A subject dear to my heart at the moment, given the use of my blogs by scrapers.
Unless you sit in a darkened room, and the only blog you ever visit is your own, you are almost certainly going to come across some material written by others, that really inspires you, or you know your readers would appreciate. The temptation is to copy, not always for nefarious reasons, sometimes you just think something is so good, you can get carried away - but if you’re going to copy - copy right!
- Don’t ever copy an article or post completely - even with attribution and links to the original author it’s still stealing.
- You can use a small piece of the article, properly attributed, as review material - in my opinion, this should never be more than a paragraph, and should be within quotation marks. I also choose to use the ‘indent text’ button in Wordpress to make it even clearer it’s a quote.
- I do this to give my readers a flavour of the writing I’m promoting, and then encourage them to follow a link to the source of the full article.
- Unless clearly marked as public domain, images should be used with caution - generally they should never be used without permission, which is sometimes easier to obtain than you may think - ask and you may receive!
- Don’t think that just because you are a small blogger, no-one will ever see what you’ve written - just take some key words from a post of yours, and put them into Google-you may be surprised just how easy it is for people to see what you’ve been writing.
Probably the best advice is that if you’re in doubt, ask, and if you can’t find anyone to ask, don’t use it.
There’s lots more really useful information on the matter at Daily Blog Tips, although it might be quicker if I just copied their post here…. 
11 users commented in " Copy-Right "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackGuilty conscience here…. I frequently post recipes and things and honestly thought that it was ok as long as I gave credit. Although there are a couple free domain photo sites that I often use.
Thanks for the tips though - it’s good to know.
I don’t pretend to be snow white on this one either Kai, especially when I first started.
It’s easy to think that by attributing, it’s ok but apparently not, which is why I thought I’d pass on the warning. I try to stick to quotes and links to the full source now to be on the safe side, although I think most people are concerned with theft to make money, more than simple endorsement.
It’s a murky area for sure.
I apologize for all past transgressions. I thought as long as I attributed it, it was OK. I’ll try to clean up my act.
Good point Chris. All of us might go wrong from time to time, the thing is to learn from our mistakes.
Gili
It’s a bit scary isn’t it Edward, because I though the same thing until recently…
Cheers Gili, how’s your Alexa re-direct working out for you? I’ll give you a click and see if it makes a difference
I should stop stealing your articles then?
So it’s you is it?
Go on then, I’ll do anything for a link
I have my own secret private blog of all your posts, just waiting for the right day… im ready to push you out.
Nice article Chris , but in blogosphere there isnt much you can do if your article is copied .
As long as you ping Google before the other guy does, it’s… possibly a better situation.
One thing I’ve noticed about copying is that even though your original article might have gotten that attribution, sometimes the copy (maybe it’s on a bigger blog) gets all the following references. Sure the article itself says “take from you”, but it’s the other guy who gets all the traffic and backlinks for your original work. Sucks.
Matthew:
Cheers Madhur, too true unfortunately…
You’re right Tony, esp. if they have more PR, they get the returns. Something must be done….
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