Enough is Finally Enough

My former high school is no more. It was done away with in 1984. I'm the one—the only one—who put the history of that high school in accurate perspective in my book, Up the Hill, Down the Hill. For our class reunion, I even went so far as to recreate (with the assistance of my wife) the lost school banner. It has proven disastrous. Instead of accumulating praise and being given proper credit, the image is continually swiped. My version of the banner is copyrighted. The reason it is copyrighted is due to the difference in how the school mascot had to be re-imagined. From a distance, it may look the same but its detail work is entirely different. That makes it a new creation.

Because people share a common home town does not mean they can simply take intellectual or creative property and use it without permission. West Orange has never learned that even after losing several copyright lawsuits. The photo of the new banner keeps showing up and conveniently, my ownership has always been cropped off it proving that the theft is intentional. Requests to add such a line to the image are greeted with tones that I have an ego problem. Of course, that conclusion is a very uneducated one. What is at stake is the image itself. What happens and what has happened in the past is that the image (it's even happened with my writings) will wind up with someone else's name taking or being given credit. The copyright law is simple: credit must be sought and granted and authorship must always be given. I learned that in fourth grade when we wrote our first research paper. What it boils down to is one simple word: courtesy. If something belongs to someone else, you ask if you can use it. Heck, that even applies if you want to use your neighbor's lawnmower!

Once again, that banner has shown up uncredited on what is called the Mountain High School Friends Facebook page. Apparently, this group doesn't treat all alumni as friends. When contacted, the person who did the posting refused to add the credit as though she was entitled to the image because she had attended the same school and who was I to expect credit for being the creator of both the banner and the photo? How obtuse is this woman? That's like being caught robbing a jewelry store and then blaming the store for selling jewelry. Still, I approached her politely and this could have been solved easily and amicably. All she had to do was add the credit line. Instead, she chose to be difficult and refused. Facebook and I wound up in discussions about her rather serious infraction.

From there the problem escalated. When the image was posted without the copyright declaration, a third party picked it up and tried to make money off my work by putting it on T-shirts and mugs. That's the whole reason to mark things as copyrighted. This arrogant woman had caused a domino effect. My attorneys had to battle to stop those T-shirts and mugs in their tracks. Facebook even stepped in to help.

Theft is theft and courtesy always keeps a person out of trouble. When in doubt, you ask; you don't take. An online debate actually occurred with people trying to justify their right to steal my work because we were all from the same town so therefore I had no claim to the fruits of my own labors. This has been a theme in West Orange for decades and the bizarre reaction is always the same that I tricked them into getting caught by copyrighting my work. It's like the Twilight Zone. My attorneys took down the names of the outspoken in that debate as protection against any future trespasses.

If the high school history book is ever available for sale again, the cover will be redesigned to remove the full-color recreated school banner. Even my own graduating class can't be bothered to express simple thanks for the banner and for a myriad of other things I did for them. My joy in trying to give back to West Orange has been robbed from me too many times over the last forty years. It's really quite sad.