Plagiarizering Bloggers Just Don’t Get It!
My cat articles for About.com are fairly popular, according to Google. I also spend a fair amount of time creating them, and pride myself at being considered an “expert” about cats. I don’t claim to know it all, but I research everything I write thoroughly.
That’s why it’s so frustrating to see my hard work stolen – yes, stolen by sweet young things who want to “share” my work with their own readers. I love links to my content, but not when those “links” contain the articles in full, word-for-word, as this person did. Or this one. (You can read the original content on my site here and here.)
Blogging is a world-wide hobby nowadays, and I’d venture that at least 70% of bloggers are completely unaware of such concepts as copyright infringement, plagiarism, or theft of intellectual property. That’s exactly what it is, folks. “Intellectual property” is what puts bread on the table for many of us who make our living writing. To “borrow” the material we write dilutes its value. Think about it. If a hundred bloggers duplicate one of my articles, Google’s algorthyms would be hard-put to decide who “owns” that content. I might even be penalized for it, myself.
Please, if you read this, don’t put yourself at risk for embarrassment, lawsuit, and/or financial losses by “borrowing” other people’s content without express permission. Most writers I know, including myself, aggressively protect our copyrights. It really isn’t worth it.
Here are some helpful links to learn more about copyright laws:
10 Big Myths about copyright explained
Copyright Law Explained
I hope you’ll accept my apologies. Consider our post, for one, taken down. Our little group did enjoy your article, but terribly sorry to have gone about it in the wrong way.
Whiskers on Wednesday
October 29, 2008
Oh, your apologies are accepted happily. Actually, you didn’t have to take down that blog entirely. You could have left the title, a few sentences explaining what it was about, and a link to the article on my site. That’s commonly done, and perfectly legal.
Actually, I’d sort of forgotten about that article since it was first written, so I’m featuring it on my own blog at About.com on Saturday. We have a new “widget” that I’ve put in the article so readers can add their own advice. Pretty cool.
Anyway, your forgiven.
Hugs,
Franny
catwriter31
October 30, 2008