toofishes.net

ReadWriteWeb: hosters of unoriginal content

Finally, one of my posts went big time and got linked from a site! Too bad that ReadWriteWeb decided that ripping off the ideas and even the picture from my post on Gmail and Netflix integration was a good way to profit. You can see the offending post here.

As a side note, there were other posts that attributed me in the text as well as used part of my image, which I can deal with. At least two other posts linked to mine without ripping off any of the content.

I sent this email tonight. It is more for principle than anything else, but at least the 5 or 6 loyal readers of this blog will see what happened.

From: Dan McGee dpmcgee@gmail.com
To: editor@readwriteweb.com
To: sarah@readwriteweb.com
Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 11:58 PM
Subject: Blatant article rip-off: Gmail Users Get Real-Time Updates

To the editor (and author),

Although I’m glad one of your writers was kind enough to link my blog post [1] in her article [2], I would appreciate it if you learned the concept of attribution and stayed away from blatant copying of content. Does journalistic integrity not apply in your part of the Internet?

The first element is extremely obvious- thanks for stealing my screenshot without attribution. Let’s move on.

My text: I wouldn’t be surprised if the Amazon email that comes once a week trying to pitch me electronics does more of this as well.
Your text: Wait until Amazon gets on board with that idea - our wallets are sure to take a beating!

I’m aware blogging is a social thing, and people link and debate other posts all the time. But when it comes to taking my content, slightly rephrasing it, and publishing it on your site so you can slap some ads next to it, you’ve gone too far.

-Dan McGee

[1] https://www.toofishes.net/blog/gmail-netflix/
[2] https://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/gmail_users_get_real-time_updates_in_their_email.php

EDIT: I did get a response to this email letting me know they went back and adjusted the post slightly to include attribution where necessary. I am happy with the resolution, so thanks to them for actually following up with me on this.

Tags

See Also