Apologies to those of you who are seeing the words in this quote again!
Yesterday I read a sobering post by a blogger who had been sued by a photographer for using one his pictures on her blog. As she put it, “I had to pay money that I didn’t have for a use of a photo I didn’t need.” So in the belief that safe is better than sorry, I pulled the image with the quote that I had posted last week and have substituted one with my own photo.
If you’re a blogger yourself, you might want to read the full post.
An interesting side-effect of this is that I now have a better idea of the origins of the quote itself. It’s not, as I assumed, something George RR Martin said in an interview or wrote in an article (and I confess right now that I had never heard of George RR Martin), but is a line of dialogue from his book ‘A Dance with Dragons’.
The book is number five in a fantasy series, which means I’m unlikely to ever read it as that is not a genre I enjoy. However, I’m intrigued by the way the quote has taken on a life of its own quite removed from its source. Google it, and you’ll find it on blogs and assorted web sites; go to Pinterest, and you’ll find it reproduced in various forms. It obviously resonates with people, as I discovered myself when a number of people ‘liked’ it the first time I posted it.
So now that my blog is lawsuit-proof once more, I think I’ll go read a book, and perhaps live one more life.
Great quote. I’m surprised the photographer sued the blogger for use of a photo. I totally understand people suing if their photos are used for money-making purposes, but most bloggers credit the photographer. It seems like it could have been handled more equitably. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
The photographer’s reaction seemed over the top to me, too, but it certainly has made me more cautious about sourcing any photo I put online. Thanks for stopping by my blog, too.