It’s Only Stealing From Yourself
November 6, 2009
I felt highly motivated to say something, after I’ve had numerous friends come to me and tell me there’s a problem going on in our Detroit social media community. I’ve made a generic example below of how it’s gone down the 9 or 10 times it’s happened recently with the most common themes as told to me.
Apparently, many people think it’s okay to repost, word-for-word, other’s posts. Sometimes, with no credit, or credit buried so that it is hidden and not obvious to the reader. I’m going to try to be positive and say that it’s because they don’t know better, but I also know some of the folks are too savvy in this lot (or portray themselves to be) that if they really didn’t know they shouldn’t be charging people for their services.
Let me repeat this, because I talk to people every week who think that “if it’s on the internet, it’s free and okay to use” – legally, and I believe ethically, just because content is on the internet and free to access does not mean you have the right to use it without permission in your own work or as your own work. There is a lot of examples that back this up.
When blogging about someone else’s post or sharing it along, an excerpt is what’s appropriate if you do not have permission, and with or without permission, you should have the author’s full name and link to the website (as well as other things like their Twitter if public) at the top of the piece to not mislead readers.
Want more proof of misleading readers? In some cases, there’s comments under the post referring to site/blog author, people who the original writer doesn’t know, praising the blog/site author for writing the post, or “that’s why you’re such a great writer, *blog site author, not post author name here*”
Even better, if you have permission, make them an author in your blogging system and even have the author tags be created properly. Otherwise, it’s very likely (from experience) that Google will put the work under your name – which may be what you’re trying to do anyway. And why I’m writing this terse post.
If you’re committing this mistake, either:
- You don’t know better (that’s okay, especially if you’re new at this)
- Are playing like you don’t know better to scam the Google page rank and/or
- Trying to pass off work as your own to be a thought leader off the work of others true thought leading (see this post by Justin Kownacki on THAT subject which is more well put together than anything I could write).
What Is Being Done: The Diagram
So below, I’ve diagrammed what’s been happening. Note that without any author mention, with just a very small, not plain link, it looks like the author of the blog wrote the piece and that is NOT the case, especially compared to the gigantic author info box which is commonly on the right side. It misleads the reader into thinking that it’s the blog owner’s work, when it is not. And people know how to click links – if you do a paragraph or a few lines, then link to the other blog at the end, they can figure that out. If you’re really paranoid about not letting them off the site, target the link to a new window (even though I’m not a huge fan of it, I get why it would it be done) could be an option.
We’re Better Than This, Detroit.
Although this is a bigger problem geographically, we in our growing Detroit social media community need to not do it, and not do it to each other. All the examples I’m thinking about are local. They either don’t know better – and quickly fix – or they feel like they could make a few more adsense cents or improve their brand or standing by stealing other’s works.
If we’re going to grow as a community – and prove the naysayers wrong about us – we need to respect each other first.
Comments
5 Responses to “It’s Only Stealing From Yourself”
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The problem is partly a matter of awareness and partly a matter of intent. That so many people enter the social media sphere unaware that misusing other people’s content is fundamentally wrong is a problem that extends far beyond our field. And as much as I’d like to advocate a polite approach to solving the problem, I’m also aware that there’s a fine line between kind-hearted corrections and seeming permissiveness. If we don’t raise hell, people will continue to fool themselves into believing we don’t really mind, and the problem will only grow.
Man, nobody’s ripped off any of my content . . . I kinda feel left out.
It’s never who makes it first, it’s who promotes it the best. Everything u do is going ot be ripped off unless u defend it; people like to make reputation and money for doing no work.
This is as old as the internet, it is going to happen. If you find a specific example you either have to contact the person, call them out publicly, or forget it.
I have a friend who is a professional photographer, and found her work being used in what she felt was a commercial context. She feels she has a responsibility to the people she has photographed not to use their image in certain ways, and it is part of the trust she has with her clients. She tried to privately handle the issue, and was given a few assurances, but nothing happened. She ended up having to assert her rights and have content removed. Since the re-use of her work was part of a popular project there was some outcry when it disappeared. The people who took her work were happy to publicly portray her as a villain and misrepresent what conversations took place privately (and also claimed some sort of fair-use non-profit status, even though their project was clearly designed to promote sales of a product).
In the end, she got a headache and a bit of a unwanted notariety in the tech community (which is where many of her clients work). Not taking other people’s things without permission should be a no-brainer, but you also have people who purposely do it, and think it is ok (even if the creator thinks it is not). Some people told my friend that she should give away her work to make herself more famous. But, you know, she’s gotta eat, and fame isn’t very filling. It’s not like she is living high on the hog for being “greedy.”
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