Taking Content from a Baby
For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . . .
A while back, you received an email that was disturbing. It was a message from a well-known blogger, someone you respect and admire. She wrote to say that she had decided that you must not know about the activities of someone who frequents your comment box.
The story she laid out was clear and had several links of evidence. The commenter you knew had been lifting entire stories writing a new introduction paragraph then pasting in what he took and passing it off as his own experience. This was happening on a blog for his business. One of the examples came from personal blog of a 12-year-old student.
The well-known blogger asked your help, as she had been getting no where after months of trying. After a telephone call or two to be sure you knew the situation, you emailed the commenter to discuss content theft. The commenter first blamed people who work for him. Then later came back to say that the original authors took themselves too seriously. The commenter cited his own graduate degree to show that he knew plenty about everything.
Finally, the commenter promised to stop using other people’s content.
But he didn’t do that.
To add insult to injury, he’s come to your blog twice — once under a new name — to leave a link with a comment. When you go the post it links back to and Google a passage, the same content shows up on another blog owned by another person.
How do you respond?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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