Follow @cateatsbananas

All content and images © Carolyn Croll 2011. All rights reserved.

All content and images are copyrighted material and may not be used in any manner without prior written
permission of Carolyn Croll. ©All rights reserved Carolyn Croll

March 28, 2012

Not What I Signed Up For

Sharing this cautionary tale for colleagues who autograph 
their books.
Recently discovered my signature on Google images
Yikes!!
Posted by a bookseller advertising a used book for sale.
Why they thought just mentioning the book was 
"signed by the author" was not sufficient, I have no idea. 
Having already had my artwork stolen online and used,
(see my October 12, 2011 post)
I shudder to imagine the creative uses a signature 
could be put to. Though the bookseller responded 
immediately to my insistence on the signature's removal, 
it took over 48 hours for Google to eliminate it. 
Having signed zillions of books beginning years before the 
internet came along, the cat is long out of the bag and left the 
building decades ago. 
I always sign books with a "book signing signature", 
not my official legal signature.... but criminals and credit 
issuers don't know that. Since its still a signature, who
can be sure of legal ramifications.
Rethinking signing books at all. 
Maybe initials only.

5 comments:

  1. Good for you for your insistence that the image be removed. I recently did a reverse search on one of my color pencil drawings and it appeared on an Arabic language blog. I copied the text into Google Translate and my image accompanied information on the fox in legends, etc. I was a little taken aback, but it's not being used for profit, so.....??

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for stopping by and reading and responding.
    The purpose for which art is STOLEN is not important unless you are working hard to have your work stolen and used free by whomever decides to steal it!!
    I'd contact the illegal users and insist on payment and to take it down off the net or you will make their criminal activity public!
    As I make my living as an Artist, anyone using my work is expected to hire me, sign a contract that states the particulars, including usage and payment BEFORE my work begins. Otherwise its a crime to use the art and I will let the world know!! Otherwise, Artists will not be able to earn a living and will disappear.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for letting us know about this, Carolyn. Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You're most welcome Anne.
    My Grandmother used to say,"Everthing happens to
    me and Dick Tracey!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ohh Carolyn! Thank you for letting us know!

    ReplyDelete