Up until a week or so ago, I had dismissed the disregard some people had toward blogs as a general misconception as to what these online missives really were. That like diaries and journals of old, these were glimpses into another person’s life, consciousness, private space ~ a window to their soul ~ if I may wax poetic here for a second.

I believe that like me those who publish their writings to the world take them very seriously. We write about our inner struggles, our families, our ups and downs, sometimes with humor, sometimes with angst, but always with truth and heart.

There are still, and always will be, people who view blogs as nothing more than drivel, as ramblings of no consequence.

How wrong they are. And we must take back what is ours, must stand up for our rights and not tolerate disrespect by ignorant people toward us and what we do.

Like the person who took my words as her own ~ it was a violation of a very personal nature, a ambush, a theft of my identity ~ albeit a crime of inexperience.

Like the reporter who believed that she had the right to Kelly’s words, never identifying who Kelly was actually speaking to, never mentioning that the interview was not with her. This person, whose own profession censors word thieves, was wrong. Her editors were wrong, and that there has been no effort to right these wrongs is reprehensible, and a blight on an honorable vocation.

Like the fellow mom who, after reading about my drama, found not a single story stolen, but her entire blog appropriated. Not just her words, but also photographs of her children. I can hardly imagine her reaction to that discovery.

Like Heather who shared painful and traumatic events of her life to only have a purported friend steal them, offering them as false proof of her own violations. So harshly affecting Heather that for a time she lost her trust in people.

All of these were not words written in secret on a bathroom wall. The author is clear and has not just ethical rights of ownership, but legal rights of ownership.