Changes to Lissie & Lilly Due to Thievery by LADL Blog

Recently, L&L has been the target of image thievery by the Living a Doll's Life blog, as well as others on Instagram, YouTube, and other social media outlets. Due to a particularly nasty exchange with the LADL blog, there will be a few changes going forward to help reduce incidences like this from occurring in the future.

1) ALL images will be watermarked now, in awkward, difficult to crop out locations. 

-Previously, I refrained from watermarking any image I did not personally take (leaked photos on eBay/TaoBao, images sent to me by others, etc.) because it did not feel right to me to slap my watermark onto something I am not personally responsible for. Now, I will be editing each eBay/TaoBao photo I post so that I can watermark the changes I made to the original image, and asking people who send me photos for permission to watermark the images they send me with "Used with permission by http://lissieandlily.blogspot.com". I have already gone through and edited all the leak photos from the 1960s BeForever character, the Girl of the Year 2016 Lea Clark, and the 30th Anniversary Special Edition Mini Dolls.

2) Original links will no longer be included in leak/rumor posts.

-Because I believe in giving credit when possible and being transparent with where I receive my information, I have always included the original link back to an auction or sales page on eBay/TaoBao with any leak/rumor post I upload. From this point on, I will no longer do so. I will still keep a list of links where the original leak is from, and I will be happy to share these with those who would like to message me through Lissie & Lilly's Facebook page. However I am no longer willing to make it easy for people who copy paste information others worked hard to find and share, especially without crediting back or citing their source.

***Update 11/14/2015***

For the past week, I've been reflecting and thinking back on these events. A big thing that has been bothering me is my decision to mark ebay/TaoBao images and stop posting the original auction links. I made that decision in the heat of my anger and it was wrong of me to do so. I do not own those images, the original seller does, and if I start marking images that don’t belong to me and not linking back to the original source, I will be behaving just as the LADL blogger did. After thinking on this matter, I have decided that going forward, I will continue to post the leak photos from eBay/TaoBao unmarked, and provide the original link. To the best of my ability, I have also gone back through the posts I've already made and revised them where I can. I should not let another individual’s choices make me compromise the standards I have set for myself, or I will be someone who is a hypocrite and lose the trust of my readers, and my confidence in myself.

I am very sorry to L&L readers for the inconvenience and trouble. Thank you all for your kindness and understanding. I very much appreciate all the support after the recent troubling events. Lissie & Lilly runs off of the generosity of readers and fellow collectors who take the time to think of us and share news and photos with us. It is an honor to post images readers share on the blog for everyone to benefit from, and I will strive to continue to improve Lissie & Lilly in an open and transparent manner. ^_^

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*Below I am including a full account of the events that led to these changes. Originally I had not planned on posting anything regarding this as I had hoped it could be quietly and peacefully resolved, and felt it was unnecessary to make a hullabaloo over a simple error. However, since the LADL blogger has taken to attacking me while being misleading in her reply to my request by hiding large portions of our interaction, I am making public the events so readers can have the full account of what transpired and judge for themselves the situation.*

Short Summary of Events: Someone alerted me that the LADL blog had posted an image one of my readers sent me to share on Lissie & Lilly. I asked the blogger to remove it and the blogger responded with a separate post implying I was being childish over an image cropped from eBay. I sent a second, more insistent message to the blogger that the image in question was not from eBay, but a personal photo taken by my reader of an outfit on her doll, and to remove the image. The blogger did remove the image then, and responded to my second message with a passive-aggressive response calling me unprofessional, nasty, ill behaved, and tacky. I responded to this with an equally strongly worded reply, calling her out on her hypocrisy, which she has hidden from the comments section, along with my first message which was civil and polite. 

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Full Sequence of Events:
(My notes and comments will be in red.)
Nov. 4th, morning - A reader informed me that the Living a Doll's Life blog had made a post which included an image that a fellow collector had sent me to share on Lissie & Lilly. The picture in question was of the Girl of the Year 2016 Lea Clark meet dress modeled on her Marisol doll, specifically a close up of the ego tag showing her name stitched into the dress. I visited the link and found it was true. Here is a screenshot of the post as I first saw it:

The image in question is the smaller, bottom image of the Lea Clark ego tag. It is a direct crop of the original image posted on Lissie & Lilly here and copied below for comparison: http://lissieandlilly.blogspot.com/2015/07/girl-of-year-2016-meet-outfit-on.html

The original post clearly states the images were sent to me by fellow AG collector who took the photos of an outfit she purchased on her dolls, and at the top of the post, specifically states to not use the images without her written permission.

*The watermark was added to the image as of the evening of Nov. 4th, as a result of this incident.*

You can clearly see it is the exact same image. I knew this was originally taken from L&L because I had photoshopped the original image she sent me to adjust for lighting and color balance. Even if my reader had shared the image with others, it would not have been the photoshopped, color corrected version which was only posted here.

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Nov. 4, a little before noon Central Time - I was very upset by this as this was a photo sent to me by a reader specifically to be shared on L&L and that I had personally worked on to adjust lighting and coloring. As I do not visit the LADL blog and am not familiar with it's layout, I scrolled through the length of the page and did not see a "Contact" or email address, so I left the following comment on the offending post:

"Hello,

The image you posted of the Lea Clark tag is a photo one of my blog readers sent to me to post. I personally edited the original photo that was sent to me to adjust for lighting. Please remove this image as I specifically stated to not repost any of the images without written permission. You can see the original post with the photo here: http://lissieandlilly.blogspot.com/2015/07/girl-of-year-2016-meet-outfit-on.html

Thank you."

You can decide for yourself if I was rude or unclear. For my part, I felt it was very straightforward and civil, without malice. I clearly stated in the comment this was an original photo I personally edited, as well as included a link for her to see for herself. 

The LADL blogger has her comment section set up so that every comment first has to be approved by her before she allows it to be posted, so of course my comment was not displayed immediately. As of this moment, the LADL blogger still has this first, original comment hidden on her page.

This is particularly frustrating for me because it makes it look like I immediately jumped to insistent, critical language without any due cause. Thankfully, I have heard numerous stories from others who have had their images stolen by the LADL blog in the past, and assumed something like this would happen, so I saved a copy of my response to a word document, as well as took a screenshot of the post. 

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Nov. 4, around 1pm Central Time - Still quite furious over the thievery and the lack of response or removal of the image, I posted on an AG forum I am a member of, AGC, explaining the situation and my irritation over it.

I freely admit that this was whiny because I wanted to vent. It was not necessary to do so, but I do not regret it, or any of the words I posted. 

You can view the thread in it's entirety here: http://w11.zetaboards.com/agcollectors/topic/11399395/1/

Here is what I posted:
"I am feeling very frustrated and wanted to vent. Someone brought it to my attention that the Living a Doll's Life blog has used a photo from my blog and when I went to look, I found it was true.

Here is the post on LADL (using DoNotLink because I am petty and don't want to give the post anymore traffic): http://www.donotlink.com/framed?804683
Here is the my original post: http://lissieandlilly.blogspot.com/2015/07/girl-of-year-2016-meet-outfit-on.html

The image in question is the second one on her post showing the Lea Clark ego tag. It was cropped from the second photo in my post showing the meet outfit modeled on various dolls. I have heard numerous stories of LADL stealing images belonging to others without asking and crediting, but this is the first time I witnessed it happen in person. It's particularly infuriating because this was an image one of my readers sent to me to share, and I personally retouched the image to adjust for the indoor lighting. It was not an image widely available on the net through eBay or TaoBao. I have tried to comment on the post and ask for it to be removed, but the blogger has not responded yet. I generally don't feel it is right to stick my watermark on images I didn't personally take (such as images from other readers or from eBay) unless requested by the original photographer, but recently I have been rethinking this, and moving forward, I will be watermarking more images, especially if I touched the image in any way, even if it is just cropping it on Photoshop. 

I know this rant may come off sounding petty and a part of me wants to take the higher road and ignore it, but I'm not that perfect of a person. Right now I just want as many people to know as possible that this is the blogger who claims to "strive to blog with integrity and honesty" last year and who is still not only posting leaked AG images and leaked images from eBay/TaoBao, but still stealing photos from other AG collectors. I eagerly post leaks from eBay and TaoBao as well, but I never claimed I wouldn't as LADL has. I always ask for permission from the first person I saw share new info to post, and I do my best to give credit to whoever I first heard the news from (unless they ask to remain anonymous) and link back to their blog/social media, as well as include the original link the image was first found. 

It may sound juvenile to make such a fuss about one small image, but I want people who are kind enough to send me photos to share to feel safe doing so, and I don't ever want to give LADL or any one else the impression that I am perfectly fine with having things snatched from L&L and won't make a ruckus about it. Thank you for letting me rage and rant!"

Please feel free to read through all my posts in that thread in it's entirety. Since posts cannot be deleted off of AGC's forum, rest assured none of my words have been deleted in an attempt to "hide" anything. The original post itself has not been edited either. While I was very critical of the LADL blogger's actions and expressed my anger accordingly, I did not ask for others to "bash" or attack her, though I am extremely grateful for the support of those who stood up for me.

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Nov. 4, before 10pm Central Time - At this point, the LADL blogger still had not removed the stolen image, still was keeping my first comment hidden, and instead created a separate post (This post has now been deleted.) where she very emphatically stressed that she receives countless messages each day from people who send her things to post and that any person can crop an eBay photo. That does not make the eBay photos the property of any blogger. She then included two examples of tags she cropped. She also included a screen shot of several angry comments that she had received about her actions, at least one of which used profane language, and said the behavior [angry comments] was childish. Her original post with the stolen image was then edited with a caption above the stolen photo stating that the image was sent to her by "Alessandra Levato".

I am in disbelief at her actions by this point. It is clear she did not pay any mind to my first message or visit the link to verify my words, as her separate post makes obvious she is under the impression the anger is due to an image taken from eBay. I have absolutely no issues with other people seeing the same eBay auction/TaoBao listing as I do and posting those images, as I have no claim to those. However, I do take great affront to having personal, original, copyright material stolen and used, especially when it is an image a reader who trusted me sent me specifically for L&L. 

It is manipulative and underhanded to imply that I am getting worked up over a freely available eBay image I don't have any rights to, then to go and hide any comments that call the blogger out on her actions or attempts to clarify the truth of the matter.

In response, I left two more comments, one on her separate post about cropping photos from eBay, and one on her original post, now edited to give credit for the image to "Alessandra Levato."

Comment on Separate Cropping Photos from eBay Post:
"The photo you have used from my blog is not from eBay or TaoBao. It is a PERSONAL photo taken by my blog reader who sent it to me specifically for me to share on L&L. I have the *original* photo that my reader sent me of her own dolls wearing an outfit she purchased. You have constantly insisted you blog with integrity, so I am asking you to please respect the copyright and original content of your fellow bloggers and remove the image. The original post states that the images she sent me should not be used without written permission, and while I understand someone else may have sent the image to you and you were not aware it is an original image, not "fair game" bait from eBay and TaoBao, I hope you will have the integrity and honesty to remove the stolen image now that you have been alerted this is an original, copyright photo that does not belong to you."

The LADL blogger hid this comment right up to the moment she deleted the post. 

Comment on Original Post with Stolen Photo:

"The photo does not belong to Alessandra Lavato and has never belonged to Alessandra Lavato. The ORIGINAL photo was sent to me by my reader who only gave permission for it to be shared on Lissie & Lilly. I personally adjusted the photo to correct for lighting. I have the original photo my reader sent me in an email as proof. Even if you received the image from Alessandra Lavato, it is still originally stolen from my blog and reader, which is the original source. Please remove the photo! This is not a leaked image from eBay or TaoBao, but a personal photo. After your post on your ethics and integrity, I would hope you would respect other fellow bloggers. This is a specific image my reader and I have a copyright claim to, no matter how many times it has been shared without permission."

She allowed this comment to be visible in the comments section, while still keeping my first, civil request hidden, once again misleading readers to think that I jumped straight into chastising her. 

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Nov. 4, after 11pm Central Time - Finally, finally, finally! The LADL blogger removed the stolen image completely! But in it's place she left the caption that stated the image was from "Alessandra Levato" as well as a screen shot of my second comment.

I found this act to be the epitome of being passive-aggressive. The fact that the LADL blogger still had my first, polite request hidden and only posted a screen shot of the second, more emphatic comment shows this game of misleading and hiding things from readers is still ongoing.

Then, the LADL blogger responded to my second comment which she had allowed to be posted to the blog. (In order for her to respond to it, she had to allow the comment to be posted.) Here is a screenshot of her response:

Here is her response in text form for those who may have trouble getting the image loaded:

"Lilly Maiden,

This image was sent to me from ALESSANDRA LAVATO. I do not visit your blog. I haven't the time in my schedule. Clearly she's a reader, maybe contact her with your grief about your Lea Clark image and stop making false accusations. You speak about respecting other bloggers, LADL has NEVER mentioned you or your blog, however you have directed traffic to LADL over a small label image to start blog wars.

It would have been more professional and respectful of you to send an EMAIL blogger to blogger instead of choosing this form of communication. It looks petty and boring for readers when you carry on this way in the comments section.

I have removed the Lea Clark image at your request and simply because I would like to keep LADL separate from your blog completely! I have worked with many other doll bloggers because I believe we are a community, but have never come up against such nasty and ill behavior as was displayed over a 2x2 image. I would appreciate you toning down the attitude a bit for everyone's sake. I have never railed against a fellow blogger in this style. It's just so tacky.

I wish you the best on your blog.

Thank you."

Incredible! Absolutely incredible! I am floored at the gall of her response and her stance that the fault lies with me for:
1) Not telling "Alessandra Levato" to stop sharing photos (Who on earth is that? You're the blogger, you need to be responsible for what you post and verify the source of what is shared with you.)
2) Not emailing her (Where is your email? Maybe if it was easily visible on your page, I could have done so.)
3) Making false accusations (Did I lie about my image being used on LADL's post? Oh wait, it was removed at this point without full context so no one can tell. Thank goodness I took a screenshot.).

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Nov. 5, 1am Central Time - I finished watermarking and reposting all images at this point, and was able to draft a coherent response to her comment. Here is my full reply (which the LADL blogger has unsurprisingly hidden). It had to be broken into 2 separate comments.

Part 1 of My Response:
"Rhonda F,

I understand that you may not have realized the image did not come from eBay or TaoBao, but from my blog. However, once I alerted you that this was from one of my readers, instead of simply apologizing for what could very well be an innocent error and removing the image, you decided to make a separate post on how “childish” it is for me to protect my reader. 

Contrary to your post, a person does OWN the image in question, and your post is misleading to your readers, implying that I am making a fuss over an image that is from eBay or TaoBao when I am protecting my copyright and original content.

I do not visit your blog. I haven’t the time in my schedule. Clearly someone who does contacted me about this, otherwise I would not have known. Just as you do not know the identity of the thousands of visitors you receive each day, so too I do not know the thousands of visitors I receive. Therefore your sentence about contacting "ALESSANDRA LAVATO" directly is not a viable option. As a blogger, perhaps it is you who should be taking steps to ensure that the things people send you were not taken from other bloggers. We are fortunate enough to receive photos and news from many others, and it is our responsibility to verify the sources so we do not post false or stolen images and news.

I do speak about respecting other bloggers, and I am glad this issue has brought you traffic, even if it is through such grievous circumstances. I did not come here to start a blog war over a photo. It is you who have escalated this by making a separate, petty post that is not pertinent to this situation, when I only asked for my original, personal image to be removed. 

It would have been more professional and respectful for you to remove the image when first requested, instead of going through the work of writing a separate post just to highlight how easy it is to crop an image from eBay. As I do not visit you blog, I will point out that you do not have your email in an easy, open to find location on your page. I made an first comment, which was very civil and straightforward, which I see you removed, leaving only my second, more insistent comment instead. It comes off petty and boring for readers all around when you play these misleading games in the comments section.

Thank you for removing my reader’s photo. I would like to keep LADL separate from my blog completely! I have worked with many other doll bloggers and fans as well, because I appreciate the camaraderie, but I have never come across such disrespectful and juvenile behavior over a photo that didn’t belong to you. I would appreciate if you refrained from using images from others and lower your rude tone for everyone’s sake. I have never lashed out against another blogger, or another individual period, in this manner before but I find this behavior disgusting."

Part 2 of My Response:
"I do not know if you will allow this comment to be displayed on your blog, as you did not allow my first comment to be displayed either, but if you do, for clarity’s sake and honesty to your readers who may skim through this long exchange, here is my original, first comment, which you have not allowed to be displayed:

“Hello, 

The image you posted of the Lea Clark tag is a photo one of my blog readers sent to me to post. I personally edited the original photo that was sent to me to adjust for lighting. Please remove this image as I specifically stated to not repost any of the images without written permission. You can see the original post with the photo here: http://lissieandlilly.blogspot.com/2015/07/girl-of-year-2016-meet-outfit-on.html

Thank you.”

They can judge for themselves if that was civil and straightforward or not. Perhaps they will understand then, why my second comment was decidedly less amicable when instead of removing the image, you made a separate post implying I was making a big fuss over an image from eBay someone had sent you, called me childish, and are now responding in the most foul manner to what was a very simple, and genial request.

I wish you the best with your blog.
Thank you.

Lilly M."

I will be the first to admit that it was unnecessary for me to mock her reply and parrot the format back to her in mine. But I have never claimed to be a benevolent boulder on a moral mountain. I am human, and when I have been stolen from, misportrayed, and then attacked by the thief all in one day, I will experience feelings of anger, frustration, and ire. Therefore, while the format of my response was petty, I stand by every word and have no regrets regarding my reply.

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Nov. 5, morning - As of this morning, the LADL blogger has removed the separate post she made regarding the ease of cropping eBay photos and calling me childish for being upset at her for using my stolen image in it's entirety. The original post with the stolen image has been edited as well to remove the screenshot of my comment, as well as the caption above it attributing the photo to "Alessandra Levato". The second comment I made, as well as her "tacky" reply remains up in the comments section. My first, civil and polite comment is still hidden, as well as my lengthy reply to her.

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Nov. 6, morning - The second comment along with the LADL blogger's response have been removed now as well. I am grateful to the LADL blogger for doing so, and I am sorry that it had to be escalated to this level before it was fully addressed.

I would like to ask people to refrain from attacking the LADL blogger over this matter, as that is not the point of this post, which is only to clarify the events that occurred. Thank you to everyone who has offered support and advice through this mess!

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In conclusion:
I'm quite fed up with this immature behavior. While I am glad that the LADL blogger has removed the image, I don't understand her desire to keep the second comment and her reply visible in the comments section. If you're going to wipe all trace of your wrongdoing, then at least be thorough. By leaving just my comment with her accusatory reply without any acknowledgement in the post of the edits made and the context of the situation, it is once again intentionally misleading to readers who will only see me reacting negatively to what appears to be cropped eBay photos, especially when my response to her ranting reply is hidden. That is also one of the main reasons I have taken the time and effort to make this post, so that the entire situation can be transparent and open and people can see the complete sequence of events. I have not hidden any action on my part, and have striven to be as accurate as possible in recounting the events, including pointing out unnecessary actions on my part as well.

Update 11/6/2015: My comment and her reply have now been removed.

I want to stress that I am in no way telling anyone which blogs to visit or avoid, or to start a "blog war" as the LADL blogger termed it. However I will not stand by idly while an image a L&L reader trusted me with is stolen without so much as asking, and I will not let myself and Lissie & Lilly be slandered just because a blogger was angry due to her own lack of responsibility in following up with the source of information being sent to her. As a blogger, I feel it is my job to make sure the information and leaks I am posting are as accurate as possible and not stolen content, which is why I previously always included an original link to where I found an image as well as giving credit to the individual who took the time to think of me and share news/photos with me. I prefer to be transparent and open on L&L, and while I in no way expect everyone else to do so, I at least expect a full grown adult woman to have the maturity to apologize and remove an image when she has been alerted that it is a stolen one, without resorting to passive-aggressive, manipulative deeds.

I absolutely am making a mountain out of a molehill. There was only one image stolen (as far as I know). I do this because I do not want to give anyone the impression it is acceptable to steal from me or my readers who have been so generous with their time and talents, and then accuse me for making "false accusations" while selectively cherry picking what is visible to viewers. It takes a lot for me to get angry but when I do, I am as human as any other and will do what is necessary to protect myself and those who have supported me.

Thank you to everyone who visits Lissie & Lilly! This blog has always been something I've maintained as a hobby and creative outlet, and it is always such a joy to see how kind visitors are with their insight, advice, suggestions, and enthusiasm for our shared interest. I truly appreciate your patience with me, and forgiveness for my shortcomings. ^_^

*Note: This post will be attached to the top navigation bar for the next few weeks so people can reference it if there are questions about the changes. It may remain longer, or may come down sooner, I really don't know for now.