Blog content theft is beginning to be a big issue. I don’t think it’s happened to us here at Beck’s Cafe but who knows? Maybe we’re too busy swilling capuccino to notice. Still though it is disturbing. It’s so damn wrong. Someone’s thoughts on their blog are there for public reading, debate and consumption not to be snatched up and made to be someone else’s. It’s rather goulish really.
I guess the real issue isn’t if some wonderful article you or I have written is going to be ripped off, it’s when. One question you might ask yourself is, why? Why steal our drivel when someone else can come up with their own perfectly drivelly drivel themselves? I thnk the answer to that question is money and time. The time to write the drivel to earn the money. And the money is earned by witless readers who go to a site that’s ripped off content and then see Google Adsense Ads and click on those. Get enough clicks and I’d imagine such a scam is worth creating hatred for yourself in the blogosphere. But there are some things you can do, cheaply we might add, to hunt down and combat these miscreants.
Lorelle on Wordpress has an excellent series of articles on the issue of Blog Content theft. Starting with her excellent series will get you up to date as to what the issue is. You can click to Lorelle’s site by clicking on this link HERE.
Spoken For’s blog has an outstanding series of free methods to fight back, and fight back hard. You can read her sad tale and then learn how to fight back by clicking to her post on this subject at her blog HERE.
(Photo courtesy of Caribb’s Photos, used under Creative Commons License)
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September 22, 2006 at 11:12 pm
Lorelle
Wow, so NOT a beginning. It is a “has been” for a long time. My first website was ripped off within the first six months of existence over 10 years ago. Seriously. I’ve been fighting copyright infringement for over 25 years as a writer. This is an old battle just fought on new turf.
We have to destroy the myths that “if it’s on the web, it’s free for all”. It’s not. You publish it, it’s yours and only yours.
The number one method of how NOT to fight back is to seek revenge. That’s a dead end street in so many ways.
The number one method of fighting back is through education and awareness, and to take action when you’ve been infringed. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you. Don’t think it’s too expensive, requires lawyers, or too hard. It’s not. Sometimes all it takes is a comment or email and they stop. Sometimes it takes an email to their host, advertisers, or the search engines. All it takes is communication and a few simple steps to help put an end to copyright infringement and content theft.
We all have to work together, and thank you for helping to educate others. The more we talk about this, the more we learn how it works, the easier it is to put a stop to it. Thanks for being part of the team!
September 23, 2006 at 10:18 am
Rebecca
Hi Lorelle,
Thank you for sharing your very enlightening experience. It wasn’t until your comment that I understood that this is as you say:
.
It’s interesting how the internet, due to it’s sense of being “instant” seems to render much of it’s content, in people’s minds, as if it were free. But free they are not. A well researched, thought out, and edited post might take me several days or a week to put together. It’s something I thoroughly enjoy doing (unlike other things, like cleaning my bathroom). But it’s not something that “appears” magically. From reading your blogs I know that effort is even more so from you. When any of us are ripped off, it really is stealing.
I’m glad to help spread the word, and thank you again for leaving a comment.
Becki