Lo Siento!

It’s not a particularly flattering photo of The Wine Guy, is it? This shot was taken after a mostly enjoyable but long day in the sun last January in Puerto Vallarta, Mx. I qualified the day as mostly enjoyable because I had discovered just a short time prior to this photo being taken that one of my digital cameras (full of great vacation shots of me & Mrs. Wine Guy as well as a number of great Mexican wine bars) was missing and unrecoverable. I was understandably despondent. It turns out to be the right kind of photo for today’s topic.

The Wine Guy recently and mournfully discovered that he compounded an infringement on someone else’s work. In my blog of 3/30/10 entitled “Petite Sirah, Big Taste From A Little Grape” I posted an image of a Petite Sirah leaf that has turned out to be a purloined copy of a commercial photograph taken by publicist and blogger Jo Diaz. Her image was utilized in developing a 2001 logo for the organization “P.S. I Love You” (PSILY) for which her communications firm Diaz Communications does extensive work. She noted my error in a critique of blogs concerning Petite Sirah on 4/27 on her own blog. In it she wrote:

“Roger’s Grapevine didn’t do the name changing of the image, by the way. I know this image of mine is now out there in www land, but it still fries my butt that it’s become public property without my permission. It’s my intellectual property, period.”

She was right to be upset.

I wish naïveté as a blogger was an acceptable excuse, but I should have known better. As a former advertising manager, I’ve dealt with the commercial utilization of images and, as such, should have been more concerned about the need to check for clearance regardless of how obtained. It is, after all, for that reason that nearly all of the images utilized here are of my own taking. I have occasionally resorted to borrowing additional needs from trade friends who have images in their multiple websites and trade materials. However, it should be wrong to assume that releases me from a responsibility to check on the usability and source of what’s provided and to note when I do so.

I’ve erred. While I cannot undo what has been done, I can apologize. I express my regret not only to Jo Diaz, but also to you, my readers. Further, I am disappointed in my own sloppy work ethic. In the future, I pledge a more professional effort to you as readers (and, as importantly, to myself as a budding blogger). Lo Siento (I’m sorry)!

The one positive that has resulted from this recent revelation is the discovery of Jo’s blog: Wine Blog-Juicy Tales by Jo Diaz”. Check it out for yourself at www.wine-blog.org. In a recent posting on wine corks, Jo relates info and experience from her time spent in Portugal. It, as well as many of her other postings, is written in a great story-telling manner while passing on good information. Take time to visit her site and support her efforts.