Copyright and Blogging

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There have been a few comments on twitter lately about blog posts being copied/reproduced, in part and in full, without permission.

I don't know a great deal about the ins and outs of copyright law but I do have a disclaimer on my blog asking that content isn't reproduced without permission and I, maybe naively, expect people to abide by that. Unfortunately there are unscrupulous people out there who think nothing of plagiarising a post and passing it off as their own and it's often difficult to resolve or even be aware of.

One of the recent problems was with a website reproducing part of a blog post and the blog's header for their own blog. When it was discovered, the owner of the original post then asked for the post to be taken down. A battle then followed as those that had taken the content didn't believe that they were wrong.

They were highlighting a rather sensitive subject written by the blog owner and although I think it's great they want to spread the word I do believe the whole matter could have been handled so much better.

I would see it as an honour that someone wants to highlight a post of mine but I would not be happy if they did so without my permission. Forget copyright laws, it's common sense and simply courteous to ask and you certainly don't reproduce graphics from someone's website without permission.

Had the website owners sought permission I am sure that most bloggers would have been more than happy to go ahead. After all, don't we blog for our posts to be read? Going ahead without checking first and then denying any wrongdoing has just made them look unprofessional and quite frankly I now eye them with suspicion.