Please don’t steal my content
This is a repost of an article I originally did last summer but due to a number of recent copyright violations I am reposting it.
We really appreciate other blogs linking to our articles here at Camera Dojo and usually they copy the first paragraph so their readers know what the linked article is about. While technically this is a violation of the Digital Millinium Copyright Act, I would never take action since they are only taking a snippet of an article and linking back to the entire article.
Where I really have a problem is people stealing my images that I took myself and people who completely steal the entire content of my articles. If you are even considering it, please rethink that strategy. Just this morning a popular blog hosted on wordpress.com had taken complete articles from here as well as a few other sites and posted the entire articles including images to their site. Even though there was a sentance at the end that listed a link to the original site, it was a clear violation of the DMCA and their site was deactivated within five minutes of the report to WordPress about the issue.
More and more content aggregation sites like that are coming up trying to use other people’s content to build traffic to their sites, hopefully to boost rankings and make advertising money. If you see that some other site has stolen content from someone else, do not hesiate to contact the original content creator and let them know so that appropriate action can be taken.
Myself, and other content creators work very hard to bring our readers good quality information and to have our work stolen from us is simply wrong, unfair, and thankfully it is also illegal.
Just to make it perfectly clear:
- You cannot copy text or images from another site with the content owner’s permission
- Just because text or images are online does not make it ok for you to copy it
- Copying even a paragraph from an article somewhere and using it is still a violation but is rarely enforced if it then links to the original content
- In most cases your hosting company will shut you down immediately as soon as they verify a copyright violation notification
- The penalty for copyright violations is up to $10,000 per violation
Author: Kerry Garrison
Popularity: 1%
I couldn't agree with you more on this, as I had multiple cases of the above, some were one-shot, others on an on-going basis. This is even worse with full-text RSS feeds as it's "candy" for the sploggers.
One day this got me frustrated enough that I sat down and blogged a list of 1001noisycameras….08/07/bloggers-corner-fighting-off-rss-feed.html" rel="nofollow">five things one can do to discourage splogging and defend their RSS feeds, but obviously there's no way to prevent them altogether.
1001noisycameras….08/07/bloggers-corner-fighting-off-rss-feed.html" rel="nofollow">five things one can do to discourage splogging and defend their RSS feeds, but obviously there's no way to prevent them altogether.
five things one can do to discourage splogging and defend their RSS feeds, but obviously there’s no way to prevent them altogether.
I couldn’t agree with you more on this, as I had multiple cases of the above, some were one-shot, others on an on-going basis. This is even worse with full-text RSS feeds as it’s “candy” for the sploggers.
One day this got me frustrated enough that I sat down and blogged a list of five things one can do to discourage splogging and defend their RSS feeds, but obviously there’s no way to prevent them altogether.
I know EXACTLY what you're saying!!! I'm working hand-in-hand with the PPA right now with a person that stole over 1,000 pieces of my work is pretty much shining us on.
The PPA will begin to show this infidel how strong they are that they shouldn't have done that to begin with.
Cheers!
David Esquire
Esquire Photography
http://www.esquirephotography.com">http://www.esquirephotography.com
info@esquirephotography.com
I know EXACTLY what you’re saying!!! I’m working hand-in-hand with the PPA right now with a person that stole over 1,000 pieces of my work is pretty much shining us on.
The PPA will begin to show this infidel how strong they are that they shouldn’t have done that to begin with.
Cheers!
David Esquire
Esquire Photography
http://www.esquirephotography.com
info@esquirephotography.com
I know EXACTLY what you’re saying!!! I’m working hand-in-hand with the PPA right now with a person that stole over 1,000 pieces of my work & is pretty much shining us on.
The PPA will begin to show this infidel how strong they are & that they shouldn’t have done that to begin with.
Cheers!
David Esquire
Esquire Photography
http://www.esquirephotography.com
info@esquirephotography.com
I have been having problems with scrapers stealing content lately as well. Many of them stopped after I reported the instances to Google. I guess they find it is not worth it if their bogus pagerank is compromised.
I have been having problems with scrapers stealing content lately as well. Many of them stopped after I reported the instances to Google. I guess they find it is not worth it if their bogus pagerank is compromised.
Yes, this is a big problem on the net. What people don't realise is that they screw up your google page ranking; your site go's down they are going up, so if you make money with your site, this could cost you a lot. Mostly that is not there intention but the results are the same.
IANAL but I think fair use allows people to post snippets regardless of backlinking, particularly if used as part of a critique/commentary. Similarly with thumbnails of images. Fair use does not require the content owners permission. I also do not believe DMCA trumps fair use currently in this context.
Obviously taking your pages whole sale is copyright infringement, but you seem to be ignoring fair use completely by saying/implying that works can never be copied, even in part, without the content owners permission.
Legally I can easily go after sites that take my entire content and reuse it, there is no question there. Sites that take PART of the content and then backlink is a gray area since from a pure legal point of view, it may be illegal although it is commonly accepted as being ok. I personally find that behavior to be pretty cheesy (if they are pure RSS aggregation sites) but I do not try and shut down sites for it. If I put a stop to that than even friends with good intentions would fall victim to that. I am much more concerned about articles and images taken as a whole and reused.
I agree if someone takes your stuff wholesale everyone knows that is infringement. But fair use does allow people to take parts of your content without your permission if they pass if they pass the tests for fair use as decided by a judge. I don't think there is any precedent set concerning blogs or rss aggragation. As you say – it MAY be illegal, it MAY not be illegal. You have the right to try and get them to stop with the DMCA, and they have the right to file counter DMCA notices if they feel they are within fair use. I suspect we are on the same page but the sentence "# Copying even a paragraph from an article somewhere and using it is still a violation but is rarely enforced if it then links to the original content" just struck me as misleading, as I can think of at least one way that isn't true (I could be doing a commentary or critique of your work and could copy a paragraph for that purpose regardless of your permission (or backlinks)) I realize you are probably writing that sentance in the context of RSS aggregation but you don't explicitly add that restriction in your text.
More information w2.eff.org/IP/eff_fair_use_faq.php
[...] from any website you should know the law and the penalties. Here is the link to the article titled “Please don’t steal my content”. If you are interested in using any of my content, please contact [...]
[...] from any website you should know the law and the penalties. Here is the link to the article titled “Please don’t steal my content”. If you are interested in using any of my content, please contact [...]
While reproducing significant portions of a work can often be fair use and thus not infringing, this sort of aggregation seems to illustrate the other end of the spectrum
How about design copying?
http://www.prophotolife.com/
While I agree that stealing your article whole hog would be a DMCA violation, quoting a small percentage of the text (like the opening article) with clear attribution is absolutely not a DMCA violation, and is classified as fair use.
That is an interpretation of the fair use clause. As I have said, I don't really have an issue with that except for those sites that are just aggregators and serve no purpose than to try to bump their own ratings by having tons of content when they have no original content themselves. It is acceptable because it drives traffic back. The ones I will not tolerate are ones who take the entire article and put it on their own sites.
While I agree that stealing your article whole hog would be a DMCA violation, quoting a small percentage of the text (like the opening article) with clear attribution is absolutely not a DMCA violation, and is classified as fair use.
That is an interpretation of the fair use clause. As I have said, I don't really have an issue with that except for those sites that are just aggregators and serve no purpose than to try to bump their own ratings by having tons of content when they have no original content themselves. It is acceptable because it drives traffic back. The ones I will not tolerate are ones who take the entire article and put it on their own sites.