WARNING: Long story with no real point.

[alice@beige.party]

WARNING: Long story with no real point. Just remembering something and wanted to write it down to document it.

Years ago, I worked at an Apple Store teaching computer lessons for all learning levels and on a variety of topics.

One of my regulars was a nice older lady who was a piano teacher and we got to talking and she mentioned that her husband is a lawyer and he's the one who wanted to learn to use the computer, but he didn't want to go into the store to learn, so she was taking lessons for him and then she would go home and try to teach him, but it wasn't working out because they were getting "frustrated" with one another, so she asked if I ever taught private lessons at people's homes.

This was definitely a conflict of interest and I really liked my job and wasn't willing to risk losing it, but she mentioned that it may be okay if we were just trading services where I would teach her husband to use the computer and she would teach me piano lessons as a thank you.

I ran it by my manager and she said she was totally fine with an arrangement like that and she gave me the green light.

Once a week after work, I'd take the bus to their house in a suburb of Chicago and we'd start with my piano lesson and then I'd go and give the husband his computer lesson.

Her husband wanted to learn the computer because "so many law things require computers nowadays" so he wanted to "keep up with the kids" and I really admired that about him.

Over time, I gave up on the piano, but he still wanted to learn more on the computer, so I just continued teaching the lessons for free.

Once he had "mastered" email and web searches, he mentioned that he wanted to create a website for his law practice, so I helped him make a basic website (e.g., bio, services, contact info, etc.).

The template he selected had a large space at the top for a header photo and he said he wanted a photo of the Chicago skyline, so we hopped on Google and selected one and added it and clicked publish and he was really happy with his website and we sent an email to pretty much everyone he knew (BCCed) to link them to his new website.

At that point, he had accomplished his ultimate goal and I just happened to be moving, so we said our goodbyes and that was the last time I saw him.

Years later, I took a Photoshop class and part of the class was on copyright laws and attribution and I had this OH NO flashback moment to creating that website because we definitely just did a random google search for Chicago skyline and didn't have formal permission to use that photo and I had NO idea what the photographer's permissions were, so I was terrified that I was going to get this poor lawyer in trouble for copyright infringement due to a dumb photo that we hastily dropped on his website years before.

By this point, I lived in a different state and all of the website files lived on his computer and there was no way I was going to be able to instruct him on how to change the photo via email or over the phone, so I wasn't going to open a can of worms by even mentioning it to him and I just pushed down the bad feelings and guilt, but every so often I'd remember it and they'd come flooding back.

Whenever this would happen, I'd pull up his website to see if anything changed, but it was always there with that big photo of the Chicago skyline staring right back at me.

I recently remembered him again and went to pull up his website to see if the photo was still there, but this time the entire website was gone.

I was relieved until I googled him and found his obituary instead and my relief turned to grief. It turns out he had died a couple of years ago and left behind his loving wife, a piano teacher.

RIP, Don. You were one of the good ones and i'm grateful to have known you and I'm glad you lived a long life free of copyright lawsuits.

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@Alice lovely story Alice 🥹💖