AAA - Plagiarists Wanted, Dead or Alive!

What Liz and Bill Spear said!  I think we've all been through high school & should know better.  Write your own stuff, or go away.

Actually it could cost you some real good old American Dollars.  I have now registered hundreds of my photos with the copyright office.  And I have a great attorney.

Bob, I used to have a program running to pick up on plagiarized material of mine on the Web. It really got to tiring to keep up with, and 90% of the folks gave me credit if they borrowed something without permission. So, I just gave up and stopped worrying about it. Once in a while I'll catch one using my material without permission, but even then I usually drop and email and ask them to remove it or credit it.

I am in a photographers club and I know the big issue is copyright. Many have given up the idea of going after someone who steals their photo from their website because it takes too much time that could be spent on other things. If there are photos they are protective of, they either don't post on the internet or they watermark them. Watermarking is one way to solve the issue. I used to watermark mine but I've since changed that practice because the mark takes away from the photo, in my opinion. I tag the photo and that seems to work fine.

If someone doesn't want the possibility of a photo of theirs used they should do what Tammy Lankford does and pay to register them with the copyright office. 

There are many online news sites that cut and paste entire articles and often I find it difficult who the original source was because it looks like it is being passed off as if they wrote it. I would think that is plagiarism. If bloggers are cutting and pasting entire articles I would also think as others have commented that is going to water down this platform. Cutting and pasting truly is not blogging. Blogging is sharing something of yourself in your blog, it's personal. For new bloggers that can be scary, and so resort to cutting and pasting. Just have to take the pain of writing your own words if you want to grow as a blogger, in my opinion.

I've never understood people who thought that "...but I found it on the Internet" was a valid defense. I'm glad that AR has always taken plagiarism very seriously.

Bob Crane - Well done. Just follow the rules of the road and it's all good.

Cheers,

Tom

Of course there will always be someone who is clueless out there. Great that you posted this to warn them. I recently had some branded photos stolen and the thief was still clueless why it would matter. I was called a few nasty names for complaining. I was trying to be nice and the broker intervened, but it could have become quite ugly. 

Starting here will only help these people maybe stay our of REAL trouble out in the real world.

Great post Bob, stealing is never nice or in great taste!

Copying, aka cutting and pasting, has been a no-no since I was in school (and since I'm in my mid-50s, that was a while ago). Permission is needed to use someone else's material, and attribution as well.

Hi Bob.  Great blog.  Lenn Harley has been a great source of information about copy right laws.

Interesting to note that this all began when Adam copied Eve on apple eating

Great post Bob Crane .  I have to respectively disagree, though on ONE point.  Stealing isn't "ALWAYS BAD", as you stated.  There is certainly no harm in "stealing a glance" at a good looking guy, as he walks by in some tight jeans... especially if he is a cowboy!

Bob Crane A lot of discussion here on the subject. A reminder is always in order.

Excellent post and a topic that needs more discussion here on Active Rain.  

My immediate thought on plagiarists is that if they need to copy someone's work, they are lazy, insincere, dishonest, and not capable of doing what the plagiarized work might claim they can do.

There's a practice among political bloggers (many of them fake news sites) that openly share content, no copywriting infringement considered.  It becomes difficult to determine where the original content came from.  It's a ridiculous practice and I hope that Google will start penalizing those bloggers with zero rank.  However, they get the clicks by posting on social media.  People read these ridiculous headlines, click, believe everything they've just read, and share. Come on, Google!  Help us out with this and stuff these posts into nowhere land!

Bob Crane I love the movie TOMBSTONE which is where your picture above came from. Is it royalty free? How does one know if you can use a picture from a movie scene being each frame is not going to have copyright stamped on it. (having taken a 2nd look I see it's not from the movie but may have been taken from the set)

I can almost instantly spot a copied post. They are well laid out and have a certain font and look. Many are under the impression that if they give the source/attribution that is permission enough, NOT!

I had reblogged a great post by one of our AR members several years ago. I set it to go public. The system stripped the part about it being a reblog and made it look like it was my writng. One of her staff members was trolling the web and found her content under my name and asked me to remove it, it was hurting her rankings. I had done everything right, it was not my fault the system failed but I did remove it. Now I am super careful about reblogs and will make sure this wil not happen again. The copiers are hurting all of us in the rankings and don't even realize it. I am glad action is being taken. Our newbies are big offenders and probably don't know the rules and realize the liability.

It's been quite a while since I've known that (plagarism) to happen in the rain (mostly because I've been out of the rain).  But I remember when it was a frequent issue and I hope it's not resurfacing.

Credit where credit is due! always the best policy.... you have to wonder if a person will steal photos or words how much can you trust them in other areas?  Great Post! thank you!