Permission

Peanut butter!

Good news seems to be in abundance today.

What happened, you may ask?

Well, first let me tell you a little something about a nasty thing called copyright laws. Copyright laws prohibit you from taking someone else's work and using it as your own.

The problem:

unless your project isn't going beyond a school assignment which a teacher looks at and that's it...you can't just right a bibliography giving people credit. You have to ask them, and get permission.

And if you don't get permission or can't get permission:

You can't use it. (Well you can, but you're breaking the law, and could end up owing a lot of money)

So, when starting this project, and my research, I thought, who knows where this project could go? Will it one day land on the desk of a teacher as an assignment? Or will it go on to be something bigger?

I decided, just to be safe, that everything required permission from the author/publisher.

And that's when I found it. A blog, with an entry about peanut butter and jelly, perfect for my documentary.

BUT, I need that little thing...called permission.

I was scared out of my mind. I'm actually a pretty shy person around people I don't know, and even though I was in the comfort of my own home, behind the mask of my computer screen...the chance of being rejected still made me uneasy.

I knew what the worst thing that could happen was:

They would say no.

And what would I do then? Use it anyway? I couldn't. I had already promised myself that I would do this legally.

I really wanted that blog entry.

So I took the chance.

I left a comment asking if I could borrow the piece, with credit given, of course.

The email response was better than I ever could have expected.

The women was flatter, wished me luck, and gave me full permission. I couldn't believe it!

Sure, it may seem like nothing to you, but it meant the world to me. It was almost like a sign.

"Keep going Judy, you were meant to do this!" It was telling me.

I feel relieved but panicked all at the same time.

There's so much left to do, and yet, I'm somewhat at peace because I know now that I have to do it, and that I'm meant to do it.

The email was like a giant confidence booster. Assurance.

It only makes me more eager to get started.

Until next time, bread and butter!

Judy