Controlling The Uncontrollable Internet

I'm going to stop posting Katt's name up in here as he might want some royalties and whatnot. (laughs) Anyhow, did you know that I originally wanted to put a site up for Prince, yes, Mr. Prince Rogers Nelson? I started this "how do I get a site online too" back in '95. Well around this time or thereof, Mr. Nelson was suing Warner Bros. for any and everything relating to his career and catalog with them. It was a long and torrid battle that even led to "prince" abandoning his birth name. Yep, he wore a symbol on his face until the lawsuit(s) were finally settled. The battle not only stayed within the confines of WB but it raged across the net as well. He literally had his people seek and destroy each fan site using everything with his image, his music and any other likeness related to him. Oh it was a royal online war that led offline as well. People who collected posted photos of them burning their collections costing goodness knows how much money. Tattoos were removed and the support was never the same again.

Of course the die hards, like myself, kept all their measly collections and moved onwards. So instead of Prince, Michael DeLorenzo was the chosen one. Now where is this leading you ask? Well for those of you whether you are a professional with very expensive lawyers or not, know this... once it's on the net... you can't take it back. In the US, they show a commercial of a girl posting her photo on a possible school bulletin board. Time goes by and all these people view it, take it down for??, it gets put back up again, removed again and so on. She even tries several attempts to take it down. And then... they show this janitor looking at the pic and then looking around quite strangely. A possible pedophile?? Who knows but isn't it a bit creepy no matter? I know it is for me and I am very careful about a lot of stuff on this HUGE online world with NO END that we know of, OK? So, my point is that I do try to tell every person I meet online and off as well to be very careful of everything you do and say on here. I'm not trying to scare you but you need to take care of you ONLINE just as well if not better as you do OFFLINE. If you have a fabulous lawyer, yes, you can sue. But guess what doll, again, once it's online it's not that easy to take it back.

I had the pleasure of being told on several forums that people knew I was logged on and when I edited a post for whatever reason, they had the unedited post in their head if not in their copy and paste field. I was like WTH? Yes, they saw me as I was typing and as I was editing. I was totally put off by that because I am not that deep with this online crap. Am I paranoid? Wrong choice of word. I take great concern for the very right to post in this net just like every other individual has that right. I just try to keep everyone aware that these things DO happen on the net every mili-second of each hour much less day. So for all you MySpace, Facebook, instant message users and blogs/boards/forums/group/etc. - please take responsibility in the information you post in any of these sources when it pertains to you and especially copy-protected material. Just because you build an online tribute to your favorite whatever does not mean you own it. This does not include material YOU own and can provide copyrights for. Websites are riped down daily and claimed owners never understand the whole copyright issue at all.

i.e. - you drew some art and oh say Eric Clapton's face is featured in it. If the face is something YOU drew and you can prove it, you have a leg to stand on. If you use ANY material from ANY source other your own hands creating it, be careful in how you are using it.

i.e. - music/tv/film/printed matter not owned and created by YOU.

I'm sure you get my point. And as for your own photos and/or videos that YOU and/or loved ones are in, beware... you never know who's lurking. Protect you because you might save your own life. Don't be scared, just be aware!!

BTW - Mr. Nelson is on a warpath again with online fan sites and it doesn't read too pretty.