Stealing For Ten Years. . .And Trying To Stop

I’m a thief. And I’m trying to figure out how to stop. (It’s harder than you might think.)

I write. . .a lot. One of the many areas I write is this blog. I’ve been writing on it for the past 9 years. And I’ve never made a dime from it. It’s hosted on a free platform and I don’t get any of the advertising. Well, it was. But more on that in a minute.

So. . .when I needed a picture to add to a story, I just found one from the web. I KNOW it’s not free, but I’m not making any money from it. And sometimes it was something as simple as a speed limit sign, or the toy airplane used in Disney’s The Kid. Simple stuff.

I justified it because I wasn’t getting any measurable gain from it.

Except that now I’m moving this blog (all 1600 entries of it) to a paid platform. I want to start monetizing it.

You see the problem.

What do you think? Should I go back and “scrub” the past entries? Should I port them to my new platform as is? Am I being too hard on myself about stealing intellectual property?

Is everything on the internet free? (Okay, as a content creator, I’ll just give a hard NO to my own question here. But, the rest have me thinking.)

Did I steal 9 years worth of content?

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. Order Miscellany II, an anthology including his latest short story, “The Mercy System” here

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