For someone who claimed to know nothing about copyright laws, she seemed to have a good grip on how to make money selling someone else’s art. 

At first, this older sister thought she was doing her youngest sibling a favor by inspiring several photoshoots at birthday parties, family events, and even her work branding photos. However, after a while, she realized that her sister’s photos shouldn’t go to waste, and at least someone should be making money off of them. Unfortunately for the photographer and the owner of those photos, the older sister felt she was entitled to the payout for her sibling’s work. 

She sold her photos online. 

Even if she genuinely didn’t know anything about copyright laws and the legal sale and trade of photography, swindling her sister’s work online should automatically feel like the betrayal that it is. Did she pay her sister for her time? No. Did she compensate her for the sale? Also no. Did she regard her sister’s career as a professional photographer as legitimate? Obviously not. 

That said, it’s clear that this older sister didn’t take the youngest’s work seriously. While photography is a nebulous career, often sidelined by the beauty and simplicity of iPhone photos and the onslaught of amateur work all around us, it is a very serious business that deserves the weight of very serious consequences. Perhaps if the eldest sibling respected her sister’s work and treated her business as an equal to hers, she would have known better.

Maybe she wouldn’t steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, but this older sister was happy to steal her sister’s photography hard drives and flip the photos for a profit on online stock photo websites.