Dear Social Media,

June 10, 2009 By 319 Comments

Friend – you are a crap shoot.

You are a giver and a taker.

You have put me back in touch with friends from days gone by(thanks Facebook!), but you have also opened the doors to less savory (though flattering) events.

I never expected to see and hear from some of those High School folks again – but I am loving the reconnection. Wait….you’re a mom?  A dad?  And you have kids the age WE WERE when I last saw you?  Crazy.

And the college crew - how mind-blowing to watch them come out of the woodwork with husbands, wives and kids.

To say nothing of my new circle of social media gurus – men and women, mommy bloggers, women entrepreneurs, and work at home gals – all new friends.

Twitter.  Ning.  StumbleUpon.  I Digg you all.

And then of course, there are our new friends in the Czech Republic. You see, since my family was unwittingly made the poster-children for a local grocery store – I’ve been getting visits from all over the world.

And, hey, new visitors – thanks for stopping by….I know you came to see this:

czech2jpeg

the  ’wow-did-that-really-happen-story”, but I like making new friends - feel free to come by again.

You can also see a few other versions of the story by clicking here, or here and here if you speak other languages.

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  • Laurence

    Hello Danielle,

    I thought you might be interested to hear that the story of your travelling photo has made its way to New Zealand.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10577842

    Best wishes to you and your lovely family :)

    Laurence

  • Lain

    You have an attractive family. But who knew that you have the quintessential attractive Czech family? In a future post, could you tell us how one does a digital watermark? My friends clamor for more pictures of my kids but with your story I am now a little wary of posting any more.

    Thanks,
    Lain

    P.S. I like your website. Good stuff.

  • http://stepforddreams.blogspot.com Stepford Dreams

    Amazing story, extraordinary! Such a gorgeous family I can see why the store stole your picture. Love the blog will keep reading.

  • Lanelle Lee Chin

    I think it’s a quite a wonderful story and speaking as a photographer, a lovely portrait of you and your family. It could really happen to anyone; I have a self portrait of my face on shirts in Mexico and I suppose it really demonstrates the supreme power of the internet in modern life… particularly that of eastern european life.

    Cheers from Australia!

  • Mark Richards

    A sweet photo. Something to be proud of.

    Unfortunate to read that this took on a rather punitive tone instead of being an opportunity to make a friend from far away.

  • http://www.mzinlalaland.blogspot.com MZ

    Hello Danielle,

    I saw the story first on BBC. Just last week, I’d written an entry in my blog about the mis-uses of photos and materials on the internet. Your story makes me mad.

    If you are interested to hear my ranting, please come visit my blog.

    Best regards
    MZ in LaLaland

  • Melinda

    I just read about your stolen family photo. I am sorry that happened to you. Some years ago I was shopping for a birthday card for my father and found a card with a picture of a little girl on the front that was me at about age 4. I bought every card they had in stock. It looked like me, the clothes were exactly what I would have insisted upon wearing at that age, but my parents didn’t recall the photo so we couldn’t prove it was our photo. It was a really creepy feeling.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/exaxis/ Chris Heath

    The story has reached the UK. What an absolutely wonderful photo though! Rare to get a photo where everyone looks happy about it being taken. :-)
    The photo of the perfect 21st century family (whether Czech, American, British. . . and so on!)
    Be well.

  • Aleisha

    What a crazy coincidence. I find this story entertaining and odd, but I don’t see what the big deal was about someone using the picture. It wasn’t anything bad. Why couldn’t they continue using it for their ad? As long as it wasn’t a bad picture or a picture being used in a bad way, I don’t see why it matters…

  • Aleisha

    By the way, I’d think of it as a compliment that your family photo was so nice that someone wanted to blow it up and use it for their ads! :-)

    Cute kids…

  • Ola

    I must be weird to suddenly be world news?
    I am teaching internet security for both kids and adults, and this will surely be a part of the lesson.

    “Be careful what you post…everybody in the whole world can see it and abuse it…”

    Norwegian newspapers has it as one of the top stories today too…
    http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article3117489.ece
    http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utrolige-historier/artikkel.php?artid=569857

    Regards,
    Ola – Norway

  • Shelby

    I’m beyond shocked to hear about your story. I had no idea that this could happen. I’m more upset to hear about you receiving negative comments about your family, which by the way is a very lovely family. It makes me very sad that people have so little in their life that they find humor, satisfaction or whatever it is, in writing negative things about your family or anyone’s family! All I have to say to them is “please, get a life and learn to treat people the way you want to be treated.” This is a great blog as well…. thank you for sharing!

  • http://www.2heartsvinyl.com Nikki

    I just wanted to let you know that your not alone. A picture of my kids and I (single mom of 2 here) some how ended up in South Africa. But I wanted to let you know that I really do understand you shock as well as frustration!

    Good luck!

    ~Nikki

  • Sophie

    haha…I discovered your blog through the photo. But I think I’ll be a regular now

    Good job & great family..no wonder that guy in Czech chose your photo!!!

  • http://www.hodgefamilyhappenings.blogspot.com Michelle Linn

    What a crazy story! I just found your website thanks to the St. Louis Post Dispatch story.

    You are so right! You can’t please everyone. Thanks for sharing your life with us.

  • http://crunchiemummy.wordpress.com Karen @ If I Could Escape

    Wow, I think I must make it a priority to put my water mark on each photo I post on my blog!

    Beautiful photo though!

  • http://ohamanda.com oh amanda

    Well, when your family is as cute as yours, what do you expect?! ;)

    Seriously, what an amazingly strange thing!

  • http://www.kindasassy.com KindaSassy

    http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/web/they-purloined-my-pixels/2009/06/11/1244664787779.html

    Danielle, your story made it to my hometown newspaper too…. Melbourne Australia!

    Having been reading about this whole saga in your blog for a while, I feel very ahead of the loop – yah me!

  • http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8094420.stm Linda Debrah

    Hi Danielle,

    What an extraordinary story – if you’d like to have a chat on the radio about how a family like yours have ended up inadvertedly becoming international advertising stars then please contact me at BBC by return email.

    All the very best for the future

    Kind regards,
    Linda

  • Earl Stark

    I think you should use the picture of you and your family in the grocery store window advertisement as your Christmas card this year!

  • http://www.MidwesternMommy.com MotherOfBun

    Hi there,

    I was just poking around the St. L sites, visited your blog and holy cow! I’ve about fallen off my chair when I read this. That had to be freaky! And surreal.

    A friend of mine and I just launched an online site for parents in St.L area. I’d like to do a story on this. Could we send you a few questions about what happened?

  • marcie

    I know how your photo ended up beng posted and it is going to scare the pants off of you.

    The other day I did a web search on my name and found ALL my private information listed for anyone to see. For a small fee anyone could also access more records on me, including all kinds of financial information, and anything that I had ever posted on the web. It turns out that this specific people search company has ‘partners’ with a lot of sites, and once they have your email address, anything you post can be seen by anyone, for a price…and a lot of it is out there for free for anyone to see.

    Since I have had problems with stalkers in the past, I am always extremely careful not to list any personal info on the web…so how did they get all this info? Well, one of their parter sites required me to provide private iformation in order to sign up, and they guaranteed my privacy on things like where I lived, phone number, and email address. They did not tell me that they would share this information with their ‘partner site’ who would then publish it and sell the information! Some of the information was of such a delicate nature that it could have been used to steal my identity.

    I was able to get my name deleted from the website and a promise that they would make sure it didn’t reappear within 3 years. Of course, if they sell the company, all that info could be posted again by the new owner…or another company might get the same idea. I guess from now on I will need to do regular searches on my name (which is fairly unique)to make sure nothing is out there that I don’t want out there.

    I had been wondering for years how someone had ‘stolen’ one of my photos and used it as their photo on a social network. Now I know.

  • http://stevenjones.blogspot.com/ Memphis Steve

    The Associated Press has picked up the story of your photo and is running it online today. Look at you, you’re a rockstar now!

  • http://stevenjones.blogspot.com/ Memphis Steve

    Ooops, I forgot to include a link to your news story:

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_odd_card_photo_prague

  • MooVic

    Just… wow. The closest I’ve come is people stealing pictures of my horses off the internet and claiming it’s their horse.

    You have a beautiful family. Your 3yo is gorgeous!

  • http://daniellewoodreporting.blogspot.com Danielle

    We aired your story in Las Vegas! So random — but I guess it just means you have such a beautiful family, that someone would think it was computer generated!

  • http://www.nzherald.co.nz Tania

    Wow this was fun to read and I like your website its coo.
    Your photo is great the best things are free.

    Kiwi Girl.

  • http://www.happilyblended.com Brandy

    Oh my – you are one popular mama and family. Gosh I don’t know whether I would be flattered, irritated or scared or maybe a bit of all feelings?!

    Here’s a BIG HUG to you either way!!!

  • CHRIS

    I THINK IT IS A LOVELY PICTURE AND IT WOULD MAKE MANY PEOPLE SMILE, WHY NOT LET HIM KEEP IT UP? THAT IS A GREAT PICTURE OF HAPPINESS AND SHOULD BE SHARED WITH ALL THAT CAN SEE IT.

  • http://www.romanstwelve.net Jeremy

    Very Nice Fox News Bit… Too Funny, but looks like you guys can handle the popularity! Very Funny.. Now have to go finish browsing the page..

    Jeremy

  • http://www.pretentiousplaid.com Frankie

    Hi Danielle-

    Your photo was used because it comes up in Googles image search results on the 5 page of an image search for “happy family”. Just some FYI. It is illegal for others to use your photos ESPECIALLY for commercial use with out your permission and you should be entitled to money. They photo was used also because you uploaded a high resolution image which was needed for the size advertisement they were running.

    Go to Google, type in happy family then click on images. On the 5th page you will see your photo – available for the whole world to use. It’s really no mystery at all. It is called copyright infringement.

    Best,
    Frankie

  • sunnie

    Oh .actually Iam from czech repbulic and I must say it is funny how we made frontlines this week and last week. First It was our naked prime minister and now this….but it is really pretty picture :-D
    greetings from Brno

  • steve

    I cant figure out whats wrong with you. You are getting massive amounts of publicity and hits on your blog. Just enjoy it. You’re just another human being another family. Just be grateful saw it as a nice enough picture to put up instead of throw out. BIG DEAL. You as a former new woman should know all the media that is used unauthorized. No one got hurt, you are not owed anything in life but you are getting hits so it’s paid off for you. Personally I think the store should of posted pictures of missing people instead of ungrateful people such as yourselves. Your just another family, get over it.Oh wait, let me guess your hiring a lawyer and an agent and want to see what kind of money you can get out of this “mis-fortune” of yours right?

  • Ginny Ledyard

    I don’t know why anyone acts surprised about their photos ending up somewhere unexpected. They created an electronic version of the photo, then sent it via electronic media. Anyone can get hold of it and use it however. Don’t be naive.

  • http://www.youtube.com/rkstud632 Robbin

    How dare you madam just because your photo ended up internationally on a store who cares . Quit crying at least the store owner thought it was good enough for an advertisement. Hell I’d be happy with that.I’m an entertainer and if I had the exposure ok the 5 seconds of fame you have I’d run with the ball instead of you picking up the ball and going home like the spoiled brat you are I’m sure your kids are too.

  • http://memorychaser.blogspot.com/ Jacqueline

    Wow, just nuts! I post our photos all the time on facebook, my blog & my mommmy forum & oh my goodness, never have I thought this could happen, scary! You have a beautiful family…for sure a greta story to tell the grandkids!

  • Blake

    It IS a great photo! Your family is beautiful. Have you considered putting that photo on istockphoto.com and selling it? :) With this publicity you might do really well with that.

  • http://scrappyd.blogspot.com Ginny

    I just came across this, how crazy that your picture ended up there. Even crazier, you had a friend who saw it. I knew things like this happened, I will have to make sure to lower my resolution. I think I usually post full size out of laziness. You are taking this all great. At least it was used nicely. I’ve heard horror stories about kids pictures being used in bad ways. Yours is pretty cool at least :)

  • Jennifer

    Your family is beautiful! It is no secret why the store stole the picture. How they got it, beyond me! Your story is amazing and wish you all nothing but happiness.

    With much love from Cincinnati, OH!
    Jennifer

  • Fran Walters

    Hi. This is so funny! Being a St. Louis gal I just had to write. When we say we live in the “Show Me State”I bet you didn’t think it would be taken literally! Cute pic! Thanks for sharing! Fran, Florissant, MO

  • Cara Harter

    Your family is lovely. I was quite relieved when I read that the company is taking the necessary steps to remove the photo. This is a story that we can all learn from… our personal privacy and security is of the upmost importance when using online blogging and social networking sites.
    Best wishes to you and, now that the world knows your story, it is probably very unlikely that anything unsavory would come of it thankfully!

  • Robert

    Be glad it was only found in an ad for a store.I have had friends photos show up on swinger sites,craigslist adult ads and a few other sites.Unfortunately that is the risk we take putting our faces out there for everyone to see.

  • Jen

    Danielle,
    Just read your story and followed the link to your blog. I think you are handling this situation beautifully…with grace and strength. Oh, and your family is gorgeous. I wish you all the blessings you deserve.

  • David

    It’s funny how she has a friend over there and know’s about the watermark’s to make it harder to use..could be coincedence, then again maybe not..if not what a story the kid’s will have growing up..nice looking family, tc and enjoy life :)

  • http://www.pawstoupdate.com Tara

    I just came across this story via the yahoo homepage, and am amazed by the coincidence of your friend stumbling across it in Prague and the use of your picture.

    I’m sorry for any negative comments you have received, let it roll off your back!

  • http://www.myspace.com/junglegirley Angelica Weibull (formerly Rodriguez)

    Hey Queen D! Its A-Rod! I got Jeff’s text today and thought: WOW! I certainly hope that you receive some kind of compensation for this, and that this is the only misuse of this or any of your other family photos that has occurred! All my love to all of you Smiths, minus T-Bone, of course…because, well, he’s obnoxious :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=628667759&ref=profile David Sharp

    Dear Danielle, Jeff and Family,

    Sorry if I submitted twice (I don’t know if I hit the button below).

    Just a quick comment on your Yahoo news story.

    Congratulations on being in Prague. I live here now (+7 years) and seeing you guys were from O’Fallon and I had been there (and went to SEMO ’92) too hit home.

    I hope it makes you guys PROUD to be an international happy, traditional family. As an artist, I hope you can appreciate the public appearance as I do. I hope ya don’t sue the folks (I have never been to the shop-probably too high-end for me).

    I find it really nice to see the photographic success too—it beats art lying in a cellar or ‘misplaced’ by an Arkansas art dealer.

    I wish your family success.

    Best from Prague,

    David Sharp

    feel free to link to my facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=628667759&ref=profile

    or drop me an email at
    roakds@yahoo.com

  • Beau

    Your story showed up on Yahoo news!!! This is hilarious, thanks for the laugh! It would have been even more funnier if your family was the one that stumbled upon the window advertisement!

  • Florence Danver

    Wow..sad and happy, a combination feeling.I’m so glad that you found it, thanks a lot from your friend..small world.It’s a lot nowadays doing scam on internet like stealing or copying pictures from internet.This is international scam because I’m a member of one website and I found out most of them are posting fake pictures for themselves.They copy from internet.In fact,somebody used the picture of Drew Barrymore and some models…nice blog.

  • Nadia

    Hi Danielle
    Extraordinary story!
    I had smth similar happen 7 years ago, my acquaintance decided to use our family;s Christmas card shot to advertise adopting kids from third world countries. She wrote me “what a pity I couldn’t enlarge it enough for a poster” to plaster around the country, ha! Was I happy the resolution was too low…
    Anyway, it got you famous though it’s not always pleasant. I am glad it was used nicely,
    cheers and God bless

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