It’s like running into a brick wall. A website has great information and would make a great addition to Crafty Tips or any other site for that matter. They might even have several pages of their own favorite sites but when it comes to linking to them, there’s absolutely nothing. No logo, no banner, no text, not even the suggestion to link to them.
Don’t make this mistake!
Invite people to give you backlinks. You might be surprised how effective this can be. more…
As I talked about in one of my first blog posts – Free Patterns Lead to Sales, it’s a fairly common practice for crafters to offer free patterns on their blogs and websites. Freebies can lead to a multitude of free links and advertising for your site. And it’s not a technique for garnering links and traffic that is solely utilized by crafters.
Where site owners are shooting themselves in the foot is when they remove a previously free article or pattern from their website and add it to their shop or store, make it part of a paid ebook or private area. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why someone would want to make money from their work. But, as those folks who have linked to that page realize that it no longer exists, you are going to lose all of those wonderful links to your site. more…
I’ve been visiting more blogs in the past few weeks than I think I did all of last year. I don’t know if this is someone’s misguided “good idea” or some sort of coding mistake but how could anyone think it’s a good idea to not include a link at the bottom of their blog to “previous posts”?
I mean really, do they think it’s a good idea not to encourage their blog visitors to stick around? Do they somehow think older posts have less value? I really don’t get it.
It also seems the blogs ascribing to this design do not offer post categories either. The only navigation is a list of months and the number of posts made in each month. But, there’s the rub. Go to one of the months that has a decent amount of posts and there’s still only access to the newest 2-3 posts.
Why? Why would any blog owner use a template that does this? Is there some strategy I’m just not seeing? All I’m seeing is a blog owner who is being really foolish and failing to recognize the value of their previous posts. All I’m seeing is a blog owner practically shouting at their visitors, “Go Away! You’re not welcome here!”
I can make that! I wrote that! My daughter wrote that, ain’t she smart?
It seems like an endless battle to fight the scammers, thieves and other no-good-knicks that STEAL from others.
Just when I thought I had gotten the content theft occurring on my Foods Not Safe for Pets article under control, I found yet another cretin posting the article in it’s entirety on Yahoo! Answers. And for good measure, she claimed her daughter who was attending veterinarian school provided the list – ah nice, a liar and a thief.
According to one of my new Twitter friends, in a recent Etsy feature on weddings, one of the “artisans” featured populated her shop with stolen photographs and created listings using them stating that they could make a copy of the designer dress in the image for some fee. Under mounting pressure from the Tweets, comments and other discussions; Etsy has apparently closed the offending shop.
Well, that’s one for the good guys. Now I’m off to see about yet another DMCA notice and updating that page to make it clear that people should stop posting my entire article on Yahoo!
I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Spend enough time and effort on something that you publish online and sooner or later someone, somewhere is going to help themselves to your hard work.
Granted, many bloggers do not understand that taking something they found online and posting it on their own site or blog is theft. But, as the saying goes, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Linking back to the original author’s site or including a single reference within the article does not constitute fair use.
In my research today on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, I found a blogger who wrote an indignant post about a DMCA notice sent to them by the New York Times. A huge number of the 120+ replies seemed to think that since the blogger was giving credit, posting links and sending traffic to the original pieces that should have somehow eliminated the Times’ copyrights or that the Times was simply being a big, bad, money grubbing meany for protecting their own property.
I wasn’t actually looking to see if someone used my work without permission. My to-do list is so long right now and sending DMCA notices is not part of my idea of Christmas tidings.
Someone emailed me about an article appearing on one of my websites. They were asking where my information had come from and for some further clarification. The article in question is called Foods Not Safe For Pets. In the process of revisiting the original source material, I realized that I had made a typographical error in the name of something by inadvertently leaving out a letter.
What I also discovered was that my original article had been copied, sometimes word-for-word and other times in pieces on a variety of other blogs, websites and forums. I have never received a single request for reprint permission and while I am glad the information is being seen by more pet owners, it’s so not cool that a number of folks failed to at least identify where the information came from. Giving credit would not have constituted permission but it would have at least provided an accurate attribution and recognition for the hours of research that went into the piece.
There is a bit of irony in all of this that everyone who infringed upon my copyrights by using my article without permission left a very tell-tale signature in the piece due to the error I discovered over the weekend. That one typo suddenly became a smoking gun leading to a number of folks who I now find myself sending DMCA notices to.
Personally, I hate the idea of sending some legalese-type notice to folks who may have honestly not realized what they were doing was unlawful. Trouble is, it’s hard to tell folks who knew they were stealing from those who simply didn’t understand copyright law.
It’s unfortunate that rather than being able to send a less confrontational and more personal request about removing my work, I had to send this official and threatening letter. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a happy camper that so many folks felt it was OK to essentially steal from me and I’m glad you couldn’t hear the not-so-nice words I shouted when I discovered the theft. But, I do realize that not everyone understands that “borrowing” someone else’s written words is indeed copyright infringement and something that I could ultimately sue them over. At the same time, sending a softer letter might have a negative impact on my rights as the true owner.
A number of folks have apparently used my article as source material for their own. There’s nothing wrong with taking known facts and creating a new work – after all, that’s what I did in creating my article. Where it becomes problematic is when the new work utilizes words, phrases and passages lifted directly from the original. Using my original phrasing classifies the “new piece” as a derivative work and not an original composition. The typo has been incorporated in several new works as well as some copyright infringing derivative works.
One of the people went so far as to even use one of the images that is part of my website’s overall design and which appears on several pages. The most disappointing case is where one site owner actually gives credit to another company for compiling the piece; which of course is not true. I was angry and disappointed to see that false attribution but a part of me wondered if the site owner who posted my content knew the material was stolen. Researching the contact info for that site owner led me to discover that not only does she do online writing but that she teaches others. One can only hope that she believes in the “do as I say, not as I do” concept.
So far I have received one reply and the site owner has removed my work. Needless to say she was not a happy camper either and was somewhat nasty in her reply. In my response back to her I suggested that she consider how she would feel if she discovered someone had copied from her lovely site without permission. I’ve heard back from her and now we hopefully have an understanding and no hard feelings.
Anyway, I posted this to vent a little bit. It sucks when you’re ripped off. But, I’m also hoping that some blogger or other site owner might see this and learn that it is not OK to post someone else’s work without permission even if they provide a link to the original source.
If you have posted someone else’s work without written permission, please remove it now. It’s painful to find out that someone, or in my case a number of someones, has stolen your work. It’s absolutely no fun to send nasty emails to strangers. And it’s not a nice prospect to consider the need to hire an attorney to protect your property.
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