Plagarism is Alive and Well
Wordpress boss Matt Mullenweg believes spam is one of the blogosphere’s biggest threats but another increasingly troubling issue is plagiarism. We’re not talking about people taking the ideas of other bloggers but outright theft of entire posts or passages. A recent example is The Client Side, which had its posts ripped off without attribution or even a hat tip by Scott Kress, an experienced blogger who should know better. Over the weekend, several b5 bloggers noticed a blog called All Women Talk is using other people’s content without permission.
Within the media, plagiarists are treated like vermin and quickly ostracized. In the blogopshere, it seems many people are still trying to get their heads around plagiarism. On one hand, it can be somewhat flattering to have your content “borrowed” by someone else because it suggests what you’re writing is interesting. Many blogs using your content will try to get around it by linking back to your blog or giving you credit.
After awhile, you begin to realize you’re doing all the work while someone else is reaping the benefits (readership, traffic, advertising revenue) by scraping your content. Why should someone ever visit your blog if they can read it somewhere else? You soon realize the linkbacks are insincere tokens of thanks. Rather than giving you some props/credit, they’re a cheap and inadequate way of asking for permission.
So what can you do if another blogger is ripping off your work? You can start with a friendly comment or e-mail, suggesting that while you’re flattered by the attention, it would be better if they put together their own thoughts on a particular topic while citing the blog where they got the idea. If that doesn’t work, a harsher e-mail or a post on your blog outing the plagiarist may be the next move. In extreme cases, you can use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, (DMCA) to compel people to take down seen to be infringing on copyrighted content.
For more information on plagiarism, check out Plagiarism Today, a blog that looks at plagiarism, content theft and copyright issues.
Technorati Tags: Plagiarism
January 29th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the mention and for provding information on what bloggers can do if they find themselves as the victim of stolen content.
I have been waiting for Scott Cress to respond and come clean. I guess it won’t happen - although I was optimistic that he would given that he is in the marketing industry and we share Ken Schaffer of One Degree as a connection on LinkedIn.
They say imitation is the best form of flattery. So, what do they call outright theft with the intent to decieve? I know what I call it but have enough class to refrain from saying it here! ; )