Authorship gets lost on Web

August 1st, 2006

From USA Today:

“Steve McKee, a partner at Albuquerque advertising agency McKee Wallwork Cleveland, found that out in June after he wrote his monthly column for BusinessWeek.com.

The column, entitled ‘Five Words Never to Use in an Ad,’ was one of his more popular pieces. A search revealed that 36 blogs had picked it up and posted it to their sites, something that is usually considered to be fair use in the blogosphere. However, to McKee’s annoyance, 13 of those took credit for writing it as their original prose.

‘They’re like cockroaches,’ McKee says. ‘Ideas are our assets, and it’s frustrating when people take them from you without shame.’”

It’s all about trust. You put your content out there and you trust others not to screw with it and not take it as their own. It’s happened to me on many occasions and I’ve resigned myself to the fact there are scummy people out there without an original thought in their heads. So, they have to steal others’ ideas.

It’s a good thing I believe in Karma.

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