The Good D's

I can’t believe how fast things change in computerland! Take a month off during the “dog days” of summer and come back to find…

• Microsoft and Yahoo! have joined search forces (!!!)
• The W3C released an unexpected HTML 5 broad spec. (a good HTML 5 layouts elements rundown here)
• My wife has had the text from her photography site misappropriated by TWO other photographers

Since the first news item has been covered to the point that some child somewhere is likely being named Microhoo as we speak, and the second point really has limited appeal as a discussion topic (though I might just weigh in at a later date), I’d like to ease back into the blogging routine by addressing the text theft. Now, this isn’t the somewhat understandable theft of particularly well written generic text. In this case, the text from the page about her professional training and education was taken, as well as that from what a client should expect during a shoot. Both are pretty particular to Shoshana Ruttner alone, so the theft was particularly audacious.

As counselled, Shoshana wrote each a no-nonsense email giving them 24 hours to remove or rewrite the offending pages. As expected, both complied, one with a snippy “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” excuse, and the other with a “I thought everybody did it” cop out. Both responses are interesting in their own way. First of all, taking the text from a web site, word for word, is not imitation – it’s theft. Second, thinking that “everybody does it” is just another way of saying that you’re too lazy , and perhaps not eloquent enough, to take a few moments to represent yourself in your own words. Finally, these are other PHOTOGRAPHERS!! If they feel so casual about stealing text, can we even be certain the photos on their sites are their own! And if they would balk at stealing photos why is stealing words acceptable? In any case all turned out fine, as these two complied with our written demand for redress. However, if you run into a situation of blatant plagiarism, here are some steps you should follow:

1. Print out the offending pages (with the site URL and date in the print page header)
2. Gather any info you can about the plagiarizing site. http://www.allwhois.com/ will give you the registrar, host and possibly the registrant’s name and address. http://www.alexa.com/ may give you some more info, but only if the offender is a popular site.
3. Write the offending site and let them know, firmly, that you are aware of a copyright violation and that it must be discontinued within 24 hours. Provide the URLs to the offending pages. Let them know that you will be informing their registrar and host if they do not comply. (Hosts are on your side and will de-list a violator’s page.)

A final tip – if you have spent significant time and thought and energy putting your site together, not just the graphics and architecture but the content as well, then spend just a little more effort to protect it. Have a clear copyright indication at the footer of every page. Occasionally plug a unique phrase or two from your site in Google and see who else is using it. Don’t be shy about confronting plagiarists.

Tags: content, plagiarism, theft