost it. It is not often that I read something where I agree with and approve of the content 100%. That is saying something considering how opinionated I am. As I don't think I can improve on what was said, I have copied the post below (with Sara's permission) in it's entirety. 

A WORD TO EVERYONE TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE IBD COMMUNITY.

I put my heart and soul into this blog. Into every sentence I write, into everything I do…
About once a week I wake up to find someone has stolen something of mine whether it be an idea or copied a project or word for word copied and pasted my blog onto their own and are therefore using it as their own original work when it is not. 
Today I woke up to find someones twitter who word for word took my description of myself and used it has his. When I investigated further I found that he also took most of my biography on my  about me  page and used it as his own.  It was a biography that I sat down and took time to write thinking about who I am as a person and what I do and he just copied it and used it as his own. 
This is frustrating beyond words and I’m not sure if people like this really know how much it hurts to have things you work so hard on stolen.  The internet makes it so easy for people to steal the words right out of your mouth in a way. 
Since I have started this blog I have found people selling Inflamed & Untamed wristbands, I have found a blog who copied and pasted an entire post I wrote and used it as his own, I have found what I mentioned above, I have watched videos I worked really hard at making being copied a week later, and so on.  
While I LOVE that there is so much activism out there right now it hurts a lot to put your heart and soul into something and watch someone else take that from you. I put so much effort into this blog and into all my other projects and I do it with originality, creativity, and most importantly love for you guys and what I do.  Where has originality gone these days? Come up with your own ideas and projects and definitely do not plagiarize someone else’s words. You have to be original! You have to be YOU!  Why are you trying to be me or anyone else besides you? Every blog that I have written, every video that I have done, has been something that I have thought up on my own based on my own experiences and what I want to say to the world. I would never dream of copy/pasting someone elses words and using them as my own because they simply are not. 
So if you have a blog, if you have a website, a facebook page, a twitter, etc. please put your own heart and soul into your work and not my own. If it’s fame you’re looking for then you are not in this for the right reasons anyway. And if you for some reason have the misconception that you should copy me because what I am doing works, it works because I am being myself and I am being an original. So have a voice because that’s awesome, and if you want to be an activist then do it. But do it your own way and not by copying someone else.  
I’m just really saddened today and not sure how much more I can handle people stealing my work. I take pictures to document these things and I tell the people that I hope that they will take it down or stop doing it. After that I don’t know what I can do…post the pictures I guess and expose the people doing this. Sorry you guys, this just happens to upset me a lot to find my words being used on other peoples things. 
xo 

The original posting by Sara can be found here.

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