***Note: Please scroll down to read Part 1 of 3, my Nov 25, 2009 entry, if you haven’t done so yet – my ramblings below will make better sense ***

I admit that reading about my work being claimed by someone else affected me. This is not the first time, but the refusal of others to acknowledge wrongdoing, and the fact that some even suspected me of the same mistake, disillusioned me more.  I struggled with it for quite a while… and this is where the movie, “The Last Castle” (2001), starring Robert Redford (as Gen. Irwin) and James Gandolfini (Col. Winters) comes in.

Here’s a little background to those who haven’t seen the movie: Gen. Irwin was a three-star general who was stripped of his rank and sent to a military prison because he disobeyed orders resulting in the death of 8 men; Colonel Winters is the warden in the military prison where Gen. Irwin was sent to. Both were among criminals (who were formerly soldiers), but how they treated these men were as different as night and day. Winters saw these men as violent animals, capable of doing only the worst, and treated them as such. On the other hand, Irwin, who was under no illusion what these men were, thought that they should “be reminded about some of the good things they’ve done, rather than only the worst.”

This got me to thinking, there are people in our lives who bring out the best in us, and at the same time, there are also people in our lives who bring out the worst in us. Part of why this happens is because of expectations: if a certain person expects the best and keeps on expecting the best (even if sometimes, these expectations are not met), then the natural tendency is for people to rise to that expectation. Unfortunately, it also works the other way around, when the expectation is for the worst.

So, going back to the alleged copyright violation, will I stop sharing my templates, ideas and designs? Absolutely not! Although I’m not under the illusion that this will not happen again, I expect the best from the readers of this blog, who use these very same templates, ideas and designs. I have seen the cards that were made, projects that were done and the goodwill that was passed on. I know that because of these actions, someone else smiled, someone else felt loved, someone else felt comforted. Although we have never seen each other, or spoken to each other, or even written to each other, we make a pretty good team, don’t we?

Others might misunderstand this attitude as condoning piracy. No, I’m not. Copyright violation is wrong; it hurts people like me, in more ways than one. I know artists who have become bitter, cynical and discouraged because of this issue, but I refuse to go down that road. I choose to believe in the goodness of people, even though I may get disappointed at times. I choose to believe in the natural tendency of people to rise to expectations, even though sometimes, these expectations may not be met. I choose to have faith in people who read this blog, even though I don’t see or know them. So far, I have no reason to regret these choices.

***Part  3 of this blog series entry will be posted tomorrow, Nov. 27, 2009 (it’s Creating Christmas time…)***