Apr 19
That Habit of Stealing
I can’t even begin to count the numerous times I’ve seen people steal content online. I’ve seen companies offering prints they just scrapped through Flickr, people creating fake profiles in social networks using other people’s photos and posts. Additionally, even the posts in this kind of hidden blog get duplicated by splogs on a regular basis, sucking SEO ranking and god knows what else.
What is equally stunning is people’s ignorance about the problem. A month ago I was banned in a forum that I was visiting for 6 years just because I took the liberty to report a service which turned simple urls to Flickr photo streams into fancy flash “web sites” that everybody could claim as their own and “present to their clients”. Two weeks ago, the entire photo collection of a friend appeared on Orkut as part of some fake guy’s profile.
If you’re not a content creator, this may sound as gibberish. However, it doesn’t take much to imagine how would you feel if someone steals your work and tries to profit from it at your expense. And if you’re not careful enough, it would only take a web browser and the next thing you’d see might be a fancy book, filled with your own illustration and interviews. Like this one, which I discovered through Luc Latulippe’s blog:
In a sarcastic fashion, this is a book published by people calling themselves “Great Creativity organization” (founded somewhere in China) and each copy sells for $100. Its biggest creative problem however is that it is filled with content stolen from the Little Chimp Society site - illustrations, interview transcripts… surely if web and print design were compatible, they would have stolen it, too. Why? Because it’s easier to make money using content that doesn’t belong to you. However last time I checked, it was still a crime.
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