Just a few minutes ago I became aware that a childcare owner has posted several photos on her daycare website that were taken directly from this blog. I was made aware of it after Melissa from Chasing Cheerios was alerted that photos from her blog are also on this woman's website. Of course any of the ideas I share here are made public so others can use them. However, it does seem a little bit unethical to me for this person to post photos of my activities on her site without my permission. Additionally, without knowing more, it seems that she is possibly misrepresenting to potential parents the activities that she provides in her home. The best case scenario, in my opinion, would be for her to make up the actual activities and then take photos of HER activities to post on her site. I have written a comment on her site suggesting that. I hope that I did it in a respectful manner. I tried to, anyway. Here is a link to my comment on her website in case you are interested. I would love to hear your thoughts on this issue. I am not sure if she will leave the comment on her site or not, so you may or may not be able to read it. It does make me even more thankful that I am very careful not to post the names of my students, nor will there ever be a photo on this site or my other site of any child's face.
Edited at 9:00 p.m., June 24th: It appears that the Chickadees Childcare webpage has been pulled off the web. Perhaps thanks to the pressure from Melissa and her husband and myself, the site owner has realized the err of her ways. In the meantime, I'm looking into how to watermark any photos I use on my blogs to prevent this from happening again. Just another lesson learned.
Hi Laura I was just on there following the link from Chasing Cheerios and saw your photos and was about to come tell you, but you already saw. This is ridiculous. Wrong on a million levels. This is why my sweet little boys face will never be on my blog.
Posted by: rainbowmummy | June 24, 2009 at 04:36 PM
It is completely wrong to take photos without permission. Even with permission, the photo should trackback to your blog with one click.
And, from what I understand about copyright laws, these are your photos -- you have not signed away any rights to them by using Flickr or anything -- and you have the legal right to demand she remove them.
While you may not want to go that route, you should definitely contact her directly about the issue. It is illegal for her to use the photos. http://www.photolaw.net/faq.html
Posted by: cbrummer | June 24, 2009 at 04:43 PM
WOW! I can not imagine what she must be thinking. The whole thing is shocking.
Posted by: Shannon | June 24, 2009 at 04:49 PM
I agree wtih the other commenters, it's completely wrong and (I'm quite certain) illegal.
Posted by: maryanne | June 24, 2009 at 04:50 PM
How sad, Laura! In her "At Play" photos, the children are all on the floor playing with plastic toys. They're not even doing anything like the activities in the photos she stole! What a fake!
Posted by: Anne | June 24, 2009 at 04:56 PM
Just so you know when you search for the address in google it came up that there were adds at one time on craigslist for them. But they seem to all be taken off now. My guess is this is spam and not a real site.
Posted by: Zonnah | June 24, 2009 at 05:13 PM
I am impressed with the note that you left on her website...I don't think that I would have had as much restraint and class, especially given that her plagiarism was clearly intentional!
Kudos to you!
Thanks for all the great ideas!!
Posted by: Kelli | June 24, 2009 at 05:31 PM
Your comment was a whole lot nicer than many people would have written. I understand that it is hard to come up with original ideas - that's why people love blogs like this so much, but it is so important to give credit where credit is due, or as you said - do the same activity and post your own photos.
I hope one person's "error in judgement" doesn't discourage you from continuing to post. I love checking out the activities you do and adapting them for my daughter.
Perhaps you could put a watermark or something on your photos to help discourage people from using them?
Posted by: Shell | June 24, 2009 at 06:01 PM
I thought your comments were great. Dignified, classy, to the point and strong. You obviously have good negotiation skills and your kids would learn so much from you in this way. Well done. (:
The use of the photos is very sad and I think has rocked the Monti blog community. Its making me think again about what I post.
Posted by: Making of a Montessori Mum | June 24, 2009 at 07:22 PM
I'm so sorry that happened to you. I really enjoy your blog and I hope you will keep sharing. I have used a lot of your ideas for practical life and other activities in my classroom, and I'm looking forward to your new ideas when it's time to set up my classroom again for the fall in August.
That was so wrong for someone to steal your photos like that.
Posted by: Anna | June 24, 2009 at 08:34 PM
Looks like she has taken her website down. I hope she also sends you an apology!
Posted by: Illuminated Attic | June 24, 2009 at 09:31 PM
I didn't get to read your comment--it appears she took down the entire site.
I worry about that sort of thing all the time--mostly because of Google Images. I don't think people always intentionally "steal" images, but with the option of Googling them, any one of our images can end up only God knows where--and that is creepy.
I'm so sorry that happened to you--I'm glad her site is down.
Posted by: Jessica | June 24, 2009 at 10:01 PM
This bugs me so much. We have a new preschool in our neighborhood and when I went to their website to get info. months before they'd opened, they had all these photos up of kids at work that made it look like a well-established, functioning community, despite the fact that they weren't even in a space yet and it was a brand-new school. It really bothered me that parents might visit that site and get impressions of what the community or instruction looked like when clearly the photos that were up, wherever they came from, had absolutely nothing to do with the school being represented. I understand people who are just starting out wanting their websites to look good for potential browsers, which is hard to do when you don't have any material of your own yet, but what a strange way to market a school when parent-school relationships are based on so much trust. So sorry this happened to you!
Posted by: Kirstin | June 24, 2009 at 11:46 PM
As my teenage son would say, "that's just wrong," I am sorry that it happened to you. People need to respect and be grateful that there are people like you who are willing to share their wonderful ideas and insights and ask permission and give proper credit if they add those ideas to their own blogs (or any other work of theirs). I thank you so much for all the wonderful ideas that you share, and hope that this doesn't happen again.
Posted by: Melva | June 25, 2009 at 07:35 AM
Things that people do on the internet is just crazy. As somebody said before i hope you dont stop helping me and other moms/ teachers with your ideas. I could not read the comment but i think you did the right thing,"maybe" wasnt intentionally that the person did it, but was wrong anyway.
Posted by: leilane | June 25, 2009 at 08:06 AM
I was not able to see the link it was already gone. I would like to think this woman did not know what she was doing but.....
I do want to thank you for all your ideas you share. I have gotten so many ideas for my homeschool "classroom". I set up an art shelf with cutting, gluing, painting, ect. Your photos really helped me set mine up. Each post helps me with a new idea for my younger kids. Thank you for all the time you put into your blog and the photos you post. I enjoy seeing the photos.
Posted by: Kendal | June 25, 2009 at 08:48 AM
There is a great website that I found when I was trying to learn how to watermark my photos. Here is the link to it:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshop/ht/apswatermark.htm
It instructs you how to do it in Photoshop. If you have any questions, just contact me. I use it all the time now on my photos from my Etsy store.
Posted by: Sharon | June 25, 2009 at 11:43 AM
I would love to hear how you watermark your photos, if you are able to! How does one find out if someone is taking their photos, anyway? I have many photos on my site, as well.
And thank you for posting so many photos. It is very helpful to have a visual when trying to recreate the activities with my children!
Posted by: Milehimama | June 25, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Incredable, It seems someone has to reck a good thing. I love your site. Look to it each day as insperation and it would be a shame if someone messed that up for the rest of us. I am very sorry. Realy the ones who will loose in the end are the people who beleave that her child care was doing these things. Sad for the kids.
Posted by: mariette | June 26, 2009 at 01:07 PM
Definitely a good thing that you addressed this. I am glad the site is down. I have had to comment to people over taking whole articles with no recognition. Permission should always be requested from the owner.
Posted by: Angela | June 29, 2009 at 08:56 PM
What a drag! you might want to hop over to www.creativecommons.org for more information on what a creative commons liscense is. It's free and if it sounds like the right fit for you, there is a badge that you can put on your blog that links to creative commons copywrite laws. This is what I've chosen to use for my curriculum blog(www.nonotuckfrogblog.blogger.com);http://creativecommons.org/license/results-one?license_code=by-nd&jurisdiction=us&version=3.0&lang=en_US
I love your work and appreciate you sharing your work. Too bad some people don't understood the difference between being inspired by someone and stealing their work outright!
Posted by: michelle | June 30, 2009 at 12:44 PM
Here I found this link regarding watermarking although I have just seen another post above ...
http://cameras.about.com/od/printing/ss/watermark.htm
You are right it's not ethical, more than that it's your Intellectual Property.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful work.
Regards, Paulene
Posted by: Paulene Angela | July 02, 2009 at 09:58 AM
Sorry that this happened to you
Posted by: kelly | July 03, 2009 at 11:41 PM
I'm so sorry that this happened to you! :( We've been away on vacation and I wasn't able to view the site. That's terrible. :( I'm sorry.
Posted by: Jamie | July 07, 2009 at 01:53 PM
I'm sorry that this happened to you. It's JUST WRONG!!! I use a program on www.picnik.com and you can edit and add text on your photos!! so anybody can't use them!! soo bad!! I hope this doesn't make you stop bloggin!! because we all enjoy your beautiful activities and ideas!! I'm really sorry that this happened to you!!!
Posted by: Karen | July 18, 2009 at 09:02 PM