A theme I have seen come up a couple of times in the last few days, and a common theme on the web these days, is copyright infringement. The social web has brought out a lot of great things, but it has also brought out one nasty little beast as well.
Most offenders can be put into three basic categories:
- Unknowing Bloggers. Many people simply don't realize that the articles you read and pictures you see on the web are copyrighted. New bloggers sometimes struggle with what you can use, how to use it, how to attribute it, etc.
- Scrapers. These are the nasty folks of the web. They blatantly steal stuff, stick it on a website, plaster it with ads, and reap the benefits. Their negative impact is two-fold: They are taking away from the legitimate copyright holder, and they are also adding clutter to the web and making it that much harder to find what you want.
- The Entitled. These are people who know what they are doing is copyright infringement but feel they are entitled to use the material for one reason or the other. Often, it is that they feel the material should be freely shared, that the owner should be happy with a linkback, etc.
Regardless of how we feel about collaboration and the social web, copyright should always be respected. It symbolizes the time and effort that went into creating the article and/or picture, and taking it without consent is like spitting on that time and effort.
For more information about dealing with copyright including the proper etiquette for using text and images, read Copyright Infringement - The Dark Side of Web 2.0.
Is someone ripping off your content? Read Jennifer Kyrnin's Guide to Fighting Copyright Theft.
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