Okay, I need to get this out of my chest now!
Over the past week, I’ve been battling with some users on forums and discussion boards who took either a big chunk or 100% of my blog entries from my beauty blog and posting it in the name of sharing.
I get really uptight when my copyright is infringed for the simple reason that I have a copyright policy that is clearly written on my blog. In fact, I have it linked to every blog post! Some of you who are bloggers might also know this thing about content duplication. If my blog post get duplicated elsewhere, it might get penalised by the search engine through no fault of mine.
Usually I write to these users, telling them politely that they have infringed on my copyright and they should have it removed. It’s also part of the copyright education process since I’m aware that some of them may not be entirely aware of their actions.
Most of them are apologetic but today, I came across one local mother from Singapore Motherhood who is such a bitch. Not only did she not apologise, she was rude and her attitude was most appalling! Totally uncivilised! So in the end, I just told her I hope her child doesn’t grow up to be like her.
Note to self: Next time just report these abusers. No need to play nice!
Just wondering. If they copy your post but give you credit or cite their source, would that still be considered copyright infringement? Would you be Ok with that?
Comment by MK — Thu, 5 Jun 2008 @ 9:30 pm
Yes.. i meant to ask what MK asked too..?? because some of your posts are really interesting.. and i really wanna share it .. with my readers too.
Comment by Mama BoK — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 @ 12:51 am
I would wonder why not just link it instead of copy and post. It does annoy me if someone were to do that to me without asking first or anything.
Comment by Kay — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 @ 12:58 am
MK: It’s still a copyright infringement if they copy more than 10% of my post, whether or not they give me a link. Taking a short excerpt is fine under fair use for non-commercial purposes, but not a big chunk of it. But some of these gals take a big chunk, or my entire post and did not even give a link.
MB: I don’t find an excerpt and a link cos I’m very concerned about content duplication. And thanks for commenting that you find my articles interesting.
I did put a lot of time to writing some of those which is why I was so mad with those gals.
Kay: Actually my copyright policy is very clear so I get even more furious when they take my work without permission.
Comment by sesame — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 @ 6:41 am
tell me abt it!! i’ve had ppl who use my photos without my permission and claim the work 2b their own. and when confronted totally ignore me and pretend nothing happened. i had to contact the website administrator (in my case, was multiply.com).
how do u report these ppl?? really not much we can do coz tho’ our stuffs are copyrighted, its not patented?
Evan: That’s so annoying! The only condolence here is they take your photos becos they’re really nice. But I know, that’s really lame!
When it’s the forum or discussion board, they have a moderator so I report them to the moderator. Recently, some kids have been taking my entire posts off my celebrity site. I put up all their names on one of my blog posts and they never dared to do it again. In the worst case, although it has not happened yet, I will go directly to the forum page, put up a post that they’ve infringed on my copyright. As for websites, I been reporting them to Google cos they usually have adsense. I’ve even reported to their site host. I can get relentless.
Comment by Evan — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 @ 4:27 pm
Wow…unbelievable! Steal your post and yet have the gall to get angry with the original creator? This really takes the cake…I’m speechless.
I’ve given up on copycat bloggers already. I don’t find 100% copycats but I do find other MUMMY blogger copying my style of posting/writing/describing.
It’s sickening esp when you see it on blogs with high traffic. Looks like they STEAL IDEAS to stay on top
Comment by KittyCat — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 @ 1:10 am