Stop! Thief!
December 15, 2007 · Written by Melissa Donovan
A couple of weeks ago I had my first experience with copyright infringement when I discovered another web site was using my blog posts without my permission. I asked them to remove my material, and they did. Many other bloggers made the same request and were quickly obliged. John Hewitt of The Writer’s Resource Center recently pointed out that the site in question had closed the blog entirely.
Writers generally don’t appreciate it when others publish their work without permission, especially in an effort to generate revenue without offering a cut to the original author. That’s just wrong.
Since then, I’ve come to learn that this is an all too common occurence on the Internet, especially in the blogosphere. Now, when I see my posts being republished, I ignore it for the most part, unless:
- The work is not credited to me, or Writing Forward
- There is no link to Writing Forward or the site where the piece was originally published
- They are using my bandwidth and/or image
- They have altered the piece in any way, including removing the embedded links, many of which link back to my site, and many others which are revenue generators (hey, if you’re going to steal my work, at least let me collect on my own advertising!)
As long as another site posting my work does not do any of these things, I still stand to gain from their re-publication. Links are good, as are bylines, and ad revenue. Stealing bandwidth it totally unacceptable, as is using images that I’ve paid for (I use istockphoto).
Today I came across a blog that had violated ALL of the above and I was peeved. Not only is the webmaster too lazy to write her own blog posts, she’s also stealing my bandwidth, removing my byline and my ad links, and infringing on the copyright that istockphoto manages for the image she’s displaying.
I wrote her a letter letting her know that I was flattered that she liked my post so much, but she needed to make some changes, otherwise I’d have to contact her host as well as istockphoto. Then, I had an idea.
I simply renamed the original image, and made this new one in its place. Now, anyone who is using my original image and bandwidth will be called out on their own site. Plus, maybe I’ll get a little extra traffic.
What do you think about this? Am I being too harsh, or is this a creative (and kind of funny) way to raise a red flag? Leave a comment and let me know!
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a novel way of claiming ownership of your ideas and may be induce a tinge of guilt in the copy cat.
may be you could tell me a bit in detail how all this works.
This is a very clever idea. The only real problem is the additional work it puts on you to keep up with transgressors and change your images as they happen.
I know sites have done something similar in the past. It makes me wonder if there is a way to automate it. If an image is called by a domain name other than the one it is stored on it automatically redirects the img src to your “infringer” image. I’m not sure if that’s possible but it could be worth looking into.
I’ll leave a comment, sure.
I am the accused. “my bad?”
Please know that it was never my intent to infringe upon anything.
I even made an additional statement at the end of my original post to say
“Credit goes to: http://www.writingforward.com/writing-tips-tricks/the-22-best-writing-tips-ever”
I thought that this direct link back to your post would be good for you.
I actually wasn’t even thinking about the links in the content at the time.
I just thought it was great content that would benefit my readers, and to ensure that the alignment on my blog remains intact, I just pasted directly into the code rather than the text section in my blog to get clean simple code formatted to not screw up the alignment of my blog which some posts can throw off, and your post had a bulleted list.
When relooking at the author’s/Writing Forward’s comments, I reviewed my post and I agree that I had not executed the post the way I should have.
I hope that I have since corrected it.
I apologize publically and to the author for my oversight.
It is my intention to play by the rules.
In terms of bandwidth and such, I thought at the time that I was doing the right thing by just copying everything ‘as is’ from your post and placing the credit clause to you at the end.
I didn’t think about the hosting of the picture except for the slight thought I had at the time, but my thought was that it would actually be beneficial to the Writing Forward to do this way.
You could see that I didn’t attempt to put any of my own links in the post. Hopefully that will help to prove that I was only passing along content that I Stumbled Upon and I wanted to share with my readers.
In terms of being too lazy to write my own content, I believe in sharing brilliance, whether it be from me or someone else.
I want my online family to get the best content.
If someone else has written it already, then I can spend more time bringing together the common denominators on topics rather than just one viewpoint from one person, like me for example.
This event today has been a wake up call for me; that you cannot fall off your game.
I appreciate where you were coming from with your reactive comments/post.
Please again accept my apology and please know that there was no harm meant.
Let me know what you would like me to do to help make things right between us and the situation.
Warm regards,
Monique Briand
Brilliant. Continue doing so.
Wow, Melissa, I don’t know what to think! I can see that she’s given you credit now but I guess before she did that it looked like she’d just written it!
*Shakes head*
Why on earth? Well, I think it’s pretty awesome that you figured out how to create this “red flag.” I don’t think it’s cruel. I just think you’re taking up for yourself and your content.
I always try to be so careful and use only a quote, include the author’s full name, link(s) to their blog/site, and so on. Besides that, I just use my own creativity and write what’s on my mind instead of copying entire posts from someone else.
I commend you for taking a stand!
Its an all to common occurrence I think these days. I have had multiple post stolen from me. Usually people just cut and past the straight text, spelling errors and all. Now the problem is tha I do a lot of surfing and when you have stared at a post and read it over and over you recognise your own writing very quickly. Stats help to see where your traffic is going as well.
I understand and would love to find a simple solution as well. Maybe a name and shame list for people who refuse to take down content. Then again that would give them the benefit of links back to them
I have mixed feelings. As some who know me might be aware, I’m a big, big believer that knee-jerk reactions happen too often and that there are always two sides to a coin. Many people don’t *know* the laws and rights, etc, and writers are DAMNED fast to get all puffed up and indignant, leap onto the bandwagon about copyright, beating anyone with a stick that they can reach. I’ve seen it happen very often and I don’t like it.
Yes, copyright infringement is wrong. But cripes, people, figure out the facts of the events before you wade into the fray!
Where I’m from, it’s innocent until proven guilty. I’m aware that in the U.S., it’s guilty until proven innocent. That may explain why people go nuts over what they perceive and assume to be happening without gathering facts, first.
Had this been me, I would have sent a very nice, friendly and polite letter to the site owner explaining the problems AND how to resolve them. I would have done so in a way that absolutely avoids conflict. You want to educate and become friends, not come in swinging and leave bodies behind.
Had I received no response or a poor resolution, though, it would’ve been every man for himself.
@ Melissa: I think your image idea is friggin’ BRILLIANT and hilarious. Good one. Two, I think you should’ve written an email to the person first.
@ Monique: It takes a very, very big person to come and offer to discuss. That’s quite admirable of you. It’s also admirable that you seek resolution so that both parties are satisfied.
That replacement image for bandwidth thieves is no fun. You gotta replace it with something lewd and pornographic. Only way to teach them a lesson
Oops, I read this post after my comment on the original article. I thought my StumbleUpon addition/review (which included the photo) caused the replacement. In response to this post:
The replaced image now with the text, made me chuckle - pretty shrewd move. Respect to Monique as well to stand up like she did.
Hi Michelle,
Just to clarify for you, the article never looked at any time like I wrote it.
What happened was that I didn’t see the name of the author anywhere on the page I Stumbled Upon with the 22 tips, and I looked. I just saw Writing Forward. I didn’t sign my name. To put a further emphasis that it was Writing Forward that contributed the content, I even put the hyperlinked phrase “Credit goes to: http://www.writingforward.com/writing-tips-tricks/the-22-best-writing-tips-ever” directly right below the post where the author would be found.
Just to keep you in the loop.
Warm regards,
Monique Briand
James,
I commend you for your balanced approach to this situation as well as in your day to day life and teachings.
I appreciate your valuable contribution.
Abundant Blessings,
Monique Briand
Well, I don’t want to stir the pot of the current situation, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your substitute graphic, although it does put more work on you to change it. But it’s a handy thing to have.
This is also why I tend to link to blog entries in my blog at http://trishalyn.blogspot.com so my readers can just go there themselves instead of regurgitating the content.
Monique:
After reading Melissa’s original post, I followed the link she provided. That link took me to your blog, of course. The title of your blog post was the same as the post she discussed. At your blog, after seeing that same title, this is how the post began:
“Brian Clark over at Copyblogger has issued a challenge to bloggers in his post “The Cosmo Headline Technique for Blogging Inspiration.” The idea is to use headlines from magazines like Cosmopolitan for inspiration, and to write your headlines before composing the content. I’ve take Brian up on his challenge and as a result, I bring you the 22 best writing tips ever:”
Following are Melissa’s 22 tips…
It appears to anyone reading this entry, that you’re the one who wrote it because it’s like you are speaking in your own voice… on your blog.
Monique, I’m not a mean person. I’m not even a judgmental person. Perhaps I sent my opinion into cyber space for the world to see, but I guess you missed the discussion at The Writer’s Resource Center (John Hewitt) about content theft. Writers are generally on guard about their work, anyway, but with splogs and content thieves on the rise, you must understand why someone like Melissa who’d taken the time to write her blog entry would be upset that someone –in her eyes–”swiped” it.
Unless I’m badly mistaken, you can only post an article–or someone’s entire blog entry–if there’s a bio at the end saying anyone is free to use that piece on their site/blog as along as they include that original bio at the end. Other than that, I’d link to the article giving credit–aka link love…
I hope this helps you understand my reaction to Melissa feeling that her work had been misused.
Blessings,
Michele
Hi everyone,
I just want to restate that I agree that I didn’t execute the post on my blog the way I should have.
I don’t dispute that.
I would just like everyone to know that I had the best intentions and I didn’t realize that I was infringing upon anyone’s rights until it was mentioned to me.
Immediately after I was contacted by Melissa of Writing Forward about my errors, I corrected them.
I appreciate the feedback and awareness of this important issue.
I hope that you accept my apology.
Monique Briand
http://blog.moniquebriand.com
As a photographer, I’m especially keen to prevent copyright theft of my images. It’s impossible to completely prevent people from grabbing an image, but stealing bandwidth at the same time by hotlinking to an image on my site is just going too far. However, it’s possible to prevent this automatically without replacing any images if you’re on an Apache-based server. You just put a couple of lines in the .htaccess file so that any image request that doesn’t come from your own server (as it will if someone’s looking at the image on your site) is always redirected to an alternative image.
Here’s one tutorial:
http://altlab.com/htaccess_tutorial.html
Too harsh? Hell, I have it set up so that any image call not originating from my site is redirected to a transparent png 1 pixel wide and 100,000 pixels high.
It’s a whopping 671 bytes, so it doesn’t use much for replacement bandwidth.
Of course, the first image in a post is in a different category (and a different directory. Any first image that is called from a different domain is redirected to a similar “Hotlinking is stealing bandwidth” type of image with my site on it. It is only about 1.1k in size).
It’s always funny to see sites suddenly stretch to several hundred thousand, and in a few cases, a million or more, pixels high, because of hotlinked images.
Dick, thanks for the resource. I’ve bookmarked the tutorial so I can read it thoroughly later. It’s good to know there are other ways to prevent copyright infringement!
Argos, that’s a clever way to thwart thieves!