What’s on the iPod: Karma by Alicia Keys
What I’m reading: The Skull Beneath the Skin by P. D. James
Yesterday I managed to get an article draft completed and worked a little on a press release project. I was able to get ahead of the work as I’m expecting a large project to come in this week or next. Better to plan ahead.
Surfing around the blogging world yesterday I hit upon some different sites. What’s odd is I’m starting to see a proliferation of blogs repeating similar information, sometimes verbatim. While I’ll let that to the bloggers in question to sort out amongst themselves, it does send up a red flag about content and ideas and our ability to connect to so many people at once. We’re connecting to potential sources, but we’re also connecting to people who wouldn’t think twice about using our ideas or maybe our own words.
Case in point – a writer friend had put out a blanket query on a social media site a number of months back only to find his idea show up on another writer’s blog the next day. Coincidence? Maybe, but his idea was pretty specific and it was a new twist on an existing topic. So was the post by the other writer. That another writer would take a story idea so blatantly is shameful. It’s not illegal, but most writers have the ethical standards and common decency necessary to not shoot a colleague in the foot.
The blanket query was for reader experiences on this topic, which my writer friend said wasn’t possible to find without a blanket query.
What can you do? Not much. Ideas aren’t copyrightable. However, you can prevent it from happening to you in the future.
Don’t tell all. If the idea is for a client and is proprietary, try masking the details enough so that the idea isn’t revealed.
Use a website like ProfNet to find your sources. ProfNet allows you to cloak your queries so that others in the media don’t receive your request.
Call potential sources. It’s a little more time-consuming, but sometimes calling your sources directly is the best way to keep confidential assignments confidential.
Take action when laws have been broken. In the case of someone using your copy on their website, absolutely you should go at them with both barrels. No one has the right to take what isn’t theirs.
Would I mention it to the other writer? Only if it became a habit and only if I was sure this writer was doing it purposefully in an attempt to either trump me or damage my reputation with clients. To be honest, no two writers will address the same topic in the same way, even if the idea is new. However, the novelty of a topic could be ruined and that isn’t cool. Better to give your colleagues a little breathing room before putting your own spin on the subject.
Have you seen instances of theft of ideas or text?
9 responses to “Trust in God, But Lock Your Keyboard”
Well, if your own ethical code isn't enough to stop you from doing something like this you should remember–there are only 6 degrees of separation between most people and in the age of Twitter, I think that's lessening quite a bit. People see this stuff happening–they get the query in their feed from the original writer and then the next day see that someone else has covered it. They aren't stupid, they'll put it together and you'll ruin your good reputation–which you shouldn't have anyway if you pull this kind of stuff.
BTW–using the royal "you" here. Whatever that means.
I don't write for magazines, but I'm always reluctant to share even vague ideas for short stories, novels, etc. with writerly types I don't know well. You can't copyright ideas, so once it's out there it's really anyone's for the taking. As Yo pointed out, integrity should prevent this, but we all know not everyone holds themselves up to very high ethical standards. I don't know how someone can live with themselves and feel good about it when they've stolen someone else's idea, but it happens every day.
This is a downside of writing in the social media niche for me, and just had this happen. Crowdsourcing and getting feedback via social media tools is pretty common. But of course there's the occasional douche who sees what you're gathering feedback on and says "oooh, I think I'll write about that b/c I don't have an original bone in my body!"
Fortunately as Yo pointed out, people really do notice these things (and often point them out to the original person mentioning the idea). They're not half as clever as they think they are. For example, in the past I had someone do something like this and then go in and change their post date on their blog to make it look like they did something first. (Are people really that dumb?) Fortunately everything is time-stamped these days. You can't change or delete things — not really. RSS readers still show when the post actually went out. And when it comes to the deletion issue some folks forget people can subscribe via email (even if you don't offer that option on-site), and those emails with your posts still exist as a record.
I just have no patience for unethical types at all — not the ones who steal others' ideas, not the ones who sell out for a quick buck, not the ones who delete posts and comments just because they realized they were completely hypocritical or someone dared to disagree with them, not the ones who use people constantly while bitching when people ask them for something. None of it.
Yo, I think that's true. If your own reputation isn't enough to stop you from acting foolish (royal "you" – love that!) and taking ideas that could harm another writer's career, you're not going to care. If a writer knows he/she is taking someone else's idea and still does it, that's telling about the person doing the taking, isn't it? It takes a pretty low individual, in my opinion.
Kathy, I can only think that those are the same people who would take someone else's article and "rewrite" it in order to earn a few measly bucks. That itself is theft, in my opinion. Ideas can't be copyrighted, but damn if it isn't completely unethical and downright rotten to take someone else's query or idea and trump them. I couldn't live with myself. But again, as you said, not everyone shares the same standards.
I'd actually seen an article in a magazine that was so similar to a blog post here it was uncanny. Was it a coincidence? Maybe. The ideas were pretty common. But I literally said to myself WTF when I read it.
True, Jenn. I think anyone who has to change a date knows exactly what he/she is doing and is even more culpable as a result. Are people really this stupid?
You said this happened to you recently. How did that turn out? Did it hurt you with clients?
That is pretty lame about the time stamped post subscriptions. You're right. I've had to go back and edit a post or two, but the mistakes still show up in the subscriber link because they went out before I caught the mistake.
A long time ago I told a writer friend about a big interview I'd just done (a guy who sold his dot-com start-up for several million dollars). Shortly thereafter, one of my editors told me about a new business publication that paid really well. She'd done a couple of articles for them, and could vouch that they were reliable. So I pitched the biz pub a piece about that dot-com guy. Their immediate response was: How funny. One of our writers, who is from the same small town as you, just pitched us the exact same idea, and we assigned it. When I asked her about it, she denied that I ever told her about my great interview (then why do I remember our conversation?). I gave her the benefit of the doubt, that she didn't overtly steal the idea, but subliminally co-opted it.
I didn't know which was more infuriating: the "friend" pitching them my idea as if it were her own, or keeping the juicy new market from me for several months when we had an agreement to share market tips. I won out in the end. She couldn't secure the necessary interview, but I went on to write several pieces for that market.
With one of my regular markets, there's another writer who is on the same wavelength as me. At first I wondered why she had so many articles similar to ideas I'd pitched, or was about to pitch. Then we had a conference call and it was clear: she and I share the same brain. We have very similar interests that influence the types of stories we pitch. The differences come in the nuances. Sometimes I'll read one of her articles and think, "Wow – that's a totally different take than I had in mind." Thank goodness the editor has a policy that when two similar ideas come across her desk, the assignment goes to the writer who sent it in first.
Paula, that first writer is one scheming, nasty person. I would understand if she heard it, forgot about it, then pitched the idea unaware. However, it sounds as though she's spent way too much time denying it to think it was a mistake.
I've had situations in which another writer and I share the same visions. I write in a pretty selected specialty and it would only stand to reason we'd have similar if not identical ideas. Nothing heinous there!
I remember being at a party and another writer was telling me her killer idea for a book. It really is fantastic. She'll never write the story. Neither will I – I couldn't do that to another writer. I didn't come up with it, so it's not mine to work with, in my opinion.
It was related to a client piece, but no it didn't hurt me with clients. I have a log of ideas I get approved by the client ahead of time. So I just pushed that post off. More time to make it infinitely better than their garbage anyway. And those who matter already know how the other article came about. Didn't really hurt me at all.
As for rewrites being theft… not just your opinion… it's the law. Copyright law (here in the US at least) clearly makes a derivative work infringement if the "rewriter" doesn't get the copyright holder's permission. You can't just change some words around and legally call it yours. Thankfully.
Glad you were able to recover from that, Jenn. It's pretty freakin' appalling that someone would have to resort to swiping ideas anyway. If it harmed you and continued, I'd be seeking legal advice.
My writer friend mentioned in the original post hasn't seen his business drop off as a result, but what concerns me is that the theft might draw the impression that it was HE and not the other writer who did the thieving. He was trumped, no doubt. But he was also first with the idea and the other writer had no business going ahead with the story knowing full well he/she wasn't the originator of the idea.
True on the rewrites – I've been vocal against these "fast-fivers" – articles that pay a whopping five bucks – because the only way a writer can make a buck is to write a ton of articles per hour, which leads a lot of them to stealing other articles and "rewriting" them. If it's not yours in the first place and it's your only source, you're stealing. AP Stylebook has a section on plagiarism that all writers need to read and memorize.