Comments on: Do People Respect Copyright Anymore?

By: Do People Care About Copyright At All? | Crime Sift

Do People Care About Copyright At All? | Crime Sift — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:14:44 +0000

[...] John Chow asked the question Do People Respect Copyright Anymore? In the post, Chow indicates that his article The Internet’s Biggest Google Whores was copied in its entirety and posted on other blogs. Chow indicated that he was trying to get two other blogs to remove his Google Whore article. Chow was successful, when you try to link to the two articles that copied his post, the pages have been removed. I would expect that there are several who have taken their place. With respect, Chow asked the wrong question. The issue is not Do People Respect Copyright Anymore, it is Do People Care About Copyright At All. [...]

By: HMTKSteve

HMTKSteve — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 13:16:53 +0000

I’ve had the same thing happen and I’m a tiny blogger!

I had posted a modified version of an old joke (rethemed to be tech) and it ended up on Digg.

Within a week a did a Google search and found the blog entry copied onto many other blogs!

Some bloggers were honorable and only posted the first line or two with a link back to my blog to read the rest while others just grabbed the whole thing with a “source” link at the bottom.

I have no problem with another blogger posting an excerpt from my blog with a link to the source for the full text but I can’t stand it when someone takes an entire entry and posts it on their blog, regardless of any author credit.

You will not see one book publisher publishing Stephen King books without a contract from Stephen King but instead claiming, “we put his name on the cover, we never claimed we wrote it…” so why do bloggers feel they can do this?

In closing, I do license my work under CC so it is “ok” to do some copying without permission but… the CC license does not go away…

By: John Chow

John Chow — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 18:08:14 +0000

Chris - Most of the copyright violators didn’t link to me or list me as the author.

By: Chris Rasch

Chris Rasch — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:23:56 +0000

Okay, so other sites publish your article. Now more people know about John Chow and go to your site. Maybe some of them click the ads and you make money.

Now those sites don’t have a link to you. So no Google boost to your site. And I dare say that they won’t link to you again.

How do you know that the revenue you would’ve gained from the increased exposure isn’t greater than the loss you sustained from people reading your article on someone else’s site?

By: Living in Italy

Living in Italy — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:37:22 +0000

I get it all the time - MySpace kiddies hot link my photos to their profiles, sometimes in very weird contexts (what does one of my wedding pictures have to do with a complete stranger? and why did some kid post a picture of me at 11 years old with a horse and say it was his horse?). I add text to the pictures saying “photo courtesy of beginningwithi.com”. I doubt I get any traffic that way, but you never know.

I haven’t gone looking for ripoffs of my text, but it wouldn’t surprise me…

By: Guy from Lithuania

Guy from Lithuania — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 09:19:12 +0000

Lawrence,

Imagine, that every night someone picks up your car, drives all night, and leaves it at morning. It seems OK, because you didn’t “thought about putting up something”? How you’ll react to this?

Please, post your’s car photo, and we will see, if your’s car is without “something”, that says “I didn’t let you drive my car without permission”, it means all can pick and drive?

And what about your’s house? Did it is any sign near entrance, that says, that you didn’t let everyone to come in and sleep in your’s bed?

If you will throw out these people, I think you are over-reacting. Really.

And let me explain, people, who give permissions to repost or republish content, simply put Creative Commons license on site. It is so simple, but I still amazed, that so many did not understand this.

By: John Chow

John Chow — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 07:56:32 +0000

I take copyright very seriously. My business is media and we have to deal with this crap all the time. You have to take a hard-line with copyright violators.

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 07:46:05 +0000

I think you are over-reacting. You are only benfiting if they put a link to your site.

All this talk about suing is not wise on your part. I would NEVER do business with someone who talks alot about lawsuits. It creates distrust by demostrating that you would be quick to get someone in a courtroom.

Have you thought about putting up something that says your site is copyrighted? I’d put it at the top of every page.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 22:08:41 +0000

It’s a never ending fight. The worst is when you get a person that lives outside your country. Good luck trying to stop them with a letter from the lawyer.

By: Bob Buskirk

Bob Buskirk — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 19:33:47 +0000

Some people are scumbags and will do anything for good content, using other peoples articles as their own with out even giving credit…