Pinterest could be in Fair Use territory (meaning, legally protected).  Fair Use law allows people to use work they do not own the copyright to. There are four elements to consider when determining if something is Fair Use:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work [is it fictional or factual]
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion [of the work] used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

The big one is that first question. If the use is transformative — if something new is being created by using the picture — then it can be construed as Fair Use.

One of the most famous cases of this, and one that Maytal pointed to as likely to be a major precedent, is Perfect 10 v. Google. A nude-image subscription service. Perfect 10 sued Google because Google’s Image search showed pictures that Perfect 10 hid behind a paywall. It claimed that Google was doing it irreparable harm by showing the pictures in its search.

Google won the case. The courts ruled that Google Image search is Fair Use because it’s transformative.

Maytal told us, “The use of the thumbnails was highly transformative, allowed users to get to a source of information that they couldn’t otherwise get.” Google Image search becomes a social benefit and a reference tool.

Read more: CLICK HERE!

Why hello there.

Some folks have mentioned that I’ve been kinda quiet the past few days and that’s because I’ve been very very busy doing super top sekrit stuff that I am SO excited about but I can’t reveal what it is just yet because I have to do some testing first. I can give you a clue though! Ready? Set! GO!

Okay so my clue is really obvious…I know. I’ve decided to do some merchandising. I finally figured out a way to photograph my paintings so I can make prints out of them and I’ve spent the last 4 days creating branded items in a 3rd party shop. I’m not going to officially launch the shop until I order some of this stuff and make sure the quality’s actually good, so don’t get too excited yet, but if everything goes as planned, BE EXCITED because some of the stuff I’ve made is really really cool, like I’m astounded at how good my girls look on some of this stuff and I intend to spend my entire first paycheque on my own items both to see how they are quality-wise, but also just to own some of it for myself.

But that’s all I can say about that.

In other news, “Tiki Girl” is 100% finished and for sale in my Etsy shop! I ended up spray varnishing her in the end and she turned out really nice (if you like orange).

I am *so* tired and I don’t know why. I went to bed last night at 9pm and fell right asleep and then I woke up at 4:15am to go to work and I’m just dead on my feet. Dunno what’s up with that.

So Madison lasted 4 days as a vegan. It was pepperoni on her brother’s pizza that did her in. What kills me is that we bought her all these vegan groceries and she was like, “Wes can’t have any, he’s not vegan,” which we squashed pretty damn fast, but then when Madison wants Wes’ pepperoni, he lovingly and willingly gives it to her. That’s just the glaring difference between the two of them. She’s selfish and he’s selfless.

Something that’s really been bothering me the last few days is that I’ve lost it. My perspective. 10 years ago I was in ad school and I was really good at it because I had this really great perspective and the ability to read people because I knew such a diverse group of people and could easily put myself in their frame of mind. I mean, that’s all advertising is, really, the ability to know your opponent, so to speak, which I was extremely good at. Well, being so sheltered the past 10 years has completely ruined that perspective. I no longer have the interactions with people that allow me to put myself into their shoes and therefore I can’t write decent copy that sucks people in and sells to them. (I’m not even explaining this properly…grrr.) Writing the copy for the descriptions for my new shop has been killing me because it’s all so bad. If any of my ad school friends read this stuff, they would scream “hack!” and wonder what the hell happened to me. Agoraphobia happened to me. And I don’t know how to fix it.

Like, a long time ago, when Madison was a toddler, I lived above my mom’s wallpaper store in Uxbridge and during the day, I would hang out in her store with her for most of the afternoons, just about every day and as a result, I got to know people outside of my peer group and I learned to read them very very well. This was good for ad school because their demographic happens to be the largest purchasers or influencers as far as most household goods and services. Even down to cars. On top of that, I had a pretty healthy social life and lots of friends so I had a huge pool of knowledge to work from when it came to making ads and writing good copy.

Since I had no intentions of going into advertising, I let all that fall by the wayside. I let the agoraphobia take hold and my social life melted away. I no longer have friends the way I did back then and I don’t have this huge well of imagination the way I did before. I no longer have the ability to read my audience. In fact, I have no idea who my audience is. I couldn’t create a primary prospect profile for my average reader if my life depended on it and I used to be extremely good at those. (What a PPP is, is a document where you basically lay out who your primary target person is. It would be 3 or 4 paragraphs long as it would be like, “Sandy is a married 42 year old mother of two, with three dogs and a cat. She is a dental hygienist who makes origami art on the weekends in her art room, which her husband. Jim, renovated for her in the spring of 2011. Together they make $90,000/year blah blah blah.” They are very detailed and I was good at creating them.)

I’m not bummed that I’ve lost this ability or anything like that, just surprised by it because it’s something I carried with me for so long, it was the one thing I was really good at and kinda like, my backup survival skill. Not that things ever would go bad, but say something bad happened and Blake left me, moved back to Militiagan and told me to fend for myself; advertising was what I planned to fall back on if something bad like that happened, but I guess that’s out the window now so let’s hope he sticks around!

Anyway, it just surprised me with how bad I was at writing these blurbs so when I do launch this new endeavor, please don’t laugh at my descriptions! I tried! (Okay, not really…)

Honestly, nothing’s really been happening around here aside from working on new products and fucking around in Photoshop. I wake up, I work, then I spend all day working on my new shop until it’s time to go to bed.

There actually IS something sort of major happening in Sunnyland, but I promised I wouldn’t put it on the internet so I can’t really talk about it, unfortunately. Just send good vibes in the direction of Florida, okay?

Thursday’s my birthday. 33. Yippy. Send presents and Squam money. Thanks!

Okay that’s all I’ve got in me today. Maybe I’ll write more later. Honestly, I’m just exhausted and as soon as Cheryl leaves, I’m going back to bed. Goodnight!

One day I looked at myself and thought: Sh*t, this is it. This is what I look like. No amount of self-hatred is going to change my appearance. I am who I am. I am stuck with this, and I have to love it, or else I am going to die early from my own suffering and idea that I got shortchanged in the looks department.

- Margaret Cho, You Are Not Ugly, So Don’t Make Those ‘Am I Ugly?’ Videos

Strawberry frozen yogurt with gorgeous organic strawberries.

Are you planning on watching the Oscars? I know a lot of people are sick of hearing about movie awards shows but the Oscars are always super special to me because hello, it’s the Oscars.

What I find interesting is that Oprah is doing an Oscar special at 7pm on OWN where she interviews all of the nominees (well, the ones who she thinks matter) and I find that strange because the red carpet coverage also starts at 7pm and does Oprah seriously think she’s going to win a ratings war with the red carpet coverage? Yeah right. This is why DVRs were invented. I’ll watch it tomorrow. (And maybe she’s banking on that, I dunno.)

I haven’t seen most of the nominated movies, admittedly, but I really really hope Rooney Mara wins her category for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo because she was fucking fantastic. I had no idea she was even American until I read her Wikipedia page.

I also hope The Help doesn’t win anything. The Help was a great book, I loved it immensely, but the movie just fell flat and I don’t even know how it’s nominated for so many things. It was horrible, HORRIBLE I say! And it deserves NOTHING!

So that;s my plan for the day, I’m going to spend the day working on a TOP SEKRIT PROJEKT ON THE COMPYOOTAR and then it’s the Oscars, my pajamas, Twitter and popcorn with real butter. I’m stoked. Best day off ever!

This “defend and indemnify” stuff means that if some photographer out there decides that he or she does not want you using that photogs images as “inspiration” or otherwise and decides to sue you and Pinterest over your use of that photog’s images, you will have to hire a lawyer for yourself and YOU will have to hire a lawyer for Pinterest and fund the costs of defending both of you in court.  Not only that, but if a court finds that you have, in fact, violated copyright laws, you will pay all damages assessed against you and all damages assessed against Pinterest.  OUCH.  Oh, but it gets better.   Pinterest reserves the right to prosecute you for violations. Basically, Pinterest has its keester covered and have shifted all of the risk to you.   Smart of them, actually since the courts are still deciding whether the site owner or the user should be ultimately responsible.  Rather than wait for the decision, they have contractually made you the responsible one.  And you agreed.  (And by “you” I clearly mean “we”).

 

WHY I TEARFULLY DELETED MY PINTEREST INSPIRATION BOARDS

Thanks, Kim. This is some serious business, right here. Jesus.
I’m honestly not sure what to say about this, just read the article.

Steph dislikes Dooce for the same reason I do.
(Basically, we were here first.)

She also hates The Bloggess.
(Because we’z playah-hatin’ beyotches.)

I find this hysterical.
Enjoy!

THIS is genius!

Help me tailor it to artist dates!
I’ve lost too many brain cells today to Krylon!

Things we do on artist dates (so far):

- $10 @ Michael’s (craft store)
- $10 @ Curry’s  (art store)
- Lunch at South St. Burger ($20)
- Starbucks ($15)
- Flowers ($10)
- Dinner at The Keg ($100)

Um…and that’s it!

I like her idea of a dessert-only date, so that’s a good one. That Coldstone Creamery place at the beach (10 minutes away) would be good for that or Baskin Robins at the mall in Barrie (half an hour away). Or I really enjoyed the strawberry shortcake at The Keg, which was $2.45 but you could only really do that one during the day, during the week probably because they’re so busy.

Popcorn and a movie at a theatre would be a good one, but an expensive one. ($45)
And I don’t believe in going to the movies and not getting popcorn.

What else?
Preferably cheap ones!
I’m good at expensive! :oP

I couldn’t decide whether I should varnish her or not. If I varnished her, the background would really pop and sparkle but I would have to varnish around the skirt and I wasn’t sure if that would look okay (I really should have added the skirt after varnishing but I jumped the gun). I think it looks alright without the varnish though, so if anyone buys it, I’ll leave it up to them as to what I should do. Another option is to spray varnish the whole thing, which might work as well. Hmmm.

I’m actually thinking spray varnish may be the way to go…

And as per my New Year’s resolution, I had Blake take my picture with her so here’s the least terrible one according to Charlie:

Okay I’ve decided. I’m going to go spray varnish her and hope like hell for the best. Wish me luck that I don’t fuck her up horribly!

Also, I am going to look pretty snazzy in this:

Scutterman sent me money for my birthday and Blake said we’d split the difference so this morning I ordered the last small! Now I have to find a mini-dress to wear under it because it’s actually pretty sheer. But whatever, I’ve wanted it since the fall and now it is MINE! Thanks, Scutterman!!! <3

Wanna know a secret? Okay so it’s not so much of a secret. Blake and I will have been married 10 years on July 8th of this year. And we’re going to have a party. And I’m very very excited about it. :o) We just decided on the party a couple of days ago and after working out the few kinks there were to be had, all systems are go and this is going to happen.

It’s going to be held at Haugen’s, which is where Blake and I go every year for our anniversary to get ribs and fresh strawberry pie, which is world famous. We figure the party is kinda like the wedding reception we never had and we’ll be inviting about 20 people. After dinner, we’ll be going back to our house to drink our faces off with anyone who wants to drive that far. I think it’ll be a good time.

I also think I need to buy a dress for the event, but don’t tell Blake that because he complains that I have too many clothes as it is. :oP I want this one so so badly and there’s only one left in stock. :o( Maybe I can convince Blake to go halves on it with me or something. I’ve been coveting that dress since I saw it in the fall and I’m afraid that if I don’t get it soon, it won’t be available anymore. But that’s what I want to wear to our anniversary party. My birthday is in a week. If anyone wanted to get that dress for me, I’m a small. A SMALL, DAMMIT! Blake said I could order it! w00t! <3

This morning while I was cutting an apple, I sliced my thumb open on one of our new knives and it won’t stop bleeding. That was over an hour & a half ago! Enough already! Plus I’m eating pistachios right now (an apple & pistachios for breakfast, I’m awesome) and I keep getting salt in it. Nice.

Y’know, back to the anniversary party for a minute…part of the reason I didn’t want to have a wedding was because I felt like I didn’t have enough people in my life to invite and I felt like a loser. Plus my step-dad and my mom couldn’t be in the same room together and both of them would get mad at me for not choosing the other. But now things are good and I have 20 people in my life that I’m close enough to to have a party like this and who genuinely love me. That’s a pretty good feeling, y’know. Especially because really, there’s 40 people I’d like to invite but we can’t afford to. Maybe for our 20th we’ll do it bigger and invite everyone! That’d be cool. I guess we’ll see where we are in life in 10 years.

We’ve really come a long way though, from living above my grama’s furniture store and living on Blake’s wages as a pizza delivery guy. Now we own our own home, as of yesterday we’re completely out of debt, we both have good paying jobs, we’re both relatively happy, we have good kids (except when they’re not). I like our dogs. The cat’s alright. The only thing I think would be better is if I had my own car. I’d also like a nicer house but I know that’ll come in time so for now, we’ll just make do with what we have and be happy with it.

Speaking of my grama…so when I was in the hospital, so was my cousin Janet with what they now know was cancer, which ultimately killed her. Apparently the whole time Janet was sick – and again, this is at the same time I was in the hospital dying too – my grama would bring her mother, Eunice, casseroles and was on her ass like a dirty shirt. My grama never once offered to bring my mother anything. I don’t know why this is. Is it because it was me? Why would she not do that? It just reaffirms my decision to never have anything to do with that woman as long as I live. She just wasn’t there for my mother at all during the worst time of her life and that’s just not cool with me. She should have been on my mother like glue unless my mother said to back off. That’s just what you do for your kids. I don’t understand that woman.

And since we’re on the subject of family, my brother never replied to the e-mail I sent him months ago. He still has no idea I was ever sick.

Family! God!

And let’s go there, shall we? I really really don’t want to invite my father to our anniversary party. (Lisa can come though. I love Lisa.) I am and I will, but for the record, I don’t want to. It’s not that I don’t want him there it’s that I know he’d rather be elsewhere. All I do know is that my sisters will not be invited and since they so rarely get babysitters, I’m betting they won’t even come since that’s the case. I just don’t want my sisters there, it’s not going to be that kind of party. Plus I just don’t want to pay for their dinners when chances are they’re going to ruin mine by being bratty. I’ve never been in a restaurant with them, but I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that I bet they don’t know how to behave in one. They can be very sweet, don’t get me wrong, but they can also be very terrible and I just don’t want to deal with that. My kids weren’t invited to Phil’s 50th birthday party last year so I’m sure they’ll understand and if they don’t, then they don’t come. Fine by me.

And that’s all the bitching about my family that I’ve got in me right now. Lucky for you guys, huh?

Onto other things…

Honestly nothing interesting has happened since yesterday so there’s not a whole lot to report. Today’s plan is to have a nap after Cheryl leaves, then work on the colouring book some more. The colouring book was put a bit on the back burner the last couple of days while I worked on my girl for The 4 x 6 Exchange, but I’m back on track as of today.

And that’s all the poop that’s fit to scoop! Have a lovely weekend! YAY!

My piece for The 4 x 6 Exchange is finished! I didn’t really do anything special, just a girl. I wanted to use pink because I so rarely get to give them pink dresses since the pink paper turns orange when I varnish them and this piece wasn’t going to be varnished.

So here’s the deal: I make a piece of art that’s 4 inches x 6 inches and send it to Art House Co-Op with a self-addressed, stamped envelope by March 31st and they send me back a piece of someone else’s 4 x 6 inch art. And it’s free!

They’ve actually started The 4 x 6 Exchange 2 because there was so much demand for the first one. There are only 2000 spots total so if you want to do it, you should sign up now! Blake and Madison just finished signing up and I think Wes wanted to do it too.

Anyway, here’s my girl. I hope whoever gets her, likes her. :o)