Hello, everyone. I am the one who posted the caresheets on the Reptile Refuge forums. I found out about this thread this morning, and have just now been getting around to chiming in. There are a lot of posts in here that I'd like to defend myself against, but that'd take me all night, and quite frankly, I don't have the time nor desire. So, I'll reply to a few newer posts, and provide other information that will undoubtedly answer any questions in the previous posts.
"That's fine for you, that's your choice, and you can profit off them, but the other approximate 28 do not have or want a business arrangement with them and do object to someone stealing their work and claiming it as their own."
Woah, woah. I NEVER said I wrote ANY of those caresheets. In fact, with the exception of a few, every one of them had links back to the creators website. So, tell me, how do you figure I was calling them my own? As for making a business arrangement with dwedeking, there is none that I'm aware of. The link at the bottom of my forums was put there by me, with no instruction from him. I did that because I've always liked his website, and he's one hell of a guy, which is more than I can say for you.
"You have not see how they treated other reptile business owners. They lied and claimed they were written by them or their mods work from their experience. When called on it by those who really did own the sheets, they tried to blame others, said a "friends" experience was used to write them..."
"Jim of HomeGrownHerps was insulted and even banned as "clogging up the forum" since he publicly said they were his and got the person who claimed he wrote it (or part) to admit he never even raised the species the care sheet was about and only added a few lines. Of course that thread is deleted now"
Wrong. reptiletrader is who you're talking about, I'm sure. He was asked several times to post a link to his website which supposedly contained this caresheet. I got sick of the arguing and simply deleted the thread and banned him. Why? How was I to know that he wasn't simply someone else trying to destroy the reputation of our forums? He sure wasn't interested in proving it was his work. If he's so protective over it, why not at least prove it? Moldypotato told me that he wrote that caresheet. I posted it and didn't think twice about it. Additionally, "clogging up the forum" was never an issue, nor was it mentioned. We have more than plenty of space on that website, and unlimited bandwidth. I simply got sick of the arguing.
There seems to be a lot of speculation going on in this thread. I've read the entire thing several times to assure that I've not misread, or misunderstood anything. When I copied the caresheets, I honestly didn't know that it was against the law. I posted them, not to claim them as my own work, or to make money with the information, but to give the information to people who needed or wanted it. Sure, ignorance of the law is no excuse, however, it wasn't intentional, and I think that should stand for something.
When I was first confronted with the issue, I wasn't mad, or upset in any way. The creator of the caresheet sent me a private message requesting the deletion of that thread, and I did so. As I did with every other caresheet who's creator wanted them removed. Eventually, I removed all that I did not have direct permission to use. I did not argue about that. I just did it and went on. I did not simply delete them and go find another one from another site, like you seem to think I did. Hense, speculation.
Some people messaged me and told me that they don't mind the caresheet being up, but they'd like a little more than a simple link back to their website for credit. So, I edited the post and put what they told me to put there. All was well. You see, there's a LOT better ways to go about this other than using this thread to basically bash us and give the impression that we're some kind of thief in the night. It was a frickin' genuine mistake. Surely you've made mistakes before.
Since this has begun, several people have sent me private messages on my forum with url's to their websites which contain images and caresheets, and told me that I can use any of them that I want, as long as I credit the owner. Very nice of them, and I appreciate it very much. They realize that this has been blown way out of proportion.
I was nothing but nice to everyone who sent me a message about this, regardless of the fact that some of them were in no way nice to me. Most people simply sent me a message telling me what they want done, and I did it. They said thanks, and that was that.
I am sorry that I've gotten this many people into an uproar about this, and I assure you, that was not even remotely my intention. I'm just trying to have a forum like all of the other forums out there. I am not trying to break any laws, or piss anyone off. This issue has already lost 2 of my moderators and several of my regular posters, who I'm sure were fed wrong information.
I'm not the cloaked thief you guys are making me out to be. I made a mistake, and corrected it in a very timely manner. I've even made some new friends out of the deal. And I'm always looking for new friends. So, flame me if you will, but that's what happened, and I'll be more than happy to give you any other information you may want.
