In a rare break of persona, the satirical photographer Missy Mwac has launched a scathing attack on a popular Facebook page that stole an image and allegedly removed her name as credit. A photo of her as a child in the arms of her doting father.
“That’s not sharing, it’s called stealing”
The picture posted earlier this year is a grainy black and white vernacular snap from the author’s yesteryear entitled with the caption “If you don’t think photos are important, wait until they are all you have left.” The message is especially poignant for Missy who lost her father early in life and helps carry weight to her ongoing cause of getting people to print more photos.
Missy, real name Lynn Cartia first found out about the posting made by ‘Smart Assy‘ this morning when one of her followers informed her of the social media faux-pas. In the video the popular blogger is almost moved to tears at times as she explains the significance of the photograph in which she treasures so fondly.
“I do like to come up with content that make people think or make people open their minds to something new or now and then to share a heartfelt story. Like I did over the past year with a photo you might have seen on my page of myself as a little girl, wearing a tutu, [after] my one and only ballet recital (did not go well) and I was in my Dad’s arms. It’s one of my favourite photos of my Dad who I lost suddenly when I was a younger woman in my twenties. It’s a big deal!”
So this morning when one of her followers alerted her to a potential misuse of her creation/content she decided to take action. The video, originally posted on Facebook came with the description:
I rarely get angry. It’s a waste of time and energy. But, thanks to a page called Smart Assy stealing an image and removing my name from the image, I decided to spend a little time and energy this afternoon doing just that. #stopstealing #createitDONTstealit
Missy believes that people like those behind Smart Assy’s page steal because they’re incapable of creating and is very aware that many other photographers go through the same ordeal and wanted to bring attention to issue.
Despite Missy already filing a copyright violation with Facebook, the picture remains on Smart Assy’s timeline with a staggering 5,591 likes as of posting and even more alarmingly 10,365 shares!
This is a family photograph that the author chose to share with her own words to highlight an important topic. No request had been made to share the content and most damning of all, the credit has been intentionally removed from the image.
Missy told Phogotraphy that she has yet to decide on whether or not to file charges against the creators of Smart Assy and is still waiting a response from Facebook copyright violations department.
We will update this post if and when any progress occurs.
Image used with the explicit permission from the author, who encourages you to share her posts as long as they aren’t doctored in a similar way.
Phogotraphy 
Once the sentiment was attached to the photo, it ceased to be just a photo.
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