Plagiarists: You're not doing anyone any favors

Let me tell you a little story about a man named Bo.

Bo was a decent person, just like you or me. His intentions were good: at the end of the day, he really just wanted to help people. So when he decided to start a blog, he thought hey, why don't I go around the Internet, find articles I like, and re-post them on my blog for others to read? It'll be awesome!

So Bo went along his merry way, copying full articles from various websites and blogs and posting them on his own. Until one day, when he was asked by an author to take one down.

"Oh, chill out, dude," he said to the author, "I was just doing you a favor. I've hosted tons of different articles from tons of different places, and most people thank me for posting their work. You're the first, you're the last, who will ever complain. But fine, okay, I'll take your work down. But now you'll miss out on all that wonderful traffic I would have provided you (with the little nondescript link I put at the very bottom of the post, no less. Of course, I put my link at the very top and signed the bottom of your article with my name and e-mail address, but hey! You were getting a deal here and you just missed out!)."

And so Bo and the author parted ways. The end.

The point of this story is simple: no matter what your intentions are, no matter how much you might believe it's okay or that you're providing a service to the original author by sharing their articles, it is never justifiable to plagiarize the entire contents of someone's work without first seeking their permission.

Fair Use

The Internet is a big place, and without the Fair Use policy of copyright law, most blogs probably would not exist (or they'd be very, very different creatures than they are now).

So, according to Fair Use, you may use copyrighted material without the permission of the original author only when your use meets certain criteria. The U.S. Copyright Office states these criteria, as well as "factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair," and I strongly suggest you look them over.

I'd also like to share a few other resources which should prove valuable to any bloggers out there:

One Cool Site's "Splog Off! Dealing with content theft" and Lorelle's "How To Spot A Splog," in which Lorelle provides this gem of great advice (and common sense):

"As a reminder, if you find an article you want to recommend to others, copy a sentence, paragraph or two, but no more than a couple hundred words in the form of a teaser or preview, and post it in quotes or a blockquote on your blog with a link to the original article. It’s better if you include a few words as to why you recommend this, to make your blog look different from a splog."

Two great articles for those uncertain times when content theft is giving you high blood pressure. Be sure to check them out.