Little point to blog plagiarism
October 23rd 2010 03:54
Plagiarism has been around pretty much since the first cave painting. One cave man dipped his finger into the blood of a slain gazelle and painted the outline of a running gazelle on the cave wall.
All the girls gathered around and admired the innovation and originality of the idea, which so miffed another of the men that he dipped his finger into the blood and made a second drawing on the wall of the cave.
It wasn't really a second painting. The second man, having neither the imagination nor the talent of the first, simply copied the original drawing. A second gazelle, and the first instance of plagiarism.
Our cave man plagiarist got no more profit from his copied work - the girls just laughed at him and went back to cooing over the first guy, by now at work on a mammoth - than do bloggers who copy the work of others.
Blogs are a far freer canvas for plagiarists than a cave wall or any other medium used since to portray the thoughts, art, writing and music of mankind. Basically, anyone can start a blog on any subject, Google up some information, and fill their blog with high-quality content.
And many people, especially, newcomers to the medium, do just that.
They will find that no-one - not the girls, not the uninformed masses eager for clear and elegantly presented knowledge, and certainly not other aficionados of their subject - will come to their blog in big numbers.
Of course there will be some visitors, but no matter how much carefully selected, copied content is put there, the blog readership will never grow large.
There are two reasons for this.
First, Google has an inbuilt plagiarism sensor. In that 0.03 of a second or whatever it takes Google to complete a search on your key words, it not only prioritises the results for you in terms of quantity (number of web site pages, number of blog posts) and popularity (viewer numbers) of content, it recognises duplication as it searches, and promotes the original. Google polices this effectively, proudly promoting the original work (which it recognises by the simple expediency of publication date), and relegating imitations to the search result back pages.
The speed and efficiency of a Google search is also relevant to the second point, which is that it is easy to check the originality of any blog content. Simply copy two or three sentences into a Google search window and hit Search - if that material exists anywhere else on the internet, Google will find it instantly.
And that means that big bloggers, companies, advertising and public relations agencies - anybody out there producing a large quantity of original content - can set up automated searches to find incidents of plagiarism.
When they find copied material, they mostly ignore it. This is because, as already explained, plagiarists will reap little reward.
Armed with the weapon that is Google, original content providers can of course also take action if deemed necessary. They can warn, and sue if the warnings go unheeded, anyone trying to make money from copied work. A serial plagiarist blatantly passing content off as his or her own work can be watched. At some point, enough will be enough, and a warning will be issued.
Most of the time, however, it's not worth bothering about. Most plagiarists pose little threat, and will eventually shrivel and die.
image: cambridgetshirts.com
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Comment by Andy Tope
Bagman's Gazette
Just wondering...what's the deal with posting stuff on here and duplicating it on a blog elsewhere (the material is entirely your own, original), is that illegal?
If Orble owns the copyright to your work, I'm assuming it is.
Comment by Chris Champion
Vyoos
Zoomies
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Money Whither
Good questions.
Firstly, I'm not sure Orble does own the copyright.
* There is no mention of copyright in the Orble FAQ
* This (rather old) post by a then Orble employee specifically states copyright belongs to the content creator
* And this recent Writer's Forum post got no response from Orble.
Mountain Fog, a long-time Orble blogger, has responded to the Writer's Forum post saying Orble does own the copyright, but he points to no evidence and it's possible he's just making an assumption. I've added a comment there myself asking Fog if he can provide evidence, and asking Jon to give a definitive answer.
To the second part of your question, I have seen several people cross-posting berween their Orble and other blogs, and I don't believe Orble has ever considered this an issue. Mostly it's done by people using one blog to post the full content, and the other blog to point to it.
If you post the full (ie, identical) content to two blogs, you will be penalised by the search engines, which will simply see the second instance as plagiarism. It doesn't matter that both blogs belong to you, and the content is entirely yours - the engines have no tolerance for duplicated material.
Let's hope Orble replies to my Writer's Forum query to clear this up once and for all.
Best wishes,
Chris
Comment by Andy Tope
Bagman's Gazette
I have been duplicating for a while, looks like I may have to leave Orble. Oh no. Here is the sight of my misdeed.
And yes, lets hope you get a response, it will be great to know where we stand with this.
Thanks for you efforts on this Chris!
Comment by Chris Champion
Vyoos
Zoomies
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I am no great expert in this, but my assuption is that it is only the second site to carry duplicated content that gets penalised. So you can still use one to promote the other - just chose which basket you want to place your long-term eggs in, and post everything there first. Use the other blog as a sort of Facebook-Twitter alert tool. If the synopsis you post there is rewritten properly, you won't even get penalised for duplication.
You will, however, get penalised for brevity. Google loves articles in the 500-800 word range (which you do well).
Google, in case anyone isn't yet fully aware of it yet, rules the world.
Comment by Chris Champion
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
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I found the Wordpress template down the bottom of your home page. I can't find an RSS or email subscription button though. Shouldn't you have one displayed prominently, preferably flashing in stroboscopic neon?
Comment by Andy Tope
Bagman's Gazette
Yes I use Magazine Basic, as you found out. I tried a whole heap of others, and like that one best. It scrubs up alright doesn't it?
Yes, i'm getting the idea about the gods of google, as I do a bit of SEO with suite101. Interesting about the word length too, I'll keep that in mind. And i'll sort out the RSS feeds and email, I've just been a bit lazy/busy and don't quite know what I'm doing yet. Ha
Thanks for all the info Chris, I'll stick around if it's possible, it seems like a good little community here that i've barely tapped into.
Comment by Andy Tope
Bagman's Gazette
Comment by Chris Champion
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
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Well done, but I'm taking some credit for kicking your derriere into getting the RSS feed up.
Yes, I like the Magazine Basic lay-out a lot. If I ever get organised enough, and brave enough, to fly solo like you have with The Fox Gazette (another link for you - I've lost count how many family-sized pizzas you owe me), I'd be happy to go with it.
No answer yet from Orble powers re the copyright thing. I'm smelling a handpass to the too-hard basket.
Have you, by the way, read Darren Rowse's "Problogger" book? The sub-title is "Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income", which you can largely ignore. But if you're newish to the game, it's an excellent overview of the blogging world, and it's a great motivater.
Good luck,
Chris
Comment by RC
Slurred Words On Motorsports
Soggy Concepts
Finally got a chance to read this. I appreciate you writing it. I guess its not so much the worry of another blogger reaping benefits so much as the effort put into the work. I got over my annoyance at the cheap little thief and got on with my work because I enjoy it. We hardly do this for the money. I did speak with the original author of the article in question. He was actually quite upset about it as it is his full time job.
As a writer, I use my online work to promote myself and get "real" writing opportunities. Its actually worked well, so when someone steals work from someone else, it tends to upset me.
I am over it knowing that the majority of us have integrity, but I will always point out the plagiarists when I come across them.
Thanks again for the piece.
RC
Comment by Chris Champion
Vyoos
Zoomies
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I'm with you - the "cheap little thief" types are very annoying. But they'll will always be there, so we can take some comfort that, in blogging at least, crime doesn't pay.
Thanks for dropping in,
Chris
Comment by Andy Tope
Bagman's Gazette
And I haven't read that book, no. But I'm keen to check it out! I have no doubt it would lessen my injuries during my many internet stumblings, that's for sure.
Hopefully Jon will see this post and give us a heads up about the copyright, who knows. I'm holding my anti-plagiarism banner high too - dirty rotten scoundrels.
Comment by RC
Slurred Words On Motorsports
Soggy Concepts
* We will improve our AdSense anti-piracy review. We have always prohibited the use of our AdSense program on web pages that provide infringing materials. Building on our existing DMCA takedown procedures, we will be working with rightsholders to identify, and, when appropriate, expel violators from the AdSense program.
We should all be active in reporting the plagiarizers here so that they don't make any money off it. Then they might stop this crap. Same guy I always see is still copying articles and putting them on his page.