Lesson #1365 - Irony, Part II

It's OK to enjoy being ridiculous because you enjoy it, you know. I know some people disagree, but screw them.

CONTENT ISSUES: On an unrelated note, just this past week I found a site selling the Happiness Maze design without my permission. In the past month, I've found a number of other sites reposting STW with the URL cropped out, or a different URL pasted over the top, or - particularly on Tumblr accounts - people citing themselves as the source of the image.

While most sites and people quickly comply when I ask them to remove the content, I have been told, "Due to the large amount of exposure these images have received, it is not in our best interest to simply delete them" and told that someone else's URL reposted on the image is good for "brand awareness" - even as commenters directly below the altered image ask where the original source is.

Now, I've said this before, but I have to say it again: you cannot claim my work as your own, and you most certainly cannot profit off my work without my permission. When STW content is rehosted on a image-hosting ad site, that is a way for that site to profit off STW - none of which I will see. I don't put ads on the site for a reason.

So what most of you can do to help - as I am sure most are not among those purposely doing what's been described - PLEASE LINK DIRECTLY TO THE PAGE, NOT THE COMIC IMAGE. When you link to the image, people think the content is fair game to do whatever they want with it. Then it can be rehosted or cropped or even sold without anyone even questioning their actions - because they haven't seen the site that it originally came from. You can go ahead and share STW as you'd like - through Facebook or Twitter or Reddit or Tumblr or whatever - but when you do, please link to the page. And if there is a source option - put the STW URL in that. It's pretty easy to do, helps share STW the best way possible, and saves me a lot of headaches down the line.

Thanks!