Dear friends,
Today I am not sharing a recipe, just a situation that I would like to disclose to you. Unfortunately I will need to discontinue “Simple Recipes [dot] Me” in order to stop a harassment that I have been facing for a while.
I would like to reveal my experience in this last post of Simple Recipes [dot] Me by sharing some of my feeling and thoughts…please bear with me.
When I started blogging, the only purpose was (and still is) to share recipes that were simple, easy to make and follow. Therefore, I chose “Simple Recipes”. I had no idea that such a generic, non-creative title would turn into such a nightmare. A blogger, who I will not reveal, made strong demands claiming that I did not have the right to use “Simple Recipes” or even “Simple Recipes [dot] me” (my domain name) because I was confusing her readers and damaging her name as the readers were not able to distinguish between the two sites. In my opinion and opinions of people that I have asked, both sites are so distinct in design, description, pictures, colors that there is no resemblance whatsoever, except the sharing of recipes. But, isn’t the whole purpose of blogging sharing?
I have been battling with this situation for a while, and as you can imagine, I had countless sleepless nights, trying to find a way to salvage what I so much enjoy doing…
Through “Simple Recipes [dot] me” I got to meet so many people around the world who share the same passion as me. This experience opened doors to new ideas, creativities and inspirations for me and I didn’t want this wonderful experience to turn into a traumatic event just because of one individual… and why should I accept stipulations to what I could or could not do to run my own blog?
After consulting many lawyers, I learned that I had a legal right to use “Simple Recipes [dot] Me”. Somehow, this information gave me piece of mind because then I knew that I was not doing anything wrong and was not infringing on anyone’s right; but the issue is not that simple. Although I have the legal right, I am not willing to spend a huge amount of money to defend my right. Does this make sense? One can ask why do I have to spend a fortune in order to defend my own right, especially since my blog is a hobby? Well, this is the system in which we live…In this system, people who can afford attorney fees have advantage over the ones that cannot. I do not agree with this, but I have no choice but accept it.
My blog should reflect me and nobody else, that is the beauty of having a blog. So I decided to put an end to my agony …wow, this sound so dramatic! Believe me, it took me a long time until I started to look beyond and realized that it is not the title or the name: it is the content! So, I am ready to give up “Simple Recipes [dot] Me” and move on…
I will take a small break as I am working on my new blog which I believe will reflect my personality…I will not let her bullying stop my creativity and my ability to share what I enjoy, so please don’t give up on me! If I offended anyone, please forgive me, I only try to put in words my true feelings and justify my need to change the website.
Thank you so much for reading my posts throughout the years and today, this very long post.
