ORIGINAL THOUGHTS? ANYONE?

I’m beginning to feel more than a little frustrated really at reading some of the pagan groups as of late.    They all seem to be of one coven:    Copy/Pasters of the Unimaginative, Uninformed Fae of the Great Beyond. Yeah, can smell all that glitter from here.

In truth, it’s frustrating, both to the authors themselves and to others who want accurate information.   The lines are blurred as to what will and will not go when it comes to posting, even though there are documents detailing such..many aren’t aware or get confused as to what they should do.   So my thought is that its better to err on the side of caution and assume everything is protected, and source it back with links.  Much less headache that way.  But people being people, are invariably lazy  or need that ego boost of “look what I found/know” and copy everything they can put their little mouse on.  Sometimes they even have the audacity to post it as their own works.  And yet, if you were to ask if they would consider stealing in the mundane, you would get a resounding “NO”! The problem is that for many, they do not feel as if they are stealing, because “hey if it’s on the net, it must be free right?” I know that in a secular world, people sit up right quick when their works are compromised by theft, but in the pagan realm it seems like that people think that if it’s out there, then share away.  I’m not sure why they feel so, other than the thinking that we are mostly outside the box from the start so no need to stick to what is the norm for most people.  I don’t know if it’s because I’ve suddenly taken a good look at what is going on, talking with those who write and are working to change this , or that it’s taking off on a life on its own.  It just seems like something new every day.  Some new site, group, page, whatever,that is just full of unsourced material.  It makes my head hurt to think about it really.  I cannot even begin to think about how those who write for a living must feel when they see their work splashed all over without even a credit given.

I don’t even have any answers for this mess either.  The logical one would be to read up on copyright laws and keep informed as to what one can share legally, or just give a summation and link back to the author.  As for those who still belong to the coven of copy/paste…a word of advice….STOP!  It doesn’t make you look smarter, give you any street cred should your deceit be found out(and it will because unlike some school of thought, the pagan world isn’t as large as it once was)…and it can cause you great legal issues should you not do the right thing.

DEUCES