Everything that is displayed on the internet was created by someone who deserves to be respected, we are not allowed to simply copy and paste something on our website without asking permission of the author, this act, commonly called plagiarism, is compared to the theft and has severe penalties provided by international laws.
Some people have the habit of copying everithing they find it beautiful to put on their website, other besides copying, still hide or change the name of the author, believing that, as internet is huge, his "little transgression " will never be discovered, but even if this never be shown, they already proved one thing for the visitors of their website: that they are not ethical persons, who does not respect anyone and that, therefore, does not deserve any respect.
One person don't becomes a poet or a graphic artist instantly, simply because copied some poetry or graphics from someone and put
them in his site with his name. This person must think that the world revolves and one day this theft will be discovered, this day will prove that this person are neither a poet nor a graphic artist, and will still be prove that this person is a theft, with no respect for laws and rights, subject to the penalties of the law.
We must choose the ethical path, ask the permission of the authors of the materials we want to use on our website, create a credits page and list there all that people that, somehow,
contributed to the creation of our website (including the authors of used softwares and equipments). Doing this we will show for the world that we are fair, that we respect the laws and rights and this is important for everybody who want to be respected.
If we do this we will not only be respected, as we may have the immense joy of seeing our work being praised and to see our site be approved by an international ethics association as
APEX or
Ethics Pledge, as
happened with this site, which means that our work was recognized internationally and this is simply fantastic.
Lupércio Mundim
