Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Sam on Keys and Stealing

Hey, this is Sam. Do you see the smile on my face? It isn't there just for the treats you see beside me. I'm smiling at the news we read this morning.

Remember yesterday we posted on how tired we are of the Michael Vick hero worhipping hype? If you missed it, you can read it here. Go ahead. We'll wait. We want you to see the video of the Mayor of Dallas, Texas giving Vick a key to the city and then Vick and his entourage saying they don't care about the dogs when one of the media says he has one of Vick's dogs - one of the dogs that survived being fought and was eventually adopted into a real home.

Well, today we learned the Mayor of Dallas did not give Vick a key to the city. The Mayor didn't give him anything. It was the Mayor Pro Tem and he did not have the authority to give a sports idol or anyone else a key. You can read that short story here.

And we would be quite happy if that is the last Vick story we ever read.

On to a happier, more informative subject. There is a terrific post over at BlogPaws on not helping oneself to photos and stories online. Now, we're not posting this here for our blogging friends because we already know appropriating material is wrong and most if not all of us have had that happen to us at least once.

A good example is that pet blog photos can appear on one of the LOL sites with someone else's name on them and occasionally we recognize a photo. Recently, we saw this happen and when we checked out the one who posted it, we found she'd appropriated a photo of a very popular and easily recognizable blogging kitty, whom we informed, for her own ID photo. The next morning the ID photo was gone. But ... it was replaced by another stolen photo of the same blogging kitty. This time we left a message for I Can Has Cheezburger and a couple of days later that photo was gone. However ... it was now replaced by another kitty's photo that looked very familiar but we couldn't place it.

Now that is definitely a repeat offender who just doesn't get it. She might not steal from the collection plate on Sunday but she does steal, nevertheless.

The problem we bloggers have is explaining it to others, those who grab photos and posts and either repost them - with or without the owner's name, but definitely without your permission - or email them to everyone they know so they circulate around the globe "forever."

Jan is a bit fanatical on this subject because she once discovered someone was stealing every one of her posts from another blog she used to write and putting them on a forum. Not only that, but she found a number of other bloggers whose posts she recognized there too. She tried explaining that posting them there is stealing and if he wanted to share the stories, he needed to share a link instead. Then one night she finished/posted a story at 2 am. First thing the next morning, she checked the forum and her story had been copied and pasted - stolen! - before 5 am. Jan spent hours going page by page to ID every story of hers and those she recognized as stolen and reported it. A forum administrator ended up deleting all the stories, one by one.

You own the stories you write and you have the right to request they be removed if someone else uses them without your permission. If the blog or website owner refuses or ignores you, go over his head!

The BlogPaws post is Not Your Blog Post! Give it Back! We're going to bookmark it for future need. We hope you'll do the same because we'll likely forget where we bookmarked it and have to ask you for the link.

Well, Jan is impatient to get to a project so we have to sign off for the day.

19 comments:

  1. As a writer by trade, my biggest pet peeve is plagiarism. Sometimes I think people do it out of ignorance, but for the most part they know full well that it's wrong. They're just too **** lazy to write something of their own. Then there are those like the woman at Cook's Source magazine who think that "it's on the internet, so I have the right to take it and use it." I'll go check out that post right now!

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  2. Great informative post today, guys.
    Thanks so much for sharing.

    Purrs,
    Genghis

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  3. We have been lucky in that we haven't had a whole lot of our stuff stolen. Mostly we think it is because of some plugins that check on that from WordPress but we aren't sure. When we quote, we try and give credit where credit is due!

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  4. Hello there beautiful Sam!!

    First, big boo to Mr Vick. Me and Charlie hope he goes away now too.

    As for the stealing.. we are so sorry that some bad person was stealing your posts, Jan!! Oh dear. I hope that's the end of that - it's so wrong and the worst is people probably don't realise or understand how wrong and illegal it is to do this!

    But well done Jan for being very vigilant. Yay!!!

    Take care
    x

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  5. Oh, this was most informative! Thanks for the tails up! I don't think anybuddy has stolen anything of mine. At least I hope not. And I most definitely ALWAYS try to give credit where it's appropriate.

    I don't even know what a mayor pro tem is. Do you think he just gave him some random key that he found on the sidewalk or something?

    Wiggles & Wags,
    Mayzie

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  6. Thank you fow all that impawtant infowmation.
    I will bookmawk it fow suwe.

    Sam, I love youw impish gwin..I hope those tweats found theiw way into youw tummie
    smoochie kisses
    ASTA

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  7. Great post! I gotta say, I love that smile Sam!

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  8. Like Julia I write for a living. My stuff is nicked from print newspapers and republished elsewhere - without my name - and by govt departments!!!!! You learn to live with it in Asia.

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  9. I liked the Blog Paws post and this one very much....

    I kind of wish someone WOULD steal my stuff but doubt it will ever happen!!! Nobody likes me THAT much!!!! (KIDDING!! Well...sort of!!)

    xoxo

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  10. Mr. Vick is already starting to get his!!!

    And...very good information on the stealing of posts and pics.

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  11. so informative. thanks for the tails up on it.

    great photo !!

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  12. Like Mayzie pawed, we don't know if any of my stuff has been 'snagged' or not -

    Thanks fur sharing this -

    Hugz&Khysses,
    Khyra

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  13. Thank you, for posting all this information. Hugs

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  14. You are so right. Taking the post that are not yours... is stealing!
    Kisses and hugs
    Lorenza

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  15. We don't really like copy kats. We have seen our posts on other people blogs, nutty
    Benny & Lily

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  16. Thanks for telling us about your blogs being stolen - we have made a note of your link.
    We loved the post about Merci - this is a teaser with the vet not
    knowing the age either.

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  17. Great info.Me and mom are blogging again we missed our friends :)

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  18. We are amazed about all this! We kinna unnerstand that some people "repurpose" pictures cuz some sites seem ta even invite it. Its still not right...

    But annyone should unnerstand that you just CANT steal content! Not whole posts or even specific sentences...

    We laffed until we cried hearing about Mr Vicks and the Dallas City Key! So OUTRAGEOUS!

    An we think he wants permission ta have a dog only ta PROVE that pampered athletes are NOT to be denied their every wish!

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  19. gentleannie2 here..

    just wanted to say hi and comment on the posting for the past week since we have been snowbound out of town with no computer.. Love the new header !! and Kick VIC out of the country! as for stealing- o man hackels do rise since I have had many taken from my pages, if I use I have the name and permissions or if unknown request help in finding author,
    I hope others do the same. I request and welcome authors to allow me to use their work. and credit given-- BUT when someone FLAT out steals a $175.00 custom graphic and the whole PAGE .. they got the entire domain taken off BTY..I get real ticked OFF!! ..ok I will shut up now...or get steamies like jan does lol-- BTY love the chair!
    take care, stay well- and warm
    Gentleannie2 Loves ya

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