People do the same stupid shit, over and over again, don't learn from it and are then shocked and outraged when they come short. It's both frustrating and pathetic.
"Regardless of your political leaning, the distinguishing feature of idealism is that it evaporates when it meets reality."
Idealists also need to get out and touch grass a hell of a lot more. Yes, there are bad people in the world who do bad things that they shouldn't. The harsh reality is that no matter how much you protest, try to change them and play innocent victim to their antics, they are not going to change. You, on the other hand, might. If someone gives you information/constructive advice that you can use to help keep yourself safe, use it instead of crapping on them and throwing a pity party because they didn't stroke your ego and preserve your bubble of naïveté.
If you know that you're going to walk through a snake-infested area, but don't inform yourself of the dangers and take adequate precautions against being bit, don't blame the snakes for doing what they're going to do. Yes, it sucks that you got bit, but that's on you because you knew better, but did it anyway. Fuck around and find out! The Internet (particularly the Web) is not a safe space and privacy/security has mostly been an afterthought.
Just as there is practically nothing a target can do to stop a rapist from raping them, a determined content thief also can't be stopped. However, there are things that can be done to frustrate those efforts, precautions that can be taken. No matter how good the security of any system, no matter how many safeguards are put in place, someone who's determined to get in and plunder it will get in and do so, eventually. It's just a question of when. This is true for both offline and online systems (although online ones are often easier to crack, due to the fact that there's only so much that technology can do). Anyone with the knowledge, skills and tools to circumvent safeguards will do so if motivated enough. Security won't stop them, but make it much harder for them than if everything's out in the open. (Any site worth using will provide features/options for this, but they are not fool-proof. Most often, you're the fool in this scenario, due to simply not learning and using them.) This is why it's important to make use of the features/options available to you to protect your content. If you don't and your content gets jacked by a bad actor, it's actually you whom is responsible for that, it's your negligence, not the platform/site on which you posted it. If, on the other hand, you have done everything that you can to protect your content and it still gets pinched, then it is the site's problem and responsibility to investigate and see what, if anything, can be done to increase security. That's when I will be inclined to be empathetic to you for what happened. Otherwise, you're wasting the time and energy of people who probably have better things to do than feed your drama.
The difference between me and the people that steal and repost your content as theirs is that while I know how to do so (usually little more than inspecting elephants, DOM manipulation, script injection and taking and editing screenshots, assuming images aren't watermarked), I don't do it because I believe it's morally wrong; a site's ToU prohibiting it isn't a consideration (because it's not a prevention). To be clear here, I'm not condoning the theft or blaming the victims, but I do happen to live in reality. Nobody asks for this to happen to them, but it's more likely to if they act carelessly/irresponsibly.
It's particularly prominent among North Americans, Europeans and Brits, who leave their stuff out in the open for any passer-by to nick (instead of restricting access to only the people they know and trust) and then act surprised when it is. Those of us in poorer countries, where opportunistic crime is more common, are a bit more savvy (or so I hope, anyway). We do our best to avoid going through bad areas where we might get robbed, yet people don't seem to apply the same thinking/caution to their online presence, for some reason.
It's also particularly stupid/poor strategy to go after a bad actor whom you know doesn't follow the rules while leaving yourself open to a counter-attack. It's no good being surprised and upset by the horrible consequences when they happen, being left crying over spilled milk. Make an informed decision, make reasonable choices and take only the risks that you're prepared to, own your mistakes or shut up, instead of being outraged at the site not doing enough to protect you when you haven't taken adequate steps for yourself first. Get with the program and take some personal responsibility instead of expecting the site's administrators/caretakers to spoon-feed you! You're probably not that important to them for them to bother, to begin with. If you don't want your content (be it images, videos, writing, etc.) stolen or aren't prepared to take that risk, hide it or lock it away as best you can or, better yet, don't put it online. Also, if the site doesn't watermark it or place some sort of unique identifier on it that proves it's yours, do it yourself. It really is that simple.
Believe me; there's a branch of the US government (I think it's CISA, but it might be the FTC) that fines companies/sites for inadequately securing American users' data or not taking adequate precautions to protect it (not necessarily for actual breaches, if they can prove they did all they could to prevent them). Companies take that seriously, and so should you.
Now that you know this, stay safe out there folks (and don't let it happen again).
Thumbnail Image: Photo by Pixabay on Pexels
