This is a lechon cake.
The artist behind this sweet creation is Dr. Harriet Florendo-Cheng, the granddaughter of the woman dubbed as the "Philippine's Cake Queen.
Dr. Cheng is one of the many home-based entrepreneurs selling their goods online. In her Facebook and Multiply accounts, she regularly uploads sample photos of her finished products and promptly responds to the increasing number of orders made by her clients.
Everything was going smoothly, until the day she discovered that another person took her pictures and used it to sell her own goods. After being confronted about it, the online thief removed the photos that were not hers.
Dr. Cheng is only one of the exponentially growing number of people who have been victims of "online theft." Stealing online has been made easy by the use of a right click and clicking that "save" option. Uploading stuff taken from somebody else, without the owner's permission, is similarly a no-brainer with the help of user-friendly programs of various websites. Getting caught is the least worry of the perpetrator, after all, what are the odds of the owner chancing upon your hole in the wall in the literally world-wide-web?
Take these factors and combine them with the fact that laws pertaining to crimes and intellectual property violations done on the internet are hardly enforced, then you have the perfect formula for committing your perfect misdeed.
So now, the question goes: What ought to be done by an artist, one who yearns to express himself and wants the world to take part in his creations?
Find ways to protect your works. Two of the easiest ways commonly done nowadays are:
1) Do NOT upload.
2) Watermark.
(Never mind if the second option lessens the aesthetic quality of your work, at least it gives you a sense of security over it).
ENTRY #1 Posted by Diana Margaret C. Lauron
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