Discuss Amongst Yourselves...

As I mentioned in my previous post, a certain website (you'll never find me linking to it!) has been taking liberties and stealing my posts. Natasha was kind enough to send me this link, How To Defend Your Blogs Copyright. I thank her. I wanted to share it with you in a post just in case you're ever in a position where you need it! Because apparently--and everyone may already know this--it's not all that unusual. I think there are people who really and truly just sit around and steal. Steal from other blogs. Sometimes one or two blogs. Sometimes a wide range of blogs are targeted. In almost all these cases, the people in question are blogs that are using ads--programs like Googe's Adsense or Adwords (and the like)--as a way to try to make money. The more posts one has, the better the potential for making money I suppose. (I'll try to make this post 95% general; 5% personal. I don't want to give the impression I'm whining. I'm not. But if I can help even one person prevent this from happening or... discourage even one person from doing this...then it will be worthwhile.)

Which leads me to a discussion topic. What are the rights and wrongs of copying? Are there certain things it's okay to take, to copy? Are there certain things that are off limits? How can you tell the difference? Suppose you're a new blogger and you're clueless. What are the rules here?

That's what I'm asking YOU.

I'll also be sharing my thoughts. I think as bloggers, most people follow certain rules.

Memes. Anyone and everyone can copy memes. I mean the whole idea of a meme is to spread it around. True, you should be providing your own answers, playing along with whatever the meme is--whether it is answering questions, creating lists, creaking lists of links, posting pictures, etc. There is a LARGE community of meme events--Weekly Geeks, Booking Through Thursday, Waiting on Wednesday, Mailbox Monday, Bad Bloggers, Library Loot, Tuesday Thingers, etc. These events have everyone doing the same thing, but they showcase differences. Everyone may be copying the question or activity--it may appear on hundreds or thousands of blogs--but each answer will be different.

Challenges. When a challenge hosts writes a post, it's not really a big surprise to see large portions of it (or it in its entirety) being posted at challenge participant sites. I think this is understandable--it is always more convenient to have a list of the rules on your own site than just a link that is easily misplaced. Again, it's also a way of spreading the word about the challenge. As long as a link to the challenge host/challenge blog/challenge sign up post is provided, I think this is fine.

Opinion Posts/Articles. If I read an article somewhere online--a blog, a newspaper, a magazine--I usually provide a link. But I may quote two or three sentences for reference. To orient readers with what I'm responding to. Is this okay? Is this a good thing? Bad thing? Are we starting to cross a line? Does it depend on if I'm just mentioning it or if I'm contemplating it? Really pulling in my own thoughts and opinions?

Links. I'm going to assume--presume--that linking to an article/post/blog will always be an okay thing. If I say, Read this post about the Cybils winners that can only be a good thing, right? No complaints that I'm spreading the word, right? If I'm reviewing a book and feel inclined to link to other reviews of the book...or to link to the author's website...it can only be a good thing, right? You're spreading the love. Saying go forth to these other sites. They're good. They're great. You might want to read them, follow them.

Press Releases. I don't always do many press release type posts but occasionally I get emails from people--publishers, authors, bookstores, publicists, media people--that are press releases. That are asking me to spread the word about this, that, and the other. I'm assuming--presuming again--that since it's for release everywhere, (and sometimes they say for immediate release) and since the primary purpose is to spread the word, and since I'm being encouraged to post about it...that it would be okay then to copy whatever it is.

Quotes. When is it okay to quote something? If you're reviewing a book, should you quote? how much can you quote? how much should you quote? Is the author/publisher going to get angry with you for quoting from the book? It's just my humble guess that it's good to quote in book reviews. You're showing your readers why they would want to read the book. You're giving examples and supporting your review. That being said, I think you could go overboard. I don't think it would be right to quote an entire chapter or entire picture book unless you had the permission of the author/publisher. But a paragraph here and there from a novel? I don't see that they'd be anything wrong with that. I do try to always mention if I'm reviewing from the ARC. It doesn't stop me from quoting a few sentences if they're good. But I always say that it's from the ARC so it may not match what is in the 'real' book. I've never had anyone complain about anything I've done. I'm assuming if an author or publisher was unhappy they'd let me know.

What if your entire blog consisted of links to other posts? Is there such a thing as too much linking? How much of a post needs to your own? Your own content? Your own thoughts?

Entire Posts. Here is where there is really no excuse. It is never okay to just cut and paste an entire blog post into your own blog. It's not good web etiquette to go to someone's site, copy an entire post, and cut and paste it into your own blog, publish, and call it done. That's not blogging. That's stealing. And it's wrong. I have come across--and I can't remember whose blog it was--maybe if they read my blog they can jog my memory, but it is someone whose blog I follow and have been following for months now--a situation where someone's post was copied to another site--I think it was about Twilight or Stephenie Meyer--and when the original author posted about how she didn't like her post being copied and posted on another site--that she didn't have permission to do so. The person was like, "you should be flattered. I gave you credit. There's your name. There's your blog name. I did nothing wrong." Even taking and copying an entire post and then linking to the original is unethical in my book. There is only one legitimate excuse, one situation where that is okay. If you have the permission of the author--the blogger--and you obtain permission beforehand.

Is it flattering to be linked to? Yes. Is it flattering to be quoted--in brief at least? Yes. I wouldn't have a problem with someone saying, "Becky reviewed this book. And here is what she had to say, 'One or two sentences quote.' Read the rest of the review here." But that's a whole other story. It's not flattering to have your posts stolen. Repeatedly. It's offensive.

And I also want to thank everyone in the Kidlitosphere yahoo group for being so wonderful, so supportive, and so smart! They've given me a handful of suggestions. And I'll be acting on some of those in the next day or so. I have contacted the person who has registered the domain name, and I hope that he/she will see about stopping this. I do think it's ironic that even the post on their theft was stolen. I don't know if you can see that in the screen shot or not.




© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews