He Stole My Content, Tried to Gaslight Me, and Lashed Out When I Took Action

He used my content without permission or credit.

I had a choice: let it go or take a stand.

When someone does something that is unacceptable or unsavory, we have a choice to take intentional action or react.

Intentional Action: Making a conscious and intentional choice to do something, and following through, is taking intentional action. When you take intentional action you are making choices based on your values and goals, and you exercise your personal power through making that choice.

Reaction: When you respond based on emotion or something outside of yourself, you are reacting. When we are in reaction, we are not standing in our personal power, and often our choices are not something we have thought through. Reaction often results after being triggered by something deeper in our subconscious and can often lead us to behave in a way that is not the best version of ourselves.

I spent many years in reaction mode. In the overwhelm states of fight, flight, or freeze, I’d fight. I speak sarcasm fluently and am capable of cutting deep with my words. But through a lot of internal work, I’ve learned that fighting with people who have zero meaning in my life only drained me and left me with less energy to give to people I do care about.

I do not have to cut others down to own and stand in my power! In fact, I choose not to.

Leadership isn’t just how we show up in front of our clients or employees.

It’s how we hold ourselves in the

• quiet moments,
• when no one’s watching,
• when we could justify staying silent,
• when we’re tired of being the bigger person.

The phrase “know when to pick your battles” does not necessarily mean that you should not take action. But it does mean choosing your actions so that they have the greatest return for the life you are creating.

When this man I didn’t know did what he did, I knew it was my responsibility to protect both my intellectual property and my peace.

The Details of the Copyright Issue

I published a post with this graphic. I’ve used this image with different captions for 4+ years. I created it with my own handwriting and my iphone camera. A man I do not know decided to use my image as his Facebook cover photo without giving credit and without my permission.

Here Are the Steps I Took to Protect My Peace and Intellectual Property

Give Benefit of the Doubt

My nervous system wanted to lash out. But, I know that sometimes the way you see things is not how they really are. I sent this individual a private message and a reply on my post with the intention of educating and asking him to properly site my ownership. I didn’t get a response and Facebook said he wouldn’t see the message.

Still choosing benefit of the doubt, I tagged him on the post he had interacted with.

Rather than acknowledge my ownership he made a choice to tell me it was no longer mine, which is false. You maintain copywrite for all content that you share on Facebook and Instagram as of the time of the writing of this post. (Read their terms of service for any future changes.) The terms on these platforms express that you give the platforms (not everyone who sees the content) the right to publish and distribute the content. That is how the content is legally displayed on their platform when you hit the publish button.

Note: Your creations, no matter how simple, are your intellectual property. It is your right to protect them.

Take Informed Action When There is No More Doubt

When he refused and tried to gaslight me, I reached out to the amazing Nicole Oden @LegalTemplatesAndMore to get her thougts. She quickly pointed me to both Instagram's and Facebook's copyright infringement reporting forms. (If you are not following her, you should.)

• Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/contact/552695131608132
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/copyrightform

I filled out the forms and was happily surprised how quickly Facebook responded. It was a smooth process.

Choose Peace

When Facebook quickly ruled in my favor (I could prove ownership) he unblocked me to display what I can only describe as an adult man who was angry he could not get his way and was lashing out.

Take action, don’t react when jerks show up. Do what you need to do, but don’t let them steal any of your peace.

I said a prayer of peace for him, consciously chose forgiveness, and then blocked him everywhere I could find him.

Note: You can forgive and choose to set boundaries that are healthy for you.

Document

Taking a page out of my college boss’s playbook (thank you Ms. Beale) I took screenshots and screen videos of everything and uploaded to my file storage just in case it would be needed in the future.

Express Gratitude

I won’t pretend I wanted to deal with this. But I am grateful for the tools, the community, and the support that made quick action possible.

I’m grateful for the inner work I’ve done that let me stay grounded.

And funny enough… I’m even grateful for the content inspiration.

Because every time life throws a test, it also hands you a choice to react, or respond with intention.

And when you’re in integrity, nothing is wasted.

Your Takeaways

In a world full of noise, reflection and intentional action are how we stay rooted in who we are.
Not every moment deserves your energy, but every choice shapes your future.
What will you choose, next time your values are tested?

I’d love to hear if this story helped you or taught you something.

If it did, then all that messiness will be even more worth it.

Know someone who needs to hear this today?
I'd be honored if you would send it to them or save it for the next time you need a reminder of how powerful calm action can be.

More on Intellectual Property (Articles and Affiliate Links)

• *Copyright Issues EVERY Business Owner Needs to Know Before Using Photos Online by Nicole Oden
• *Different Types of Intellectual Property by Nicole Oden
• *Using Intellectual Property Releases by Nicole Oden
• And if you'd like to protect your hard work with agreements that are written with your specific needs in mind, you mihgt like *Nicole Oden's legal templates