A Short Rant On Theft and Sharing

Every producer of intellectual property has some concern that their work will be stolen.  This morning, I was confronted with a reminder that many people on the internet have no respect whatsoever for the work people like me (and, I think, most if not all of my readers) do:

The Theft; The Fallout.

In the resulting conversations on a friend’s facebook account, I’ve seen a couple people talk about pulling everything they’ve ever written from the interwebs, and mourn for the “good old days” when the Craft was private and “the Grimoires were sacred and secret in the right way”.  I do, in fact, remember those days: the days when all I had access to was whatever 100-level bullshit I could find at the library or the local bookstore, with no access to community and no way of vetting sources before shelling out what little money I had.  When I thought I was going batshit crazy because none of the books I’ve ever read dared to get into the visceral experience of magic, or cop to how terrifying it is to be in the presence of a god for the first time … even one who likes you.

Having my work–which, here, amounts to a bit of artwork, a little research, and a lot of very personal stories–is something that concerns me.  But not so much that I’m going to quit.  I need the community this forum gives me access to, and I know that somewhere out there is some neophite like I was who needs someone else’s account of madness to ground them out and help give them context for the experiences that don’t ever seem to get put into print.

So, to all the fuckers: yes, I put my work out here to be seen.  Not to be stolen.

If anyone wants to use my work in their own, they’ve only to ask.  But please: fucking ask.