Comments on: A Copyright Primer

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:24:17 +0000

LOL! Too bad that's not illegal, Cassie. 🙂

By: Cassie Tuttle

Cassie Tuttle — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:48:26 +0000

Go get him, Lori — not only because he's a lifter but also because he's a pompous a**!

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:44:18 +0000

Jeez, Joseph! He was a real putz, wasn't he? Lord! That's just laughably stupid on his part!

By: Joseph Hayes

Joseph Hayes — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:36:47 +0000

The lifter who "did me a favor" went as far as claiming it was HIS content that I was stealing, even though there was a date on the page he stole it from that was 14 months before he appeared, and said it was HIS accompanying photo, even though the exif data on the jpg on his site had my name in it! Then he attempted to append the article with "some information came from independent research done by" and a link, but I guess he finally realized how incredibly stupid that looked, and took the whole thing down. And honestly, I probably wouldn't have even gone after the dolt if not for the pride I took in that particular piece. Geez, that was 5 years ago and I'm still steamed off!

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:25:10 +0000

Atta girl, Paula! They shouldn't be using without your permission, and they sure shouldn't be selling anything that isn't theirs to sell.

By: paula

paula — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:56:18 +0000

guess what this post has motivated me to do? contact those two subscription sites that sell access to all kinds of scholarly works, including my Emily Dickinson essay, including that passage about fair use – and an invoice. i'll offer them a choice of removing my essay from their site or paying for the rights to use it.

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:55:08 +0000

Jenn, I think you hit on the larger point. He's getting a good deal of a boost off this content, and that doesn't hurt to sell his Webinars and services. His "doing me a favor" insinuation is bogus for that reason alone. He's doing himself a favor. No matter how shiny the paper you wrap it in, a turd is still a turd.

Cathy, that IS sad! I hope you do alert them. I alerted the few I know.

Jenn, I find it interesting that my original note to him - basically saying you're using my copyrighted content without my permission and remove it to avoid litigation - caused him to react in such a strong way. Here's someone who doesn't enjoy being told no. I didn't get heated - I got factual. And throughout this entire thing, I've remained on the side of the facts. He can call me whatever he likes - fact is I want my stuff removed. He can honor it and be done with it or ignore it and answer to a judge for it.

I won't be pulled into his name-calling or foot-stomping behavior. Professionals don't act like that.

By: Jenn Mattern

Jenn Mattern — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:39:52 +0000

On another note, Google has been recently interested in knocking down these spam aggregation sites that show up in rankings solely by ripping other people's content. So if it doesn't work out and your material isn't removed, you could at least report the site to them and make sure it's penalized for a traffic hit if they see it that way.

By: Jenn Mattern

Jenn Mattern — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:37:49 +0000

That's when I'd say "sorry pal, you had your chance." And then report them to Adsense.

Fair use is not clear-cut, which is why it's only a defense in court -- not a justification for doing something in the first place. And you do have to look at more than one factor. He might pass one, but fail others, leading to a lost case on a fair use claim. And as I pointed out earlier, some of those "snippets" are actually almost full posts for the shorter podcast introductory posts I saw there.

I'm being easier on this guy than most b/c it's very possible I did give permission early on since I know I let one blogger do this. But the situation with my contributors and with how the site is being run have changed, and if that permission was granted it was now revoked. But he did seem to remove my blog on request. I was pretty short and to the point as well and didn't get any response calling me "rude." So maybe it was just the litigation mention he didn't like. But it's your right to be as firm as you want. Normally I'm far more so than that. I think you were sweet as pie in comparison. Hopefully he'll just remove the rest and be done with it already.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:04:17 +0000

I would love to let the "A-listers" who are on his site know. There are plenty. I think I'll send a link to James at Men With Pens. She's one of his "chosen."

PS-Pretty sad that when I 1st started reading this I had to think Which blog lifter is Lori referring to?"