Glaring at the instruction book to my new CD writer, "Some people don't have the foggiest notion how to describe how to do something that you've never done before.  Especially computer gurus seem to assume that the rest of the world knows everything that they do."

When I started this blog, anger motivated the first entry.  sadness... is my feeling at the moment.  Today I receive another announcement that a graphic artist is requiring a registration fee to use her graphics.  What's diddly about that?

A graphic artist begins her adventure on the Net with enthusiasm and innocence.  She purchases a graphics program, signs up for an ISP account, and perhaps even pays the seventy bucks to register her own domain name.  She spends hours creating graphics, assembling webpages, and organizing a web site.  Then she grants everyone the use of her graphics, not for money, but for a link back to her site.

It isn't too long before her excitement is dashed by people stealing her graphics and bandwidth.  She figures, "I will require a free registration.  That will solve the problem."

She doesn't realize how popular her graphics are.  Her e-mail box overflows with registration requests.  Her precious drawing time is spent looking at one web site after another and replying to e-mail.

Now she faces some choices:

• Close her site.
• Require a paid registration
• Abandon her family.

After much agonizing introspection, she decides not to close her site and to require paid registration.  She notifies her mailing list and friends.  She changes the password to her graphics.

Anyone who concludes her motive is money is diddly.

I don't understand how a person can insist on having their copyright respected even while they are violating the copyright of someone else.  Specifically I'm thinking of graphic artists that use copyrighted music on their sites.