Roses in January

 this photo is the Gertrude Jekyl  Rose in bud now. 

 The Iceberg Rose seems to have a bit of a rosey hue to it in the cooler temperatures.

 More of the Iceberg rose.  Of course they are not in thee best shape, but they are in bloom.

The snowdrops are up and in bloom too.  Not a great photo, sorry to say.
We have had a mild winter so far this year.  But it has been rainy and cool so I have not been out to do any garden clean up just yet.  I have bags of compost from my garden refuse pick up  company that needs to be put down on the beds also. 
There have been quite a few birds around the garden recently.  They are acting like it is mating season.  Everything seems to be early this year.
I have had to remove the link to Melinda's blog, as the Chrome browser told me that there was a link to a site that had malware  on the blog.  I wonder if this link is also on her Megashot account and on the community she built there.  I must check this out too.
I have the 7 Harry Potter books to read, a book about the wiki leaks guy on my ipad and the 24 hour bookstore suggested by Ken, also on ipad.  As well as all the free old history and classics that I downloaded to my ipad.  I have yet to find the time to get my new FTP program and my word press that Godaddy have told me about; to use with my old web page and with my new domain.  There is a high learning curve in this for me, that I am not quite ready to tackle just yet.  I am spending too much time on google plus, but enjoying the gardening stuff on there!  And then of course, there is the Megashot stuff to do.  It seems to be a lot of work, at times.  We await the Version 2 of Megashot that is going to be bigger and better than ever, with  multiple things to do... everything a photographer, whether amateur or professional or beginner, could desire.
In checking for copyright infringements on my blog photos I have not found any new thieves recently.  There is one old one where I complained on the website and asked them to remove my photos.  Now when I go to the offending website and click on the thumbnail of my photo it links me to a porn site.  The site that has my photo thumbnail on it seems to be owned by eNOM.  Now, the bit of research I have done about this company warns me to stay away from them.  I see that the wiki leaks guys took a swipe at them a few years ago, but the eNom are still operating in their usual fashion.  All that money from porn sites, no doubt.  I read recently that 60% of the ecommerce on the internet is from porn sites.  What a sad, sad, statement about the internet!  This post should be titled Teach Your Children Well... #3 or #4 ...

We took a drive out to the Industrial Park near the Airport to see this big Machine that Ramsay Machine Works are building.    Its a huge crane that is going to be taken over to Vancouver Port for loading coal.. no doubt to be shipped to China. 

The weather has been cool with light frost over nite and some sun during the day recently, with temps getting up to about 6.  The humming birds have been feeding.  The bulbs are on hold until the weather warms up a bit; and so is my gardening.

I have been reading an old book published in 2003 by John Douglas called 'Anyone you want to be'.  A true story about a serial killer who, in his later crimes searched the net for victims.  This guy makes these Copyright thieves look pretty tame, by comparison.  I believe Kansas still has the death penalty, but no one has been executed since 1994.  From Wikipedia: 
John Edward Robinson (born December 27, 1943) is a convicted serial killer, con man, embezzler, kidnapper, and forger who was found guilty in 2003 of three murders and received the death sentence for two of them. He subsequently admitted responsibility for five additional homicides, and investigators fear that there might be other, undiscovered victims as well.^[1]
Because he made contact with most of his post-1993 victims via on-line chat rooms, he is sometimes referred to as "the Internet's first serial killer".<sup>[2]

On my ipad I have been reading an even older book called Moby Dick.  It has its moments but drags along quite a bit as the author goes off on some tangent.

I have set up a google plus account to see how it works.  Of course its another place to spend countless hours communicating on line about any number of things.  Don't think I will be spending very much time there, as I have far too much to keep me busy now.  I have a new domain and godaddy has an FTP and a Word Press program for me to use when I am ready for this next adventure.   I will still keep my blogger despite all the copyright infringements.  It is just getting to be too much time wasted chasing these twits.  There is definitely something wrong with this system.  England seems to have a remedy for the long legal battles involving lawyers and great cost:  Read this  http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/539304/photo-copyright-boost-set-to-open-online-floodgates
So, can Canada , EU and US be far behind?  

OPEN THOSE FLOODGATES!  It is long overdue.</sup>  

January Gardening and Pinterest

 My waterfall a few days ago.  Since then some critter has jumped on the lower stone of the waterfalll and dislodged it.  I need to get out and reset this stone into the waterfall, as the water is now just running over the edge and not falling into the water with a tinkle.

 the snowdrops in the moss/Japanese garden poking their noses above the fallen leaves.  As you can see I should get out there and clean up the fallen leaves and wasted perennials all over the garden.

PINTEREST:

I thought that Pinterest was a social media site without a conscious.  Today I found that Pinterest is diametrically opposed to its clients 'pinning' photos that are copyrighted to a photographer and the client does not own the copyright.
This is Pinerest's page regarding Copyright:  http://pinterest.com/about/copyright/?pin_id=209910032602917954
and their complaint form:  http://pinterest.com/about/copyright/dmca/

Today I used their DMCA form to advise them of the pinning of a photo from my blog as shown below.  Unpolished Life has taken my photo, removed my watermark, posted the photo to their blog and then pinned it to their Pinterest account, from where it has been re-pinned several times.  Hope to see this Unpolished and UNPRINCIPLED blogger made aware of the Copyright Infringement. 


If you don’t want anything from your website to show up on Pinterest ever, just add the following code before the

tag on any page of your site.
 < /head> tag on any page of your site.

< meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" / >

to customize the no pin:

<  meta name="pinterest" content="nopin" description="Sorry, no pinning of images on this site please!" /  >


,,,,, remove the spaces before the >  and after the <  .....

 Unpolished Life using my photo on its blog, with my watermark removed.

My comment on the blog, which has been ignored, and the comment still stands on this blog that has advertising on it and is, therefore, a commercial website, gaining from the copyright infringement.  Small potatoes really! 

The Unpolished Pinterest account using my photo.  I reported this Copyright Infringement to Pinterest today and hope to see this account with a strike against it for Copyright Infringement.  Strike one, bucko!

This is the original of my blog post with my watermark `mmmee`on the lower left corner, that the UNPRINCIPLED blogger has removed.  This blogger could be liable for penalties up to $150,000 for this removal of my watermark and the Copyright Infringement.

January Roses

 This is one of the last rose blossoms on the Iceberg rose.  It will soon be time to prune back all the roses before they start putting on their new growth for the year. 

 The cyclamen along the back old sidewalk beside the garage are starting to bloom again.  The dutch iris in this bed have 8 inch long sprouts showing.  As you can see the oriental poppies have new growth showing.  We have been having a mild winter, with lots of rain.  We needed the rain.  The river is not too high.. it is just running at a normal level.  People in other areas of the Island and lower mainland have had some snow and storms.  There were quite a few people without power a few days ago.

 This is a view up the old sidewalk along the side of the garage towards the back fence.  I need to get out and do the Autumn clean up that did not happen.  I am just not a tidy gardener.  I like the moss, too and let it grow on all the ugly cement.  The moss garden is expanding under the deck.  I think I need to move some of the ferns over to the cedar hedge side and let them go wild over there where those neighbors have beat the hell out of my cedars so that they are not screening anything any more. 

This is one of the cars that was out for the New Year's day run with the VCCC.  Lovely old Buick.

Now for my rant, which you will be seeing more of in my posts:
Copyright Infringement
Over the past few months I have become aware of the fact that many of my photos that I have posted on this blog are being taken and used by other people on social media sites, personal websites, and blogs, many of them on commercial pages.

The way I find the copyright infringement is by right click any photo I suspect is being used and doing a google search for it.  Another way is use Tineye on line search, or get the Tineye reverse search plugins for your browser.  Tineye Search.

When you find an infringement on your photo there is a suggested procedure to follow  using a DMCA take down notice. Here is a quote from an article on dpreview:  depreview
"If you find a website that is using one of your images without permission, contact the ISP that is hosting the culpable website to report the infringement and ask that the infringement stop. The letter you send is called a “DMCA takedown notice.” The ISP is required to make its agent’s name and address available so that you can send it the notification."  THIS IS A VERY INFORMATIVE ARTICLE.   Be sure to read it.

An informative article about Take Down Notices This is very informative article by  Copyright Carolyn E. Wright, Esq.
www.photoattorney.com
All rights reserved  that plainly gives you the steps to prepare a DMCA take down notice, including:
(if you go to the website you can click on each of the steps for more information.)
Step 1 - Finding the ISP that is Hosting the Website With Your Image, including a whois lookup and a dns lookup URL

Step 2 - Drafting Your Takedown Notice

First Consider Whether The Use of Your Image is a Fair Use
 - she gives us a link to her article regarding Fair Use.  In this regard I believe that any photograph taken by you has your copyright automatically. It would be a good idea to embed your copyright or watermark on your work.  There is information all over the internet on how to do this. 

Counter Notification
Under this point in her article is the last sentence:  quote:   But be sure to register the copyrights to your photos so that you have all of the tools necessary to fight copyright infringement. Unquote. 
This is in regards to filing a lawsuit which unfortunately is the only way to achieve some payment for the infringement of your copyrights.  I think you need to expect a substantial payment on the lawsuit before any lawyer would be interested in spending any time on the case.  Especially when they work on a contingency basis.  And that is really the only way to consider hiring a lawyer, in my opinion, for these lawsuits, unless you have very deep pockets to pay for the time and efforts of a lawyer.

Conclusion:  I will quote the whole of the conclusion of her article:
Quote: 

Infringements are much too common these days. Fortunately, there are tools to fight them – the DMCA takedown notice is one of the powerful ones.

Carolyn E. Wright is an attorney dedicated to the legal needs for photographers. Get the latest in legal information at Carolyn’s website, www.photoattorney.com. These and other legal tips for photographers are available in Carolyn’s book, The Photographer’s Legal Guide, available on her website.

NOTE: The information provided here is for educational purposes only. If you have legal concerns or need legal advice, be sure to consult with an attorney.  Unquote.

In conclusion of my post I will give you the URL that is the story of a Blogger who was simply using a photo she found some where on the internet and was totally unaware of Copyright Infringement until she was being sued by lawyers for Copyright Infringement.  Apologizing for the misuse of the photo and taking it off her blog did not let her off the hook.  She is a brave lady for posting this story on her blog:  Bloggers Beware she calls it.  http://www.blogher.com/bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-using-photos-your-blog-my-story?page=0,1  sued for copyright infringement

Since I have learned about this issue I have spent a lot of time chasing the people who are illegally using my photos, with nothing gained for my time and effort.

... more of my adventures in copyright infringement in my next post, including information on Pinterest and how to prevent your photos on your site from being pinned... that is used by others on that social media site.