Blogs re-using my posts

r9jackson

I noticed something strange yesterday. I have Google Alerts set up to track all of my blog posts (by title). This is so that I can catch anyone borrowing, stealing or ripping off my words. Well, yesterday I got notified of two blogs using one of my posts from about six months ago. I did not give these blogs permission to use the post.

The strange thing was that they gave me full credit (authorship) and created a really great bio that was very favorable. They also gave a link back to my site. On one of the blogs they used some of their pictures to illustrate the text. My original post had a couple of images of tripods (the subject of the post) and their images showed people using tripods. A very good enhancement to my original words.

I also re-post some of my posts on EzineArticles.com and those articles are available for re-use under conditions set by the EzineArticles site (almost identical to the credit and links that were used in this case). This particular post was re-posted on the EzineArticles site, but the actual posts used were taken directly from my blog.

So, all in all, I think in this case my blog site was benefited by their using of my post. I get additional hits on my site because of their use of my post. I'm sure I would have permitted them to use my post under the conditions that they did in fact perform. This is a complex legal issue that I'm sure will generate lots of comments.

ColoradoSkier

It was probably an automated tool collecting relevant entries in a given vertical (photography in this case).

zoomer

win win

mercphoto

zoomer wrote: »

win win

I have issues with calling a blatant copyright violation a win-win simply because it paints someone in favorable light. Hopefully someone with legal experience can pipe in here. I do know that you can lose certain protections if you don't show a willingness to protect your stuff. For example, trademark protection. Have you ever wondered why a big company will go after a small-fry who violates their trademark? Because if they don't then they lose their trademark protection, and that becomes a big deal if some future big-fry decides to violate their trademark.

In other words, you can't pick and choose when you invoke your rights and protections and expect to keep those legal rights and protections.

r9jackson

mercphoto wrote: »

I have issues with calling a blatant copyright violation a win-win simply because it paints someone in favorable light. Hopefully someone with legal experience can pipe in here. I do know that you can lose certain protections if you don't show a willingness to protect your stuff. For example, trademark protection. Have you ever wondered why a big company will go after a small-fry who violates their trademark? Because if they don't then they lose their trademark protection, and that becomes a big deal if some future big-fry decides to violate their trademark.

In other words, you can't pick and choose when you invoke your rights and protections and expect to keep those legal rights and protections.

Bill,
I certainly agree with you and that is why I made this post in the first place. Technically, I don't think my blog words are copyrighted. Any images I use are copyrighted and I would be more aggressive about protecting that explicit copyright. It seems that the external blogs were merely reporting (as in a news report) my blog posts. In this case they did not post any images. I do have several posts that I use as tutorials for how I made a photograph and I think those kind of posts would be different.

I'm wondering if blogs are in a special territory. For instance, we all try to increase our SEO by getting external links. This seems like it might be an extension of good SEO. As you point out this is a real sticky wicket.

rgphoto

I believe it is illegal to copy from a blog, because technically, blog posts are published works. If they had taken your post without giving you credit, I definitely would have chased after them. However, in this case, what they have done is very favorable for you, so I would let it slide if I were you.

If you haven't already, you might want to shoot them a short email. Start off by thanking them for the 'feature' and kind words, but also mention that you would have preferred it if they had contacted you about it first. You could really use this to your benefit. Ask them if they would be interested in using you as a monthly (or weekly) featured blogger on their blog.

Just my 2 cents.

edit: Great blog btw!