The Ethics of Reposting Articles: Sharing vs Plagiarism
I’ve got a real problem with people who cut and paste entire articles from EndUserSharePoint.com without asking. Not only is it unethical, I consider it stealing. I don’t have an issue with people who copy a paragraph or two and link back to the main article, but more and more I see direct ripoffs of entire articles with no attribution. I found another one this morning and posted the following comment to their site:
“You have taken this article from my site. Please take it down. It is not right for you to be doing this. My authors spend their own time creating these solutions and deserve credit for what they do.
“You may put one paragraph from the article on your site and point to my original article.”
I really appreciate bloggers who find the content we produce here useful. It gives the authors pride when links to their articles are posted on other blogs, giving them attribution for their content. It’s the people who are stealing content that get me pissed off. It’s called plagiarism.
I’ll say it right now: if I find any more theft of articles for EndUserSharePoint.com, I’m going to call you out. No more warning. It’s just not right.
on
All of the content posted here is copyrighted. Violation of the copyrights is illegal. Usually the first step is a cease and desist letter to the server administrator listed in WHOIS. But that doesn’t always work.
A warned website that does not comply with the copyright should be reported to search engines. Google has this page: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/topic.py?topic=13926&hl=en
Search engines will BAN these sites (as they should). A ban is irrevocable–you’ll never be listed with that search provider. In the case of Google, you might as well get a new domain name–no one will ever find you.
Thanks for the Google link Paul.
Mark: see the bright side, plagiarism only targets good quality content ;-)
Its pretty bad form when people do this, I’m all for spreading knowledge but ripping off other people’s content and pretending its your own is not the way of going about that
Quite right, you guys publish some great stuff and should get full credit for it. Although Christophe’s point about stealers only going for good content is a positive look at it!
I totally agree with Mark, its my article that they have reposted but I have now made them aware through their comments section that they need to either remove the article or provide credit to myself and EndUserSharepoint with a short para and link or I may take further action!
Christophe – Now he’s done it to you! Check this out:
http://marcoavelar.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/colunas-calculadas-no-sharepoint/
Mark
Great :-( Let’s start with a nice warning…
Warning’s not going to work. Already did that. Not responding to email and has comments moderated. Nothing is getting through. That’s why I did the image switch. — Mark
Yes, nice move ;-)
Plagiarism also hurts the readers, who don’t benefit from updates and comments added to the original post (Niamh’s post is a good example :-)).
Lets complain to Wordpress – they can suspend account/posts – he only has 2 so we could potentially shut him down!
I have left 2 comments and sent him an email too copying Mark in!
http://automattic.com/dmca/
Lets just do it!
Niamh :-)
Mark,
Just a thought, but have you considered adding a FAQ or something similar where you clearly state EUSP’s policy with regard re-posting your content?
Cheers,
Ken
Hi Ken – Nope, haven’t done it, but for people who are stealing content like this just to build their site numbers, a terms of service isn’t going to do much good.
99.9% of the people play fair. I don’t want to spend my time creating policy for the others. Not worth the effort. — Mark
Just a thought – how about switching all the images to say “Thief – if you want to see the real article go to http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=1733” at least that way people cant see the screenshots at all! I am more than happy to re-do the images that way and re-send to you Mark. Obviously we cant do much about the text!
Let me know what you think -
Niamh
I have just had a response from him – he now credits EndUserSharepoint but I have denied him permission at all to use my article!
Will keep you informed as to what happens next.
Christophe – I also mentioned that he has stolen your content too and suggested that if he has a blog that he writes his own content!
Niamh :-)
Thanks to everyone for your support. I’ve spent enough time on this one. If the content isn’t taken down by the end of the day, I’ll place a formal complaint with WordPress.com and get the site shut down.
Again, thanks for your support. — Mark
Don’t mess with the EUSP crowd!
How about translations? Occasionally we translate good articles for our German blog commuity, add some individual insight or comments, and backlink to the English original. Since this increases your reach I think this is OK.
Dirk,
I agree with you, but as a professional courtesy, it is good form to request permission from the original site. As you say, a translation with an introduction pointing to the original site is probably acceptable. — Mark
I do this quite often, but for our internal users.. BUT with every instances I always throw KUDOS to the author and the site from where it came… Either at the start, end or both. .. Great post as well Mark on a personal note. I run a back to basics website, and a lot of stuff gets copied and pasted, to blogs etc etc, most of the time without any acknowledgment to the author or my site. I try and look on the bright side, and think that they are still getting the word out :(
Thanks Mark and Team, your site has been an endless source of inspiration for me and the SharePoint team here… Now if only I convince the manager that using JQuery will not break our upgrade path !!!!!!!! HELP…
The article has been removed from the offending site. Let’s put this one to bed. Thanks again for the support. — Mark
@Dan,
jQuery-based solutions need unit and/or regression testing like any outside code during an upgrade.
But as far as outside code goes, it’s the least likely to ‘break’ anything. Client-side code is more secure and easier to remove than assembled code.
If you’re doing any custom .NET development or using 3rd-party web parts without a warranty, you have a higher risk already than anything jQuery can do.
Hear hear, has happened a few times to me too. On the one hand, flattered to be worth copying but really annoying when there’s no attribution
What do you think about sites that copy and paste the entire article which includes the writer’s byline and where it originally published? It doesn’t seem right, even thought the attribution is there…but I’m finding my work all over the place…all of it with my name etc because like I said, the whole thing in it’s entirety is copied and pasted to their site instead of pointing back to the original site where it was published….
Colleen – I’d still call them on it. Unless they ask you for cross-post permission, it’s stealing. No other way to put it. — Mark
Thank you so much for your prompt and definitive answer. I get flummoxed with all the information out there and it’s nice to hear a clear voice on that matter. Much appreciated
– Colleen Friesen
http://www.colleenfriesen.com/blog