Question

Topic: Social Media

Possible Plagarism By Blogger?

Posted by mlang on 10/6/2009 at 9:06 AM ET 125 Points
What are the rules of ettiqutte when lifting information directly off a website and posting on your blog?
I came across a blog post by a Canadian consultant in my industry that is pretty much word for word information of white papers on our website without links or crediting authors. From a PR perspective, I think great- a nuetral 3rd party reference spreading the word of the benefits of our products, however from another perspective, I am concerned about the intellectual property of the industry partners who authored the white papers. I am not quite sure how to approach this situation - has anyone else experienced this? Is it actually plagarism if in a personal blog?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Levon on 10/6/2009 at 11:29 AM Member
    Just write him demanding credits and backlinks.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 10/7/2009 at 8:05 AM Accepted
    Dear mlang,

    This is a win win or a lose lose situation.

    First, contact the blogger and ask for a link and attribution as part of the article. And also ask that he/she does the same with ANY other article from you. And you, in turn, can direct traffic to the blogger that show your readers your content is good enough to be used elsewhere.

    If the blogger ignores you, ask again, in writing that your material be removed from their site. If this bears no fruit, contact the blogger's ISP supplier and explain the issue to them.

    ISP providers don't like their customers using other people's content and they can bring considerable pressure to bear on offenders to remove content they've "borrowed".

    You may also want to look into protecting your content through:
    https://www.copyscape.com/

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted by mlang on 10/7/2009 at 8:16 AM Author
    Thank you Gary- I don't feel the intent was meant to claim material as own, but the impression is that the blogger did write this or are her own thoughts. I think your apporach will work
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 10/7/2009 at 9:55 AM Accepted
    mlang

    Copyscape also has a service called Copysentry which you can use to alert you if others are using your content.

    Gary's suggested approach is a good one. Chances are, though, the blogger will take your material down, or rewrite it to avoid plagiarism claims, rather than attributing with backlinks.

    Also - make sure you assert your rights with a copyright statement on each page of all your online documents.

    ChrisB
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