I found out last weekend that somebody had stolen a bunch of Carrie’s pictures, put them up on a web page, and was claiming that she was Carrie’s mom. (Well, she renamed the child and gave her a different birthday, but that’s about it.) It’s been a week of tracking down all the places (discussion boards and such) that these pictures were being used, writing to the site administrators, and trying to get everything removed. Some things still aren’t resolved yet, but we’re working on it. I’m still not sure it’s a good idea to blog about this, but I need some help.
I’ve been trying to decide what to do. I’ve lost a whole week of blogging about all the little important things Carrie’s doing. I’m worried about posting more of her pictures, and angry that I have to worry about it at all. I’ve thought about password protecting my blog, or the parts that pertain to Carrie, but I don’t know that I want to do that. Let’s face it – some small part of me is worried that nobody would request the password! But then I wonder why I’m doing this at all – is it for the network of virtual friends I’ve made over the years, or for Carrie’s grandparents, or just for myself? A lawyer friend of the family advised me to “go dark”. Take down the site. End what is just four days shy of a 5-year-old journal. I don’t think I can do that.
If you were in my situation, what would you do?
That’s quite a tough situation. What a weirdo. Carrie is gorgeous but why would you pretend she was your child when she’s not?!
I think I would put the PHOTOS of carrie on a pasword protected photo site that you have to sign in for, like ophoto.com or something like that. Then you can write a journal entry and just link the photo page to the entry.
I really enjoy reading this blog, even if mostly I don’t comment. It would be sad if you took it down.
That is such a weird (and sad) thing to do? I wonder what makes a person do things like that? I think that Rosie has hit the nail on the head – photos of your daughter in an “invites only” album, and maybe just crafty, or anonymous (like the one of the matching socks- so cute!) on this site!
But the safety of your family should come first–if you end up needing to ‘go dark’ you gotta do what you gotta do.
Hi, Sarah.
Something similar happened to me last year, where a guy stole all of my photos, writings, etc from my site and put up a “tribute” site to me. The tribute was very mean-spirited and made comments about my hair, appearance, weight, self-centeredness, etc. It’s a damn scary thing to do. I ended it by emailling the guy and told him he was creeping me out. Kind of an after-school special ending, but it’s worked so far.
With a kid it’s scarier by 1000% I’m sure.
Of course the lawyer will tell you to shut down your blog – they don’t understand. Take the pictures of your gorgeous Carrie and put them on ofoto or a password-protected flickr site. Go back in your blog history and change her birthday by a day or two.
If you do go dark or password protected, I understand completely. The selfish part of me doesn’t want that to happen.
What a frightening thing. I know I love seeing my Grandchildren on my daughter’s blogs but I think the suggestion on the password photo is a good one. That way you can give the password to family and close friends and protect a precious little girl.
Changing the history sounds like a good idea too.
Just creepy. What is wrong with some people? They just have to ruin things for the “good” people.
I hope you don’t have to go dark. I really enjou your blog.
Just wanted to say that I’m sorry that somebody stole your daughters pictures. Thats so sick. My thought on a solution would be to 1.) watermark your pics or 2.) Make pics an invite only thing.
*BTW, I got here because I belong to one of the message boards that the stolen pictures were used on. Again, I’m very sorry about the situation.
I feel badly for you. I can not imagine having that happen. I would most likely not post any pictures of my children at all…I would make them password protected for family only. I would not write about the events we see or places we go to until after the event has happened. The letters you write about Carrie are so sweet..I know I would miss reading them…but when something like this happens I would not feel comfortable in posting them anymore. I sure hope you keep posting your crafty stuff! Your projects are so beautiful. ~Dawn
I talked to my husband about the situation- he had some ideas, but I didn’t understand all the commputer/code lingo (but you might!). If you’d like to know more I can have him email you directly. I, too, enjoy your blog and want to keep reading- especially after we move.
I believe that your photos are copyright protected and if you really wanted to, you could at least send a cease and desist letter to this wacko. I would password protect all your entries with Carrie in them. I know WordPress allows you to password protect individual entries although I’m not sure if typepad/movable type has that feature. If you want to password protect the whole thing it’s pretty easy to do using .htaccess. You can google instructions on using .htaccess for password protection and get all the info you need. I hope you get things worked out soon. What a freak this other person must be.