Kaelah's Corner (Aug 2012): Lazarus

(A picture that formed in my mind when thinking about this topic.

It was not so easy to bring this one to life on my own, though.)

Two days ago, a miracle happened. Tim The Tum returned from the dead. Or, to be less mythical and more precise, his goodbye post turned out to be a horrible hoax. Someone had hacked Tim's blogger account and published a message which Tim had written during his stay in hospital when he wasn't sure how much time he would have left. Tim is fine and the treatment at the hospital obviously also bought him more time, even though his cancer can't be cured. You wouldn't believe how extremely happy I was when I read Tim's return post, in which he explained what had happened. And while it is hard to believe that someone could do something so nasty and in bad taste, the whole incident led to a very unusual and in a beautiful way bizarre situation. Tim commented on his own tribute post which I had written for him to tell me how much he liked it. I would never have expected to get his official approval when I published that post.

Of course, the whole strange and somehow disturbing (especially for Tim!) incident also brought up lots of thoughts about kinky identities and the problems that go along with them. False identities and the stealing of identities are phenomenons which aren't uncommon in the "real" world, either. But in the kinky online community where people are protecting themselves by using nicknames, not giving away personal data and instead creating a second identity, this can be even more of a problem. Tim's case is just a very extreme example.

The first question that always occurs with profiles and comments in the kinky community is whether whatever people share about themselves is the truth. Is Ronnie really a 50 + hospitality professional, happily married and happily spanked by a wonderful husband? And are Bogey and Bacall really a couple of switches from the US? I have to admit that I usually don't doubt the information given by other bloggers or by our commenters here on the blog. The reason is that I don't really see any benefit which would accrue from pretending to be someone else. Our blog, for example, is not a dating site, so the lonely divorced guy in his sixties is as interesting to me (and I assume to most of our readers as well) as the young successful 25 year-old sonny boy. The former might even have more interesting things to say because he has more experiences in life.

Still, false identities remain a problem, especially if one plans to meet a fellow spanko. Some sites try to solve that problem by requiring at least some basic personal real-life data from those who want to participate. And in some cases people are even comfortable with giving away their real name and address to selected trustworthy people, for example when buying tickets for a kinky event. Given the fact that accounts and electronic databases have the inherent risk of being hacked, this isn't an option everyone is comfortable with, though, no matter how vague certain data may be. And even then, creating false accounts or giving false information is still possible, if one is accustomed to some technical tricks.

For those who are or want to become active scene members, events and real personal friendships within the scene can solve the identity problem. If someone has been to a public event and trusted members of the community confirm that, one can at least be sure that the basic data (gender, age and the like) known about the person in question is correct. If people post pictures and others confirm that this is them, all the better. If people are personal friends with trusted scene members, chances grow that what they tell about themselves and their background is true. When I was new to the scene, I only contacted Ludwig and asked him to meet me because I knew that he was a respected member of the kinky community and that I would easily be able to check whether the guy meeting me really was the one from the pictures and clips.

Not wanting to give away any personal data also can turn into a problem for kinksters if someone steals something that belongs to them. I had that problem when I detected cases of copyright infringement and wanted to claim the copyright for my pictures. Of course, there are ways to solve that problem, but working with a second identity doesn't make these things easier. And what if someone doesn't steal copyrighted material but one's second identity, as in Tim's case? In his newest post, Tim writes about the credibility problem which he now faces. How can he prove that he is still alive? How can he prove that the post about his demise was a hoax and that his post about being okay isn't? Ludwig and I could at least post a picture of us, holding the newspaper of the day (like victims of kidnapping sometimes do!).

A related question which has been asked by Secret Spanko is: How does anyone ever know when a fellow spanko really passes away all of a sudden? Especially if said person hasn't told anyone about their second identity? Sometimes bloggers or commenters suddenly disappear, and no one knows where they have gone. Ludwig and I both aren't the types who would stop blogging without writing a proper goodbye post. When I asked Ludwig to give me admin rights for the blog, the possibility that something bad might happen to him and my wish to be able to decide what to do with the blog and our stories, pictures and clips in such a case was one of the aspects we talked about. But what if something bad happened to both of us? I have to admit that I don't have an explicit plan for that case, but some of our vanilla friends know about the blog and maybe one of them would be kind enough to inform our readers about what has happened.

Fortunately, extreme situations like Tim's case only occur very rarely, at least as far as I know. I found out that someone is using one of my pictures as an avatar on a Russian spanking site. But this person doesn't in any way pretend to be me and hasn't cropped out the watermark which is on the picture, either. It's just a symbolic picture for the avatar, and so I don't have any problem with that. I hope that I won't ever have to deal with a similar situation as Tim, though. And I cross my fingers that he will find out who did that to him.

How about you? Has the second identity issue ever caused you any trouble? How often have you come across false identities and comments? And have you ever heard of problems with stolen kinky identities? How about those fellow kinksters who suddenly disappear: Do you wonder where they have gone? I am curious to hear about your thoughts and experiences!

Oh, by the way: If you want to have a proof that Ludwig and I are still alive and kinky, you can participate in the vote for my blogiversary spanking clip which ends on Sunday, September 2nd after 11:59 pm German time.

Kaelah's Third Blogiversary

It's true, today is my third blogiversary! On August 28 in 2009 I published my first-ever post on this blog. In the meantime, I have shared many exciting kinky adventures here, and the last year has been my most productive one as far as blogging goes. I would like to use this opportunity to thank you, our readers, for your ongoing support. My special thanks go to our avid commenters who make blogging so much more fun!

Quite frankly, I am not sure whether I will still be around blogging in three year's time, though. As our regular readers have noticed, Ludwig already spends much less time in the kinky community than he used to and has moved on to other things which now have a higher priority in his life. He definitely plans to come back with some stories he would like to share and most probably with some movie reviews as well, which I know are deeply missed by some of our readers. But chances that he will become as much engaged in blogging as he used to be are rather low. I still have lots of ideas for posts, but aside from blogging kink has quite a low priority in my personal life at the moment as well. And maybe there will be a day when I decide that everything has been said and that it is time to move on.

But today is not that day! And who knows – maybe I will be blogging for much longer than I can imagine now? Anyway, blogging should be fun, and what could be cooler than some creative collaboration with you, our readers. I know that several of you enjoy our interactive clips, the ones in which you can participate by leaving comments and which are then published for free on this blog. So, here comes the next instalment!

After having completely underestimated the number of commenters the last time, I decided to keep the rules and the spanking simple this time. And, since there are quite a few fans of classical hand-spankings out there (Hi, Stan/E.!), my blogiversary spanking will be a good old-fashioned OTK hand-spanking. Because this is my third blogiversary, I decided that every commenter does not only add one but three strokes to the final tally. Anonymous comments don't count, though. If you don't have a blogger profile you can use the Name/URL option and give yourself a random nickname – there is no URL necessary!

The vote will be closed on Sunday, September 2nd, after 11:59 pm German time. Avid commenters, lurkers, bypassers, you are all welcome to say hi and play along. I am curious to see how many participants we will have this time! And I am looking forward to another exciting year of kinky blogging.

Thank You, Tim, For a Spanking Good Time!

(Tim's blog logo, taken from Secret Spanko's tribute post 

which was published after Tim had announced that

he had to stop blogging because of his bad health condition.)

(Update 2012/08/29: It just turned out that the message about Tim's passing was nothing but a horrible hoax! Someone hacked Tim's blogging account and posted a message which Tim had written during his stay in hospital when he wasn't sure how much time he would have left. Tim is fine and the treatment at the hospital obviously also bought him more time, even though his cancer can't be cured. I am leaving this post as it is, because Ludwig and I don't change old posts even if the circumstances have changed. And everything which I have written about Tim and his blog remains true, anyway. I am extremely glad to have Tim back and to know that he is alive and (given his health condition) well!)

Last Saturday our fellow blogger Tim the Tum passed away as a result of cancer. He had written a very touching goodbye post which was published by his wife a few days later together with the information that Tim seemingly died peacefully. The sad news and Tim's last post, full of his usual wit, moved me deeply, and so I decided to write a tribute post to him.

I have linked to Tim's site "A spanking good time" in earlier posts. In case you don't know his blog and style of writing, Tim's introduction on his profile page says it all: 48 years old, fat and balding; more hair on my chin than my head sadly. Somewhat puzzled wife and 2 genetically manic teenage kids, who both still speak to me (don't know why). I love adult spanking, but don't believe in it as a tool for raising children. Everything here is fiction, and the views given may not reflect those of the management.

Tim started his blog in November 2011. I must have discovered it around the beginning of this year and wrote my first-ever comment on Tim's blog in January, on a post about Paternalism in Spanking. Being a switch, Tim was not only into M/F spankings, but into F/M and F/F as well. And so he fought the view held by some narrow-minded spankos that M/F was the only "natural" and therefore legitimate gender constellation in spanking. M/M spankings did not hold any appeal for Tim, which is understandable for a straight guy. But unlike others, he understood that they had a great appeal for some fellow spankos like me, and he didn't confuse his personal preferences with any morale judgements about what should or shouldn't be shown in spanking clips or on spanking sites.

Tim was an avid spanking video fan and consequently published several reviews of spanking sites, among them famous ones like Punished Brats and Dreams Of Spanking and rather unusual ones likes the Japanese site Hand-Spanking. He also published many interviews, not only with well-known spanking models like Pandora Blake and Leia-Ann Woods, but also with several tops such as David Pierson, The Able Amsterdam Authoritarian Mike and Thomas Cameron. Tim interviewed fellow bloggers, too, Chross as well as Secret Spanko. And he wrote several fictional stories which you can also find on his blog.

In July this year, Tim went to see a professional spankee / spanker for a one-on-one session for the very first time. I already linked to part one and part two of his very interesting report in my post Professional Service. What touched me the most about his adventure, though, was that he went there with his wife's blessing, even though this seemingly wasn't easy for her. Tim addressed this issue in a separate post which illustrated how much the two of them had talked about the whole idea and how they had found a way that worked for both of them. The honesty between Tim and his wife, the mutual care and her brave decision to let him go on his adventure with her blessing showed how great and admirable their love relationship was.

There is another post which I would like to point out to you. It's about how Tim came to love his bottom and his body despite the fact that their shapes weren't perfect from his point of view. In my opinion, learning to love oneself unconditionally and to treat oneself with respect can be quite difficult, but is a very important precondition for a happy life. Tim's post is an example of how to do it.

Unfortunately, Ludwig didn't do much blog reading during the last year, otherwise he would have greatly enjoyed Tim's writing! Ludwig was very touched and impressed by Tim's last post and he had to laugh about his wonderful humour when I read Tim's profile text to him. Being fellow video buffs, the two of them surely would have had lots to talk about if Ludwig had spent more time in the kinky online community at the time Tim wrote his blog. Tim's illness and his bravery definitely touched both of us.

Maybe Tim's story moves me even more because of my own experiences with losing my mother to cancer only a few years ago. She was just a bit older than Tim and like him, she was a fighter and tried to make the best out of the time she had left. So, I know how it feels to lose a parent to cancer, which is why Tim's children are so much in my thoughts. It must be even harder for them. I was at least an independent adult when it happened. And ever since my mother died, I wondered how horrible it must be to lose one's beloved partner, which is why his wife, who wrote that she is most probably going to be around reading some spanking blogs, is deeply in my thoughts as well.

Within the last years, I stopped being a practising Christian and became an atheist, realising that I neither believe in God nor in the existence of an immortal soul or any kind of afterlife. Tim didn't believe in these things, either, which was why I admired him all the more for his strength and for having kept his trademark wit in the face of a fatal disease.

I had planned to include Tim's blog in our blog roll for some time. I wanted to add several blogs at a time, though, and introduce them in a special post. Sadly, I waited too long, looking for other blogs which I could include as well. So I decided to devote this post to a special fellow blogger named Tim and his wonderful blog. I know that the stats were very important for Tim and that he was sad at times because he didn't get as many comments as he had hoped for. Tim's blog was a labour of love and he wanted to reach people with it. I'm sure that he would be very happy about everyone who is inspired by one of his posts, even now that his blog has become a historical document.

Tim addressed his readers as his friends in his last post, so I guess that it will be okay with him if I do the same. It's difficult to find the right words, but I definitely can say, Tim, my friend, that your writing and your story deeply touched me and made me laugh and cry. I loved your openness, your honesty and your wit. Thank you very much, Tim, for having provided me and all your readers with a Spanking Good Time! You are already sadly missed and will remain in my memories.

Still No Betting Luck

After Kaelah and I published our football bet clip (also starring Leia-Ann Woods), our friend and fellow blogger Indy wrote in one of the comments: “I look forward to the next time Ludwig loses a bet!” Good old Indy – even in our mischievous community, there are few people quite as eager as her when it comes to throwing fellow spankos under the bus. Actually, by the time she wrote her comment, I had already lost another bet. Kaelah and I have not settled it yet, but we will soon.

It was a totally spontaneous bet. Kaelah and I had just watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which happened to be on TV at a hotel on one of our travels abroad. For some reason, we got to talking about what the German title of that movie series is. I thought that it is simply “Die Piraten der Karibik”, the literal translation of “Pirates of the Caribbean”. I always watch movies in the original language (with subtitles if necessary), never in a German dubbed version, but I believed that I had heard “Die Piraten der Karibik” mentioned a couple of times. Kaelah, on the other hand, thought that the German title of the film series is “Fluch der Karibik”, which means “Curse of the Caribbean”. That is obviously wrong, I said. I thought Kaelah had messed up the title of the first movie in the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, in her mind.

I was so confident of being right that I proposed a bet – the loser would get 25 cane strokes. Kaelah agreed, we looked the matter up online when we next had access, and wouldn't you know it, I lost another bet. As it turns out, the moronic German translators have indeed mangled “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” to “Fluch der Karibik”, “Curse of the Caribbean”. And ever since then, that series is called “Curse of the Caribbean” in German. In school, that would have been too loose a translation for even our most lenient, most pro-creativity English teacher. But when it comes to blockbuster movies, I suppose any nonsense will do!

Ah well, whatever. Kaelah and I are planning to switch a bit more regularly this year, anyway. Settling the bet will be an opportunity for her to dish out a longer and harder caning than what we have done before. And for me, it will be the most severe caning since the Ludwig's Comeuppance clip I did four years ago with Niki Flynn – it is my impression that I am getting somewhat more sensitive to pain as I get older (at least when it comes to CP), so it will be an interesting experience for sure! Most of all, it will be a good dress rehearsal for a very severe F/M scene which Kaelah and I plan to eventually do and publish on video before I retire from public life in the Scene.

We won't publish a video of the 25 stroke scene. This is one we plan to keep for ourselves. But you will probably get to see a picture of the marks, so stay tuned.

Oh, and as for betting: after losing a bet on a subject I know very little about (football), and another one on a subject I usually know a lot about (movies), I am cured. I am not betting on anything ever again.

Holly's Severe Caning

As the long-time readers might remember, I found Ludwig's blog via Spanking Tube where I had stumbled across his clips with Niki Flynn which I liked very much. Ludwig's videos weren't the only findings that I valued, though. There were two more clips that had a special value for me, one amateur M/M fun clip and one preview clip for a Realspankings video. Today, I want to introduce you to the latter and tell you why this clip was so special for me when I started out in the spanking community. A post about the M/M clip will follow soon.

The clip is called Holly's Severe Caning. And that already says what the clip is basically all about. As some of you might know, I was scared by severe scenes when I was a newbie in the scene. Especially when they depicted non-consensual scenarios with screaming, crying and shaking women. Holly's severe caning is different. It is a consensual scenario in which she is trying out something that she wants to explore. Mr. M and Holly are visibly partners in crime here. Furthermore, Holly handles the caning very well and doesn't panic at any point. And, last but not least, I found her very nice and likeable right from the beginning, not to mention her cute look.

This clip was very important for me and holds a special place in my heart because it was the first severe caning scene (apart from Ludwig's Comeuppance Clip) that I felt comfortable watching and that I even really enjoyed. It seems that I am not the only one. The clip has a five star rating and got many positive comments, some of them explicitly mentioning how much they liked that the scene is so obviously consensual. Of course, the one or other odd comment about the caning not being severe enough because Holly enjoyed it too much was among them as well. Well, everybody has different preferences. But I think there are enough videos out there for those who are into consensual non-consent, screaming and tears, so I don't see any reason why those who are into that have to complain if one clip is different. I for one was very happy to find out that there were other ways of doing this as well.

And here is the clip I am talking about:

How about you? Can you remember any spanking videos that held a kind of revelation for you? Do you have any favourites? I am curious to hear about your experiences.

Rude Tops vs. Respectful Tops

(Adele and Jimmy are both experienced tops as well as bottoms.

And avid writers about the question of respect and style.

Picture courtesy of Dreams Of Spanking.)

Poppy and Ana both recently wrote posts about rude wannabe tops / dom(me)s. You know, people who suddenly come over at a party or write an e-mail to a bottom or submissive whom they don't know at all and demand that said bottom / submissive has to submit to them. From the comments written on both posts, it seems that quite many submissives have made such an experience at least once.

As I wrote in my comment on Ana's blog, in my opinion, such wannabe tops / dom(me)s are simply insecure people who try to increase their self-confidence by belittling others. Because people who are really self-confident don’t behave like that. Pandora Blake once aptly described those tops / dom(me)s as being of the "Lord Sir Master Domly McDomlyson" type (because that is the kind of nickname they tend to give themselves in order to show just how important and dominant they are). I think that name is hilarious! And only slightly exaggerated. One could of course come up with a female variant as well.

I am lucky because I have never had to experience anyone like that so far. I guess the facts that I am in a relationship and that I identify as a switch and as not being submissive (even as a bottom) keep those people away. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to deal with one of them at some point.

In my opinion, a real top / dom(me) is someone who has good empathy, pays attention to the bottom's / sub's needs and limits, listens to what they have to say and makes sure that hard limits are never crossed. That is what in my view makes him or her earn the respect and trust that a bottom or submissive needs in order to let go. And I think that good tops / dom(me)s are aware that respect indeed has to be earned and is not something that they can demand simply because they have decided to call themselves Lord Sir Master Domly McDomlyson or Lady Ma'am Mistress Toppy O'Toppyson.

I'm curious, though, how rare or common are rude wannabe tops / dom(me)s really? Have you ever come across one of them? If yes, how did you handle the situation? Finally, since the commenters who had made experiences with rude tops / dom(me)s were usually female, there is another question that is of special interest to me: How about the male bottoms / submissives out there? Have you ever had to deal with wannabe tops / dom(me)s as well?

Sulking

So, today is Consensual Spanking Day. Great, huh? To mark this special occasion, I've got a little quiz for you. What is missing in the above picture? No, not a certain implement. And no, not my bare bottom, either.

Exactly, what is missing in the picture is Ludwig! What the heck is a Consensual Spanking Day worth without someone to spank or get spanked by? Instead of Ludwig I have got a huge pile of work that doesn't seem to get any smaller. So, I've decided to sulk. If anyone is looking for me, I'm sitting there in the far corner of the room, between all those toys.

How about you? Are you grumpy, too? In this case you are invited into my little sulking corner. Or are you lucky enough to celebrate this day with a spanking? In that case you are welcome to tell us about your party. I won't bite you. Okay, I can't promise. But I'll try. ;-)

Copyright Infringement

(A picture that got more than 130 like / reblogged comments on Tumblr.

Sadly, our watermark had been cropped out on purpose.)

Yesterday, I still had no idea which one of my ideas for blog posts I would use next. But then, Erica published a post on a subject which was on my list as well. When I tried to formulate a comment for her blog, I almost wrote a complete post. So, today's topic is copyright infringement.

Over time, several of Ludwig's and my pictures have been used by fellow bloggers, which made me very happy and always went along with the reposting blogger providing a link to our original post. But it was only some weeks ago that I became aware that some of our pictures had been reblogged on places I hadn't previously heard about. So, I started a test, using a new feature of Google Image Search. With said feature, one can search for pictures using the link to the image one wants to look for. Google Image Search doesn't find every copy, but it works quite well. It not only finds copies that are a 100 per cent match, but also cut-outs and slightly altered versions of the picture one is looking for.

Most of the hits I had were on Tumblr blogs. I usually don't look at those because pure picture blogs don't do much for me. But in light of my new findings I became curious, and so I screened several Tumblr blogs for our and other familiar pictures. Quite frankly, the result was a bit frustrating. And I am not talking about the fact that the content of some of the sites where our pictures had been reblogged and some of the comments on the pictures made me cringe a bit.

(Severe pictures are reposted often - what a surprise!)

What I am talking about is that most of the time, no credit was given to the original photographer or blogger. There were some very nice exceptions from that rule, which made me smile and definitely deserve to be mentioned here! Some other Tumblr bloggers at least left the watermarks in the pictures when pictures were watermarked. But, sadly, I also found many Tumblr blogs where watermarks of the original sources had obviously been removed from pictures I knew well. I went, hey, that's from Russians Slaves / Her First Punishment, hey, that's Amelia Jane Rutherford, this picture is from Wild Party 2 by Lupus... And so on.

Honestly, I don't get that. I can understand that people might be careful about linking to the original source when they are posting the occasional vanilla picture on a kinky blog. It stands to reason that many people would not like it when their photos turn up on adult-themed blogs. On the rare occasions when I use pictures from the vanilla web, I don't use any pictures showing people's faces, and 95 percent of the pictures I use are from Wikipedia and therefore published under a free licence (I don't explicitly mention the names of the photographers in that case because I don't know whether they want their names to be associated with a kinky blog).

But for the majority of the Tumblr pictures I am talking about here, this problem doesn't even occur. Most spanking bloggers and spanking film producers won't get mad or throw lawsuits around when bloggers are using their pictures. On the contrary, they are happy about the word-of-mouth, and their only requirement for letting others use their pictures is that proper credit is given. If someone likes a photo well enough to post it, typing a link can't be too much of an effort, right? Cropping out watermarks certainly doesn't seem too much of an effort for some people!

(Another example for the popularity of severe marks.)

The funny (or sad) thing is that there seems to be a code of honour between Tumblr bloggers – they reblog pictures and give credit to the Tumblr blogger who was the first one to post a certain picture instead of opening a new thread. But there doesn't seem to be any understanding that it would be nice to show those who have created the photos in the first place (and often invested a lot of time in doing so) the same kind of respect. The problem is, even those Tumblr bloggers who don't crop out watermarks and who are generally open to posting links to the original source when asked to do so seem to assume that it is the job of those who have taken pictures to find out where their photos have been used without their permission and to send requests about links being provided. In other words, the original creator of the picture is supposed to do all the work.

I guess one could say that I definitely waste too much time on this. But, you know, I sometimes invest hours in taking and editing certain pictures. Often these pictures go along with a story that means a lot to me. In addition to that, it's me in those pictures and they are often very personal. Consequently, it makes me very upset when people who obviously like to look at those pictures don't even have the courtesy to post a simple link. The first thing I did was to replace our old pictures which didn't have watermarks with watermarked ones.

(I nearly froze off my toes for that one.)

Being the INTJ type that I am, I have also developed a consistent strategy of how to deal with situations in which our pictures are being reposted elsewhere. Rainer, who recently wanted to use one of our pictures on his forum, was very kind and asked us for our permission first. In that context, I set up the following rules for the use of our pictures: Generally, Ludwig and I are completely okay with our pictures being used on other spanking blogs and forums. There are four preconditions, though: 1. no use on commercial sites or for commercial events, 2. in case the pictures are used in a context that hasn't got anything to do with our original post, it must be clear that we are not connected with the site content, 3. credit must be given (leaving the watermark in the picture is enough as a basic requirement, if a source is explicitly mentioned, like on Tumblr blogs, it must be the original source) and 4. online use only, no printed media. Maybe I'm going to add a paragraph about copyright infringement to our sidebar in the near future.

Consequently, my strategy for Tumblr blogs is the following one: When I find one of our old pictures, which didn't have a watermark in the first place, on a Tumblr site, I ask the Tumblr blogger who started the thread to provide a link. My request has always been granted so far, which shows that the majority of Tumblr bloggers surely doesn't have any intention to upset anyone. But the problem is that the link doesn't show up in the reblogs (at least not in those that were made earlier). And, as Erica also explained in her post, one can't add a comment to the thread. At least not so easily (you can only like or reblog a picture). So, I got myself a Tumblr blog which I use exclusively in order to reblog our pictures and add a comment with a link to our original post. This link then shows up in the comment thread. I also reblog pictures that are watermarked and add a link to the original post as well. As a result, I now from time to time see people popping over either from my Tumblr site or from another Tumblr blog whose owner I have asked to provide a link to our blog.

(Another picture where the watermark had been cropped out.)

What makes me really angry, though, is when a Tumblr blogger has obviously cropped out an existing watermark. If I find one of our pictures where the watermark has been removed on purpose, it makes me so upset that I inform the blog owner about the copyright infringement and tell them to delete the picture. So far, my request has always been accepted. But, unfortunately, that doesn't solve the problem! Because it is only the original post that is deleted, not the picture itself. Which means that one would have to tell all those who reblogged the picture to delete it as well. There is an easier way, though. One can send an e-mail to the Tumblr support and they delete the picture. So far, they have helped me twice and they were always fast and very kind.

On a funny note: My image search also revealed that a small online magazine which mostly writes about celebrities but also about topics like Star Trek, comics and kink had published an article about our blog. Unfortunately for us, they singled out our worst fun clip to write about – Dachshunds in Space (grrr)! But overall it is a nice little article and a rather kink-friendly one, given that we are talking about a – more or less – mainstream magazine. Well, and given that the magazine is described as a "source for unique entertainment and celebrity news", I assume this means that Ludwig and I are officially celebrities now! Okay, or maybe it just means that our blog offers some unique entertainment. I think I can live with that explanation, too.