Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 18:02:10 -0500
To: balloondeco@balloonhq.com
From: Sandy Gray <balloons@csrlink.net>
Subject: Any Suggestions?

Hello To All,
   I have recently come across my First real negative of having my web
site! I went to join a chat room and low & behold above the welcome
paragraph was MY Duck photo from my web site. The co-originator was very
co-operative and understanding and promptly removed THAT photo. However on
down the welcome page is a link to the "originators" Personal Web Page:
http://www.angelfire.com/az2/balloonsareawesome/   So I clicked to
familiarize myself with the person, and found ALL of the photos on the page
are also MINE! I thought of how great in sharing & helping that MOST of our
fellow ballooneys are, so I chose to write a nice email requesting that ALL
of them be removed as they were mine and no one has ever asked for or was
given permission to use them in this manner. Well to my surprise, the
person flat out refused to remove it!! They did offer to give me a mention
in the club chat and acknowledge my pics but people seemed to like
them,(the photos) so they were staying. I do have the notice "All Rights
Reserved" on my site. Have any of you encountered this, if so, what do you
suggest? I am not a vengeful person, but I think this is "Over The Line" to
use as one's own personal page and lead others to believe it to be work of
their own. 
    Please forgive me if I am breaking any of the posting rules, I just
thought I would see what other balloon folks think of this incident. Maybe
I am just too protective of the hard work and training I did to get this
far, that I simply resent someone else acting like it's no big deal!!
    I freely share most anything I know about balloons. I have allowed
others to use my photos for IDEA books etc. with proper credit given to me.
I also had the turkey and champagne glass published in "Balloons & Parties
Magazine."  But I feel I want them to be viewed from MY web site on the
internet, not another's home page.
     Thanks to you all for listening and please post any replies to the
list so all may share your experiences and suggestions. I am sure it will
happen to someone else soon enough.
   
Sandy Gray
Balloons & Parties Plus!
Montgomery, PA  (Central PA)
Screen Name On AOL-Inst.Mess.- BPPLUS
Check Out our Web Site!
http://www.bpplus.net