I have written hundreds of articles on this website since launching it in 2012. Hundreds of thousands of words.
I am now granting full permission to use any of my content on solovieva.com website in any way you like.
I release my copyright on this content.
Unless I explicitly state otherwise, all future content on this website that I personally create and publicly publish on solovieva.com shall not be copyrighted, and shall belong to the public domain.
Whatever you see here you can use.
You can post it on your website, or on your Facebook or Instagram page. You can make it into a resource for your clients. Include it in your weekly newsletter. You can translate it into French, Cantonese or Sanskrit. You can print it out and burn it. Dance around the fire naked. You can copy and paste anything from here into a book, and make millions. Go to town.
Attribution is appreciated, but not necessary. In other words, when you DO use my work, you can say that it’s by this cool chick you found on the internet, share my name, and, ideally, link back to the original.
But you don’t have to. You can just keep totally silent about where you got this material. Be all stealth and shit. That’s also cool. Follow your own inner compass, my friend.
Oh, one thing you CANNOT do now is STEAL my content. Because I just gave it ALLL away. Muahaha!
Why the fuck would I do such a thing?
Years ago, a small bootcamp in Vancouver shared some of my work with their clients without asking permission. I flipped. I sent them a scary email. I said something about copyright, and something else about infringement.
Their response? “We just wanted to share your amazing work with the world”.
They removed the article immediately.
All this interaction has accomplished is that fewer people were now exposed to my work.
Few years passed, and the older I get, the less I believe in sharp lines.
Black. White. Yes. No. Right. Wrong. Mine. Yours.
I cannot prevent others from putting up barriers, or building walls. But I can bring my own walls down.
Honestly, I would much rather be writing, than running around the internet, trying to figure out who copied and pasted some of my work on their website, or whether someone to say yes or no to yet another random inquiry about a blog post I wrote two years ago. I would much rather be writing, than protecting my copyright, or even figuring out what that would constitute.
My ideas? You can have them. I can always make more.
I believe ideas are meant to be shared, not protected.
Few “BUTS”:
*** Content created within the context of my employment rightfully belongs to my employer. It’s only fair.
*** If (one day before I kick the bucket) I am published by a publisher, chances are, I won’t be able to keep that content copyright free. As Italian says, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it…
*** The copyright release does not extend to images used throughout my website. I have started using only images with released copyright in the last year or so, but given than I have close to 600 blog posts on this site, there are probably images here that belong to someone else. If you find an image that should not be here, please let me know, and I will remove it immediately. Over time, I aim to have only uncopyrighted images or images for which I have explicit permission on the site.
I want to say “mi casa es su casa” also, but I think my bank will disagree. So, I just share the shit I actually own outright. Like my writing.
So…
My writing is your writing.
How do I say that in Spanish?
Hugs, SOLO