Iyow - in your own words

Here’s a fun thread on plagiarism, that I’m going to plagiarize....

mjeppsen writes PlagiarismToday offers a thought-provoking article that frankly discusses concerns with plagiarism and rote content theft among bloggers.

Hee hee, okay, I’ll just change that to a copyright infraction – the blurb and cite are from Slashdot.

But Slashdot says the content is owned by the poster (mjeppsen in this case), and posters post at their own risk – perhaps even copyright infringement. And Slashdot’s parent company OSTG’s own policy on linking within their sites is pro-linking. So would that poster consider this a copyright infraction, and more importantly, one to be angry about?

If you ask me, this kind of story chain-linking is good for him, me, and the reader.

fair use vs. content theft

Fair use involves being able to cite enough of a work – working within legal copyrights – to create a response, which becomes a work in itself. Or following a long tradition of using others’ work to back up supporting information – hello, footnote? This is how ideas get developed among people. This is how intellectual communities are created. (It’s also how a lot of popular music gets made today, though that is a whole other can of worms.)

Content theft is ripping off someone else without permission, without any value-add, and passing it off as your own. In my humble opinion.

Network effects come back to reward both parties

The value of sole-right-to-publish of original work is a lot less on the Web. I think this is because top search engines (aka Google) give a lot of credibility for links from external sites. The original author gets the critical ‘vote’ that bumps up their ranking, and the citer gets a small lift for having a link that may indicate them as a topic expert. Some argue that it removes incentive to go to visit the original author, and that’s a valid concern. But in my experience, I’m more likely to visit another site if it’s been linked by a site I like and regularly visit, than if there was no mention at all! The linker is providing brand exposure and increasing the linkee’s presence on the Web.

Just for the record, I’m really happy if someone links back here, cites stuff, fights with it, whatever, any mention is good. Even if they’re profiting off their website (as I attempt to here – gross to date: $3.06). What I wouldn’t want is someone taking original insights or large chunks of verbatim text/video/whathaveyou and repackaging it and selling it as a unit without a deal. In the meantime, even if no one can make money off what I say or do, I’m happy if someone remembers my name.