Sharing or Stealing?

I'm a social media nerd and a marketing nerd.  I own that.  One thing that bugs me to death is the frequent stealing that occurs on the web.  I've seen some of blog posts copied and pasted on other people's sites, my name taken off, and theirs inserted as "author".  Thankfully, it usually means that they forgot to clear out the hyperlinks and things are still linking back to my site.  It's usually the case, but not always.

I was recently in communication with one of my blog-thieves.  I start out nice and ask for credit for composing the blog.  That's really all I'm after--acknowledgement that I put in the 14 hours of research and numerous hours of writing to create something that was worth copying.  Most people are pretty nice about it and agree.  This person said, "you can't get upset that's how the world wks--you create, we take.  i don't have time to get everything done and Google will tell the difference because you posted it 1st.  get over yourself".

I started to think about this: how much of what I create is uniquely mine?  How often do I steal pieces or articles?  Frankly, probably not nearly as often as I could.  But I don't.  I'm obsessive about giving credit, getting permission, and doing the right thing.  It's not because I'm shockingly good--I'm convinced that I will be caught.  I was that kid who always looked guilty and got caught for everything, so I learned that doing sketchy things was like shouting in a bullhorn about my wrongs (imagine a Cassi/Sue Sullivester combo thing).

During my research, I ran across an excellent article by Bob Sullivan (RedTape Chronicles on MSNBC) about intellectual and digital copyright.  (Click here to read the article)

Here are the quick take aways:

1. Photos are the copyright of the person who took them--use istockphoto or the like if you want to populate a blog with photos that you didn't take.

2. ReTweeting, or Facebook Sharing a link or article is NOT bad.  It's giving credit where it's due.

3. Copying an article, or a section of an article without providing a link back and an author's name IS stealing.  Get crazy about proofing your articles for stolen content.

4. Try to be nice when you find someone else using your stuff, or you get busted for using someone's stuff.  Assume that it was innocent and try to get credit--DON'T DEMAND THEY REMOVE CONTENT.  (At least, not until they refuse to credit you).

5.  Try to be proactive.  Email, message, or comment and ask the author if you can use, quote, or link back to their articles BEFORE you post the blog.