What Happened When I Saw A Massive Fight On Instagram

So, quick rewind to Monday. It was lunchtime so I thought I'd browse through my feed on IG, whilst stuffing some quinoa and spinach into my voluminous gob. (I say browse, it was more like a feverish attempt at trying to keep up with the bloody thing. Anyone else's IG get completely out of control on 'em? Swear to god, if I don't look at it for a few hours it becomes this monsterous beast of images that I need to get through. And how annoying is it when it times out? Apologies to anyone whose pics I normally like and I may have missed- now you know why). As I was manically scrolling, I stumbled upon some major beef. Huge. Massive. Eyes on stalks. The whole bit. It was a show-down between a fashion blogger (let's call her Miss 7K) and an Inspo'er (let's call her Miss 3k). Here's how it rolled:-

Girl v Girl

Miss 7K accused Miss 3K of 'stealing' her pictures without crediting them. Miss 7K also said (in a seriously angry and very sweary way) that Miss 3K was refusing to delete or do anything about 'owning up' to the fact that a picture on her account was 'stolen'. Miss 3K (whose bio deets clearly stated 'this is an inspo account none of the pictures are my own') carried on taking a lot of flak and defending her actions (rather weakly admittedly, but it appeared that English was not her first language). Miss 7K rallied her troops and before too long a plethora of 'supportive' IGers had reported Miss 3K's account. 

Theft v Inspiration

This whole sorry tale got me to thinking. What is right and what is wrong when it comes to 'using' pictures on-line? If you follow my IG you'll know I post a mix of inspos and my own pics. I love seeking out an image that hasn't been seen 'everywhere' and throwing it into the mix (although it is kinda depressing when that particular shot gets wayyy more likes than anything I've done myself). I always state my source, but more often than not my source is the murky world of Tumblr where images are routinely not credited. To take Miss 7K's theory to its most extreme, the whole of Tumblr should basically be shut down. There are shades of grey in all of this, and I found myself asking 'What would I feel if I were in that situation?' (God only knows it's distinctly unlikely anyone will ever wanna pinch one of my images but for the sake of this post let's make that leap of faith). And I could only conclude I wouldn't actually care much. Of course it's nice to get credited, but I don't think I'd be doing what Miss 7K did (which actually amounted to bullying). Another fashion blogger who waded into the whole thing- Miss 25k- commented 'people don't realise how much work goes into creating pictures'. And I thought (the cogs were really whirring and clicking on Monday), actually, people very well know how much work it takes to create a beautiful image and most of them don't have the time or the skillz to do it themselves so they 'resort' to 'theft'. 

The Conclusion

A bright spark once commented 'there are only five original ideas in the whole of human artistry, everything else is plagiarism'. And I'd go with that. (Soz copyright lawyers and Marvin Gaye's fam). There are many things to get pissed off about when it comes to blogging and gramming, but I try and take the Marcel Duchamp approach where poss. His glass work 'The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors' got smashed during transit going from one museum to another and he was very cool about the whole debaclé and said he didn't mind and that his art (once he'd glued it all back together) maybe even looked better all patched-up and with visible damage. His chilledness is my inspo. (And if inspo is theft then lock me up with Pharrell and Robin T. Actually, on second thoughts, make that just Pharrell).

PS By the way, both of these pics are my own, feel free to 'borrow'/'use'/'steal'/'pin'/'tumble'/'ignore' as you see fit. And hit me up with your thoughts on this whole issue too :) xx