Update on Copied Posts Issue
Published by Toni February 13th, 2006 in Uncategorized.I got an email today from Golkadeh, the person who was using my articles from Reel Reviews for his/her blog.
Golkadeh explained that he/she was using a software for getting feeds from my blog. This is consistent with what Jonathan, administrator for Plagiarism Today, said to me when I consulted with him about the subject. While the other “contributor” blogs had their feeds set to provide just an excerpt, I stupidly had it set to show the whole post. I admittedly didn’t understand what feeds really do, and I didn’t know what some people use them for.
Now, I don’t know whether or not it’s a copyright violation to use software to get the feeds in the first place, but at any rate, things got a little out of hand since I was providing the whole post on the feeds. I have since remedied that situation, and now all feeds are truncated.
Golkadeh has removed me off her/his feed list and was very apologetic over the whole thing. She explained that there aren’t copyright laws in her country, but at the same time mentioned that in my making the whole posts available on feed, that I had given permission for her or anyone else to use the whole thing.
I said that she/he didn’t have to do remove me from her feed list. I added that I’m flattered that she/he liked my blog and wouldn’t mind at all if she continued to put up posts, granted that they be truncated and that images be saved to her own server. After all, I am getting traffic through her when she puts up my posts.
I’m glad that I didn’t approach this situation in an accusing and hostile manner right away, especially since part of it was my fault.
7 Responses to “Update on Copied Posts Issue”
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I have to admit I had to recheck the way I do my blog.Sometimes it can be really tempting (or lazy) to just copy and paste an interesting article because you want other people to see it.I am just now beginning to write my own opinion on the article along with just a part of the original content.Maybe he/she was caught up in this train of thought also.
Publishing your whole feed via RSS is a tricky one! I’ve read good arguments that you should do it, as it is better for your readers on the whole.
However, I think that a feed is by its nature a one-to-one communication, so your feed is only supposed to be for the personal use of the receiver; republishing is another matter altogether. I use a WordPress plugin for my feed Better Feed that adds a copyright message to the bottom that can be customised as required.
Oh, and my feed got republished on LiveJournal without my knowledge, but I’ve since heard from who did it, and it’s now got about 40 subscribers from there, so I don’t mind, as LJ is mostly advertising-free, whereas your case was just an AdSense trap.
I think other people using your feeds to provide content for their own blogs is just plain lazy. Or maybe I’m just jealous that no one has done that to my feed.
I wish somebody would pipe out my feeds!
Foo- According to Golkadeh, he/she doesn’t have time to actually write for the blog, so just uses the feeds to provide material for it. It’s not my business, but why would anyone keep a blog when they can’t provide their own material for it?
Ken- Yeah, I wish I knew more about copyright rules regarding posting feed on a blog.
Marvo- You don’t have to be jealous of anything. You’ve got TONS of readers and commenters! I wish I had half the readership and commenters you have
Bug- Dude, you’ve got tons of commenters and readers too! Someone out there is probably posting your feed.
First off, thank you very much for the mention. I greatly appreciate it. Anyway, I did some brief searches and found that Iran does indeed have copyright laws, you can read about them here: http://www.parstimes.com/law/copyright_law.html
These days, almost every country has some form of copyright protection. 200 countries alone are subscribers to the Berne convention, which sets international standards for copyright protection. There are a few countries which have no copyright protection, but those are mostly socialist countries that believe in community ownership of creative works. Another issue for another day.
Also, publishing an RSS feed does not give away permission to use a work. It’s generally assumed that you have given permission to use work in a private setting, such as a personal RSS reader, but not in a public setting, such as on a Web site. Of course, technically, any use of an RSS feed can be considered copyright infringement. Nonetheless, you do have full control ove rhow your feed is and is not used. There’s no permission implied.
Just some heads up for you, I hope that it helps.
By the very terms of your Creative Commons license, this is not acceptable:
“Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.”
Since their site is selling Google ads for profit, that makes it a commercial endeavor. They are stealing other people’s hard work to make money, which violates the terms of your license.
Since a web feed is simply an extension of your original site, your Creative Commons license still applies.
Nothing worse than somebody making money off your works when you don’t make any yourself!