I’ve recently seen posts by Rick Strahl and Dave Shea, as they discovered that people were stealing their articles and placing their own name on another blog. Unfortunately, this is nothing new and I’ve seen it happen before on several occasions.

Since the web is all about openness, the issue could be more complicated that I make it sound. I’ve heard arguments such as “if you don’t want it copied, don’t put it on the web at all” or “think of it as flattery”.

Yes, most material on the web can be copied and modified by anyone with relative ease. But does the possibility justify the action? The usual copyright rules normally apply to creative content regardless of medium. Often it’s alright to quote or even borrow some parts, the important thing is to ask for permission.

Padlocks Padlocks on a bridge in Riga.

On occasion I’ve been asked by other people if they could use my material. For instance, one of my photographs was used in a travel guide for Rome. The author asked very politely for permission and got it.

But I guess most people never even consider asking for permission. There are even sites such as Facebook which clearly states that we lose copyright over all material that we upload to the site. So much for intellectual property on proprietary sites.

If you ever wonder whether anyone has copied your material, there is a tool available at Copyscape for scanning the web. Similar tools are available for images.

4 comments

  • avatar
    Pär
    06 Apr, 2009

    Oooh! Vad var det för guidebok?

  • avatar
    08 Apr, 2009

    Schmap Rome, 4th edition. Nothing too fancy really, but fun to be included anyway.

  • avatar
    Tess
    08 Apr, 2009

    Did you get your name printed in it? :-)

  • avatar
    09 Apr, 2009

    Yep, next to the picture.

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