A Drivel Runs Through It

Setting Sunflowers

2010-03-08T23:58:00.001-07:00

Shadow of Life

2010-03-01T14:12:00.001-07:00

New West Featured Photo

2010-02-23T10:43:00.001-07:00

Currently featured on New West .

No Exit

2010-02-14T17:25:00.001-07:00

Noah Releasing the Raven

2010-01-30T14:55:00.001-07:00

New sculpture on the UM campus.

Recent Writing

2010-01-30T14:44:00.003-07:00

I have two pieces in the new issue of the Montanan magazine:

Living Legacy: UM Inaugurates Esther England Funds, Concert Series. I also took the accompanying photo of singer Michelle Berger, hamming it up in her pink feather boa.

Where The Big Fish Lie: UM’s Creative Writing Program among the country’s elite. My sidebar is below David Allan Cates' essay.

Winter on the Clark Fork

2010-01-27T00:22:00.001-07:00

flew

2010-01-25T14:22:00.001-07:00

Tumbleweed

2010-01-21T11:57:00.001-07:00

The Hill

2010-01-14T00:03:00.001-07:00

My treadmill.

New West Featured Photo

2010-01-06T20:23:00.001-07:00

Today's featured photo on New West.

Fwix Sucks

2010-01-06T18:33:00.006-07:00

A couple months ago Fwix started showing up in search results for my site. Fwix is one of many "hyperlocal" aggregators -- which basically means they gather content from blogs and other feeds in a city or region and compile it on one page, like Fwix Missoula. That's cool, as long as it's fair use -- a headline, a couple of sentences, a link to the original page.

I was fine with Fwix publishing headlines, paragraphs and thumbnail images for every single one of my blog posts on its main Missoula page and a page just for my blog. But I was definitely not OK with the fact that when you click on any of those headline links, my pages open up in an iframe with Fwix's URL in the address bar and their header or footer at the top or bottom. Keep clicking links on my page, and they keep opening up in Fwix's frames.

As far as I'm concerned, that's stealing my content.

As a San Francisco-based start-up initially funded with $2.75 million, Fwix doesn't have advertising yet -- but according to articles I've read, it will. I'm not at all opposed to Internet advertising, but I made a conscious decision to protect my integrity and credibility by not accepting advertising on my personal website. I have a real problem with someone else making money off of my writing, my photography and my web design.

Not to mention that the headers and footers contain stupid questions like "Do you think this is sad?" and "Do you think this is shocking?" for people to vote on. I resent my thoughtful and heartfelt content being surrounded by such vapidity.

I first emailed Fwix on Nov. 12 and politely but firmly requested they remove my content. Here's the reply I received:

Dear Patia,

We have removed your source from Fwix and we will no longer be selecting headlines from your publicly available feeds for our main feed. For the record, we are in no way "appropriating" or "copying" content. The feeds you have made available to the public are considered fair use and we are removing your feed from aggregation simply as a courtesy.

Best,
Joe Payne
Content Editor

Fwix did stop including my feed on their main pages; however, all of my pages that they had previously indexed are still in their system. My content is still showing up on Fwix in Google searches. I have emailed them repeatedly and gotten nowhere. And as I said, Fwix is doing far more than "selecting headlines"; they're placing entire pages inside their frames. And they're doing it to bloggers all over the world.

I'm no legal expert and I'd guess this is an area of the law that has yet to be tried in court. I don't have the time or money to pursue it, but I sure hope someone does. Stealing content sucks.

New Year's Eve In Missoula

2010-01-01T13:51:00.003-07:00

New West Featured Photo

2010-01-01T13:47:00.002-07:00

This is the Featured Photo of the Week on New West. I shot it in November behind the Symes Hotel in Hot Springs.

Christmas Night on the Prairie

2009-12-25T11:24:00.001-07:00

Last year.

The Clark Fork River Restored

2009-12-22T15:08:00.002-07:00

Flowers on the Clark Fork.

An article I wrote about the removal of Milltown Dam recently came out in Vision, the University of Montana's research magazine.

"Murky Movement: Milltown dam removal releases sediments" looks at the research of UM professor Andrew Wilcox and the effects of dam removal on the river, both positive and negative.

Holiday Lights

2009-12-17T13:34:00.001-07:00

Symes Antiques in Hot Springs, Montana.

Keep The Soul In Solstice

2009-12-06T22:16:00.001-07:00

The real reason for the season.

My latest design, available in greeting cards, notecards and stickers via Cafe Press.

Etsy For The Holidays

2009-12-02T02:21:00.005-07:00

I've updated my Etsy shop with holiday greeting cards, a 2010 Montana calendar and more images for prints of all sizes. Christmas will be here before you know it!

Montana Moondance

2009-11-28T01:09:00.002-07:00

Good Eggs From Happy Chickens

2009-11-24T13:27:00.001-07:00

On Sunday I bought an egg share from Heather's Heritage Hens, a new business I read about in a Missoulian article.

Basically, you pay in advance for a few months' worth of eggs; it works out to about $5 a dozen. It's a bit more expensive than the grocery store, but these are VERY happy, healthy chickens. Besides, it's worth it to get to go visit these comedians every week or two.

If you're interested, contact Heather at 214-1524 or envirovore .at. gmail .dot. com.

Butterfly Herbs Still Life

2009-11-20T14:58:00.001-07:00

Dogs Welcoming Home Soldiers

2009-11-11T13:54:00.006-07:00

There is a whole page of these at mental_floss.

(Via April.)

W is for Wilma

2009-11-09T19:15:00.002-07:00

Montana Gothic Slideshow

2009-11-01T11:50:00.000-07:00