Trackback or Get Your Own Freakin’ Material
I thought comment pirating was low, but today I’ve personally witnessed something lower- article pirating. Sounds gross, doesn’t it? What is the definition of an article pirate? Noun- a blogger who reads your article and commences to regurgitating your material on their own blog sans attribution.
Yesterday evening I wrote an article. It was smashing- you know you loved it! Then, a new face popped up on the MyBlogLog roll and when I visited to say “hey buddy,” I was greeted with an article eerily similar to mine that was written this afternoon (post the People’s Choice list release) but was missing any trackback, attribution or even an “I read somewhere but can’t remember” excuse. What a shame.
I bring this up because I keep finding my material on other peoples’ blogs. I’m not even that great of a blogger, why steal my junk? At least pretend like you don’t remember where you got your ideas… Come on, people.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Not sure who the Pirate is even through I am a Pirate I’m a Tarheel born, and a Pirate by the grace of God = born in North Carolina and go to East Carolia University (mascot is Pirates) .
Anyways, in the real estate and niche area, unless you have wrote an article on a personal experience or something, it’s not uncommon to find similar articles on other real estate blog sites. Like for me, a year ago I wrote about the types of ownership in real estate. A fiends whose site I often visit ended up writing a similar article on her blog. I do not think she even knew about my article but still, that just shows how similar content will often be on other people’s blogs who blog about the same niche.
In your case, you saw the poster on your blog log and I am assuming he had his new article at the top of the page, so I guess you’re case is a bit unique.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Umm, this isn’t the first time this has happened to me that I can pinpoint this chain of events:
I write an article, I see a new face on BlogLog, I visit their site and the timestamp on THEIR article that is eerily similar to mine yet lacks attribution is after my article was written.
You’re right, material in niche blogs may be similar but (1) trackback/attribution is really the only ethical way to go and (2) GENERAL ideas may be recycled (how to stage a home, divorcing commissions) but SPECIFIC ideas (bacn, IP transparency in RE.net) are never to be pirated.
I’m appalled and I’m not shy to say so. So, I will insist that this is not a coincidence because it’s a NEW and SPECIFIC idea that was pirated. Blogging can be ugly and I think this is the lowest form of underhandedness. It’s not a scrape site, it is a single person recreating my work and calling it her own. How sad for them. The pathetic part is that I didn’t coin the term “bacn”- I attributed Lifehacker. Boo!
August 27th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Lani,
Pirating is one thing that can really kill your blog and your enthusiasm. I know I’m fighting some splogs right now. I’m considering legal action.
Keep up the good fight. Maybe naming names will be a good way to go on these kinds of things. We could all come together and form a RE Blog monitoring blog (where we list the violators).
Thanks,
Shailesh
August 28th, 2007 at 12:11 am
HI Shailesh! You know, I almost understand splogging leeches, but for another industry professional to take part in such a direct action is really alarming.
As for a monitoring blog, I don’t have the capacity to do such a thing- my heart races even WITHOUT stress! Plus, the whole ethics thing comes into play… for me, the passive aggressive attack works best- it worked on the Comment Pirate!