Sunday, March 11, 2007

Faultlines


Last night was the Karine Polwart concert in Balfron - or perhaps I should say Karine Polwart and the Get Reel Allstars as the first half was a mix of local musicians aged 6-60. It was great fun - nothing beats a small venue and it was intriguing to hear the story behind Karine's songs. She is a truly amazing singer-songwriter. The audience had a lot of children in it - we took our girls along - and instead of playing up and running around, they all listened rapt the smallest fell asleep on parents knees.
It is odd as many of the songs are sad and desperate - Zoe's favourite, Over the hill is about a woman driven to drink and drugs by her partner's behaviour! I assume that she responds to the harmonies rather than the lyrics.

Karine's best known song Daisy was very poignant this weekend. "Hey Daisy darling don't give them all you can, why don't you keep a few more cards in your hand. I know you'll only say a thing you believe to be true, but there are people in this world who don't think like you do"

On Friday a friend, whose opinion I respect, phoned me with concerns about this blog - she feels that I say too much too soon about the business and pointed out what she feels to be copy catting going on by another business. She gave me examples where my text has been lifted.

Heather has been having problems with this too Here (the post with the beautiful roses). She probably coped better than I did

I was furious on Friday, stomping round the house. To be honest I was ready to become an anodyne marketing blogger with photos of my "lovely" home and stagemanaged accounts of my days walking the dog and teaching the children to whittle arrows. I considered that it might be sensible to give up on it all together.

By this morning, after a good evening with friends and family I am more inclined to say (like Heather) that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, perhaps it is subliminal, perhaps the woman in question is cursed with a photographic memory. Perhaps she is distraught at having no ideas of her own.

I'm putting a copyright note on the blog!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plagiarism seems to be endemic in the blog community. It seems very naive to me because a typical blog reader will have a number of links that they read regularly and will also tend to read blogs with similar themes. This means that plagiarism will be spotted very quickly. The only consolation is that it is the opinion formers with interesting ideas (such as yourself!) that suffer - so you are in good company.
Don't waste your energy on worrying about also-rans - you have such exciting projects on the boil for 2007 that you need to use that energy for positive effect
And you are quite right about hellebores - I have told myself that every time I have bought another to add to my collection!
Alice

Anonymous said...

Hi
Well as someone who it has happened to quite a few times over the years then I think you just have to think YOU will always have new ideas as that is the sort of person you are others will not.
At the last trade fair I did someone took off my covers that I put on at the end of the day squashed all my products together and took photos of them. Unfortunately the security cameras did not quite catch who it was. But time will tell. The biggest pain was I had to re do my stand when I came in the next day. Tricia

weirdbunny said...

Well people might steal your text, which is very unfortunate, but at least you know it's unlikely that the'll ever be able to get a wonderful green van like yours to sell flowers out of. I love your van so much, especially as it's in my favourite shade of green.

Heather said...

Well its not funny, but this post did make me smile - you look so serene in that photo of yours and I imagined you stomping about in your wellies!!

It sucks, and I know I did a fair amount of stomping - and I swear like a paratrooper too so I wasn't a charmer to be around!

To steal ideas and text even, shows they have no creative base to draw from and that is your strengh so have heart.

To blog is to put yourself out there - the more widely read you are the more you will come across this sort of thing - also a good blog talks in real time so you have to take the rough with the smooth - so if you are talking about ideas - they will be picked up on.

And Alice is right when she says you need the energy to concentrate on your projects - ignore those that are following in your wake - its negative and its draining.

heather

Nonnie said...

Really sorry to hear about these problems. It is something I worry about a lot with my blog and the designs I create. I recently added a note in my sidebar about copying or using my images but I'm not sure whether it really means anything legally and I guess that if you write a blog you are putting yourself out there, which unfortunately can lead to copying by those with no original ideas or creativity of their own. What you are creating in terms of your business is very individual and special, and although someone obviously has copied some of what you have written, I don't see how they could ever truely match what you are doing.

Jane said...

Thanks all - I'm sort of over it today - too busy, busy, busy . . .

Heather, Euan would laugh at the idea of me being serene. Actually the photo is a bit of a con too, due to vanity.

It was taken 3 years ago for a magazine article, soon after which I was diagnosed with a steroid deficiency. I was massively overtreated with steroids and put on 3 stone in a scarily short period of time.

I managed to sort out my dosage in the Autumn, cutting it by 3/4, and sort of expected the weight to slide off in the way it came.

It seems that life doesn't work like that. So now I am putting a bit more effort into size reduction (as part of the statement that I am NOT ILL anymore) - until it has more of an effect I don't have my photo taken!
Vanity, vanity!

Tracy x said...

So sorry you have had to go through the awful feeling of having worked so hard to create only for some lazy sod to come along and steal your ideas and thoughts. I have been through the same feeling more times than i care to remember - it comes with owning a gift and interiors shop - all my wares on show in the window just waiting to be copied!!
I have spent many a day stomping around, screaming, crying.... it still hurts now when it happens but i refuse to waste any more of my energy on it!!
Do what i do - keep your head down, ignore what everyone else is doing and just enjoy your buisness.....because Snapdragon is unique, beautiful and YOURS!!!
Tracy x

Gigibird said...

You are a shepherdess. I am one too; the downside of this, being original in thought and dead is you will get people copying. The only thing I console myself is that whatever these people do will always be piss poor (excuse my French)
There is a lot of it about.