This site is to address recent allegations of copyright infringement and intellectual property rights theft by Jessica Valderrama of the Land Hermit Crab Edu Center. What has been perceived publicly, primarily on Facebook, as a “she said, she said” situation for an entire month, beginning on January 10, 2025, will now be revealed as “she said, yes she did”.
Our extreme apologies for any mistaken name association with the extremely talented and original artist of the same name, Jessica Valderrama. Please visit her site and view her artwork here: https://www.jessicavalderrama.com/
Libel – a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; a written defamation. (Definition from Oxford Languages)
If any statement or photograph in the following presentation is believed to be false, please email the relevant refuting, unaltered evidence with time stamps, full transparent context even if seemingly unrelated, and related hyperlinks with dates accessed to whistleblower@landhermitcrabeducenter.info
Likewise, any contributions to this presentation with the same verifiable attributes mentioned above may be submitted to the same email address. Submission does not guarantee publication.
By emailing the above address, you agree to have your comments and images published on this site, allowing the redaction of identifying images and names of persons or entities not directly involved. Credit to the images will not be given publicly unless expressly stated in the email that you would like to be credited. Otherwise, the submission, if necessary and relevant, will be viewed on this site as “Source: Anonymous contribution obtained and verified on [date]”.
Emails containing statements rooted in opinion and perception without the aforementioned, verifiable criteria will be ignored. Inappropriate messages sent to the personal, business, or social media accounts of any of the people mentioned publicly herein forfeit the right to anonymity.
The images to follow are but a small sampling of the evidence collected.
Obvious edits – like a side-by-side placement of multiple pictures, an arrow, or a line denoting common elements – to some screenshots and photos were added where necessary to provide visual relevance and context or to redact the individual identification of those who have not publicly made a stance regarding the allegations. Any future submissions received via email will also be edited to provide anonymity for those not directly involved, although the originals will be retained in the event that witness affidavits may be needed in the future.
Without further ado –
On January 10, 2025, The Crab Street Journal published its article “Public Statement on Intellectual Property Infringement”, noting simply that “original content…has been plagiarized by a Facebook group administrator and a related website.” It may be viewed in its entirety here: https://crabstreetjournal.org/blog/2025/01/10/public-statement-on-intellectual-property-infringement/
It was subsequently posted on The Crab Street Journal’s Facebook page [link].
News traveled as it often does and the post found its way into a Facebook Group on January 11, 2025 where the “group administrator and a related website” was named.
Compiled graphic created from multiple anonymous sources, taken 1/11/2025 prior to the post’s deletion.
Jessica Valderrama’s statement:
“To clarify I am not plagiarizing anyone’s content …”
Plagiarism – the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own. (Definition from Oxford Languages)
Sources shown for comparison in the rest of this site are from The Crab Street Journal website, “The Complete Guide to Land Hermit Crabs and Their Care: Changing the Mindset of Hermit Crab Keeping” book by Stacy Griffith (2021), and “Fresh & Foraged Foods for Land Hermit Crabs” (2021) book by Creative Solutions :: RipdNTorn, also known as Stacey May or My Hungry Hermit. Written permission was granted by both parties to use the page images for the purposes of this project only.
The printed PDFs as shown in the subsequent photos were obtained from the Files of The Crabby Hermit (Hermit Crab Care and Education) “TM” Group prior to their deletion as requested by both Stacy Griffith and Stacey May on January 11, 2025, and from landhermitcrabeducenter.com prior to the suspension of its domain name and website on January 12, 2025.
At this time, these three Land Hermit Crab Edu Center documents have been selected for comparison.
“Safe” and “Not Safe” pdfs downloaded from landhermitcrabeducenter.com, land-hermit-crab-edu-center.com; “Safe”, “Not Safe”, and Moss files – The Crabby Hermit (Hermit Crab Care and Education) “TM” Facebook Group Files. The “Safe” & “Not Safe” files from all locations were identical.
First up, the “Safe Food List” and the related blog post:
Pictured: images from two different groups, linking to the blog article on landhermitcrabeducenter.com.
Though that page is no longer available, you may still view the content here and is used as a comparison source for the next set of photographs: http://web.archive.org/web/20250105074324/https://www.landhermitcrabeducenter.com/blog/hermit-crab-nutrition-safe-list/2050849_the-hidden-crisis-hermit-crab-nutrition
Comparison of pages 79 & 80 of “The Complete Guide…” book with the text of the blog page, “The Hidden Crisis…”, formatting disabled. The Crab Street Journal’s online file of the book’s text on these two pages is also available, free for personal use, for a word-for-word comparison: https://crabstreetjournal.org/download/hermit-crab-feeding-guide/
The Safe List, downloaded from the Crabby Hermit Facebook Group Files and the “Printable Guides” of the landhermitcrabeducenter.com and land-hermit-crab-edu-center.com sites, as well as viewable in the past from within the blog post is compared to the file as currently available, accessible, and free for personal use from The Crab Street Journal, “What’s for dinner? A hermit crab food guide!” article at https://crabstreetjournal.org/blog/2016/04/22/hermit-crab-food-guide/ and https://docs.google.com/document/d/113toruv4u7NJxPYdM8-xVXZ7W4duiC54EvKqrh33-pY/edit?usp=sharing
Top: Referenced page from “The Complete Guide…” book, page 80, highlighting one instance. Bottom: The first page of the Land Hermit Crab Edu Center’s “Safe Food List” versus the LHCOS/Crab Street Journal publication.
Next, the “Hermit Crab NOT Safe List”
…downloaded and previously available from the Crabby Hermit Facebook Group Files and the “Printable Guides” of the landhermitcrabeducenter.com and land-hermit-crab-edu-center.com sites as compared to the “Fresh & Foraged…” book, pages 57 – 74, with four instances highlighted:
“Fresh & Foraged…”, Pages 53, 61, 65, and 67; “Not Safe List.pdf” – references stripped, though the annotations were copied. The contents relabeled as “NOT Safe” and “known toxic substances.”
Final comparison – for now:
The last document chosen for comparison in the initial release of this site is the “Safe and Unsafe Moss & Lichens for Hermit Crabs”, “Safe Moss.pdf” as downloaded from the Crabby Hermit Facebook Group Files, time stamped as being uploaded to the group by Jessica Valderrama on December 27, 2024. It is compared to the “Fresh & Foraged…” book:
“Fresh & Foraged…”, Appendices A & B, pages 79 – 83 versus the “Safe Moss.pdf”, after a copying of all data, all of the references were removed (and “yellow moss” is not “a big red flag” or considered “**unsafe**”; however, it is a descriptor for a species of “Unsafe Lichen” in the “Fresh & Foraged…” book)
The following two pages were NOT requested for removal for copyright infringement from the landhermitcrabeducenter.com and land-hermi-crab-edu-center.com websites. The Copyright Office’s current stance on AI-generated content can be reviewed here and here.
What happened to landhermitcrabeducenter.com?
On the evening of January 12, 2025, the landhermitcrabeducenter.com site was disabled after its web host was served multiple “Cease & Desist” letters for disseminating copyrighted material beginning on January 7, 2025. More information on the legal responsibilities and liability of any web hosting provider serving copyrighted material is here and here.
These were the responses given for the site’s disabled status within two different groups:
On January 21, 2025, rather than continue to link to any Crab Street Journal or LHCOS original content, as had been the practice* for several years, The Crabby Hermit Facebook Group changed the group’s rules.
Permission to link to original content has never been required.
* Following the creation of the Land Hermit Crab Edu Center’s files, Jessica Valderrama began linking to those versus the original Crab Street Journal articles. With regard to care files, the other admins and moderators continued linking to Crab Street Journal sources. One instance of commenting is provided below, added 2.12.2025, to clarify that the scope of this site is focused solely on the behaviors of Jessica Valderrama at this time.
2.12.2025 revisions to this section – text to clarify scope; photos to show commenting practices and prior link usage
A new blog site was created and various articles uploaded around the beginning of February 2025, authored by Jessica Valderrama and a co-author with no known previous connection to alleged intellectual property right infringements. No written permission had been requested of Stacey Griffith, The Crab Street Journal, or the LHCOS for the use or re-authoring of its materials.
The Post Purchase Death Reduction Method is likely one of the things that, when mentioned, is instantly recognized as an LHCOS and The Crab Street Journal practice and differentiates it from groups with similar years of existence like HCA (2015, on Facebook) or H.C.A.R.E. (2012, previously known as HCO). As such, that is the article whose parts were selected for display at this time.
A public “Cease & Desist” was issued on February 6th via The Crab Street Journal’s Facebook page and a voluntary removal of the articles ensued.
To follow: images of a “Crabby Rehab Setup” as compared to “The Post Purchase Death Reduction Method”, along with images of easy-to-read explanations of “accidental” copyright infringement and “fair use” exclusions. At this time, the scope of this page is limited only to the actions of Jessica Valderrama of The Land Hermit Crab Edu Center.
Images of excerpts of the blog post with its methods of “Crabby Rehab” were retrieved from https://landhermitcrabeducenter.blogspot.com, 2/6/2025. “The Complete Guide…” pages 163 and 164; Also available via The Crab Street Journal, “Post Purchase Death Reduction Method” at https://crabstreetjournal.org/blog/2013/02/21/technique-for-adjusting-pps-crabs-method/ ; Copyright related images were taken from https://support.google.com/legal/answer/3463239?hl=en and https://support.google.com/legal/answer/4558992, retrieved on 2/9/2025.
Other instances similar to the above have been reserved for future use if deemed necessary.
To anyone who may have been deceived into downloading any of the aforementioned files and disseminating information that you once thought was authentic, we ask that you please destroy any physical documents and any related digital files, as well as cease any future distribution of those files.
To knowingly pass plagiarized files on to other unsuspecting individuals is “Secondary Copyright infringement.”
The above block was revised on 2.13.2022. When originally written, it was not intended to scare the general public whom we believe to be ethical and equally deserving of an apology. We recognize a distinction between knowingly passing on illegal information and being deceived into thinking one was passing on original information.
Original wording provided for continued transparency: All parties who downloaded, copied, and/or disseminated the files presented as belonging to the Land Hermit Crab Edu Center are asked to cease any future distribution of the materials as well as destroy any related digital files and physical documents. Information regarding Secondary Copyright Infringement can be reviewed here.
To Jessica Valderrama of the Land Hermit Crab Edu Center:
1) All infringing physical and digital copies of the plagiarized works must be deleted and destroyed from any and all storage devices within your control.
2) A public apology for the initial acts and perpetuating a falsehood that the material was original with an assertion that there will be no future infringements of copyrighted material is requested – to be published on a Land Hermit Crab Edu Center public viewing page* and linked to the Crabby Hermit Group Facebook page as well as in any other Facebook groups in which any documents were previously disseminated through the use of links, as well as in any other social media channels where known infringements occurred yet have not been addressed yet. Also within that text, please request the removal and destruction of all plagiarized documents that were distributed from the Crabby Hermit Facebook Group files and the Land Hermit Edu Center webpages – in an effort to protect those who might unknowingly be made complicit in committing Secondary Copyright Infringement. You have permission to copy the text in the block above this one.
A sample of a public apology may be copied and expounded upon without fear of infringement from here. Parties worthy of an apology include the authors, contributing editors, and other content creators of all materials that were plagiarized and all community members deceived by public or private assertions stating otherwise.
* Any current company website or a business Facebook page with no blocked members of the public.
Update, 2.14.2024 – In lieu of an apology, the personal profiles of both authors have now been blocked by the personal and business accounts of Jessica Valderrama and The Land Hermit Crab Edu Center. The members of The Crabby Hermit group whose Files were used to disseminate copyrighted information and who may have received links in post replies directing them to a site with downloadable copies have the right to know that they may be in possession of illegal materials and be cautioned as to any future distribution.
Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved. The individual copyrights of any documents shown remain with the actual authors of those works. The individual, unedited photos of pages from “The Complete Guide to Land Hermit Crabs and Their Care: Changing the Mindset of Hermit Crab Community” were permitted for use on this site only. While screenshots are “okay”, a link to the full context of this site is preferred.