It’s my IP, Stupid – Take Two

By Harold Stearley at Earthwalking

If you’ve been exploring the world of blogging for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that some blogs are completely devoid of original content. Instead, they fill the pages of their blogs with other people’s posts and attempt to monitize that blog by including ads.

They snatch up large volumes of other peoples’ work so they appear in the news feed (or Reader) continuously. They do this to try to drive traffic to thir sites to generate that advertising income.

But these people are hacks.

They have no intention of ever producing a creative work, they simply “borrow” others’ intellectual property. I’ve also talked with fellow bloggers and it’s not just words that are being stolen, they also steal art, whether it be photographs or some other medium.

These people suck.

If you’re wondering why I’m writing about this, it’s because another one of my posts was “lifted” to another page where that blog makes it appear that they authored my work. They do not provide proper attribution as anyone in the writing world knows is the only appropriate way of using another person’s IP.

When I originally drafted this piece, I went into great detail of the misappropriation. How I screenshot the proof, reported it to WP, and how WP simply didn’t agree, and supported the thief.

After I re-read my potential draft, I realized all of the detail merely bogged down the message. So I submit this abbreviated post in its stead.

By-the-way, WP went on to tell me that no IP could be protected on the web, and if I believed I could find a safer platform that I should go ahead and leave.

So I doubt I will be renewing my membership here. It was just this sort of theft that discouraged me from writing last year and it happened again in under ten posts this year.

I’ll keep you posted as to where I might end up, but for now, just let me say thank you for visiting my blog, reading my posts, and giving me wonderful feedback! I’ve also enjoyed your work immensely.

In Metta