Jason Unger

Blogging is One Thing, But Stealing Content is Another

Posted by junger - 12/26/07 at 03:12:51 pm

Slashdot picked up a story CE Pro ran last year (like, June 2006) on The Batcave Home Theater, a custom theater room up in Maine.

It's not new, but the link from Slashdot (a huge source of traffic) went to a site called Slashfilm (not related, as far as I know). So, Slashfilm was getting tons of traffic from content that they didn't create.

Normally, I'm okay with that — obviously, I'd like to get the traffic, but you have to live with the fact that sometimes you don't get what you want.

The problem, however, is that
1) Slashfilm didn't bother to link to the original article on CE Pro (a quick mention of the "June 2006 issue of CE Pro" was all we got)
2) They took the entire slideshow, cropped out our watermark, and posted it

The non-linkage isn't right, but can be easily remedied. On the other hand, taking the images and cropping out the watermarks is stealing content.

This is the second time in two weeks I've had to deal with people stealing content without proper attribution.

I emailed Slashfilm's editor, Peter Sciretta, asking him to add a link to our story and replace the images with the original, watermarked versions.

I haven't heard back from him (and it looks like his site is down now), but in reality, it doesn't matter if he replaces them or not. The images have already been cropped, our watermark is gone, and anyone who sees them can distribute them without attribution.

So, what are you supposed to do in this situation?

I emailed CmdrTaco (aka Rob Malda), who originally posted the story at Slashdot, and told him the story. It's not like I'm worried about bloggers promoting and sharing content we create — it's doing it without proper attribution and basically stealing credit for other's work.

CmdrTaco went ahead and changed the link in the Slashdot story to the original article on CE Pro, and now we're getting the influx of traffic.

What's the moral of the story?

Don't steal and properly attribute or it will come to bite you in the ass.

Keeping Busy Over My 4-Day Weekend

Posted by junger - 12/23/07 at 11:12:51 pm

It isn't often I get a four-day weekend without having to take any days off from work, so I'm keeping busy by … well, just watch the video.

The Problem With Digg Users: You Can't Leave

Posted by junger - 12/21/07 at 12:12:42 pm

Digg users are huge fanboys — that's a given. But they're so loyal to the site that they won't leave it, even when they get banned and buried.

Why?

Tamar Weinberg lists a number of problems with Digg, suggesting that no one pay the $300m asking price the company is shopping itself for.

People getting banned from the site seems to be a regular occurrence (my entire office got banned for digging from the same IP), but they all seem to want back in.

Is Digg more of a crack to people than Facebook?

Why can't Digg users find another site to share social news? There's a huge market out there, and for start-ups like Mixx, there's an opportunity to become an early power user.

Digg users, don't become blinded by an allegiance to the site. Obviously, the folks behind it seem to want out.

(You can still watch Diggnation even if you aren't a regular digger. It's OK.)

(img: Adam Tinworth)

What's Keeping Me Busy: 12/20/07

Posted by junger - 12/20/07 at 05:12:20 pm

Handbell Hero (via Webb Alert) – holiday Guitar Hero for the people who can't even play a fake guitar.

Ding Dong, Digg is Dead – Copyblogger Brian Clark has been essentially blacklisted by Digg, he says.

That's okay, BC — your type of content is way more conducive to traffic from StumbleUpon, which is nearly as heavy and lasts a lot longer.

Roger Chang quits DL.TV… headed to Revision3? – Roger Chang is leaving DL.TV, the video podcast he produced and co-hosted with Robert Heron. I heard the announcement on Cranky Geeks today, but Chang didn't say where he is going.

Of course, speculation will center that he's heading to Revision3, where former DL.TV host Patrick Norton left for a couple months back.

Insert token quote about TechTV 2.0 here

David Richards, Technology Journalism's Biggest Plagiarist

Posted by junger - 12/19/07 at 07:12:47 pm

You may have never heard of David Richards, but if you're writing anything in the technology sector, he's probably familiar with your work.

You see, Richards is the biggest plagiarist in technology journalism today, consistently stealing content from Web sites and re-publishing under his own byline.

Richards is in management at SmartHouseNews, an Australian Web site owned by publishing house 4SquareMedia. Oddly, 4SquareMedia has no Web site, as its official domain is a parked hosting page, and its .net equivalent reveals that "this is a test."

Phil Sim at Squash has an excellent background on Richards, who wrote a questionable story on 60% of Windows Vista needing to be re-written.

Without a doubt, Richards is the most notorious and controversial technology journalist in Australia and it won't surprise anyone down under in the tech media or IT industries that he's managed to get himself embroiled in this kind of saga.

First things, first. Richards is a real, bona fide journalist. He's not an amateur blogger. He's not a techie, who took up a writing. He's got a Fleet Street background and was responsible for one of the most, important investigative journalism works ever published in Australia when his expose on the Painters and Dockers union uncovered extensive corruption and sparked a historical Royal Commission.

Richards is also a successful entrepreneur. He started a PR company, Weston Communications, which he built up and sold and following that he founded a publishing company DWR Media, which he flogged to US publisher Penton Media for up to $US8 million (Penton would about 2 years later offload the division for a pittance).

Along the way, though, he's ticked a lot of people off. He's brash, pushy and thrives on controversy. He always seems to be suing someone, or else being sued. In the past few months, he's been accused on plagiarism, attacked for conflicts of interest and laid a big, steelcapped boot into one of the world's biggest PR companies.

I was first tipped off to Richards' plagiarism by Lee Distad, a contributor to CE Pro, who saw that a story he wrote ("How the Format War Affects Custom Shops") appeared on SmartHouseNews.com.au.

The article, given a new title of "Are You Making Money Out of the Format War?", has Richards as the lead writer in the byline, with Lee given second billing. The two stories are nearly identical.

We gave him no permission to publish the story, and given that Lee wrote the story, Richards' byline is completely unwarranted.

It's straight-up plagiarism.

Richards has plagiarized other stories from CE Pro, including at least one that I wrote. At least two of the stories (originals here and here) have his sole byline (copies here and here).

When I contacted Richards to remove Lee's story from his site, he ignored my email, even though I said I wanted to keep it civil. One week later, I re-sent the email, CC'ing the contacts of SmartHouseNews's Web site, including sales, marketing and editorial.

Richards replied, saying, "This was removed a week ago."

But it wasn't. And, as of this writing, it's still there.

It isn't just CE Pro that Richards plagiarizes.

He's plagiarized TWICE (his version here), Big Picture Big Sound, BusinessWeek (original and copy) and The Hollywood Reporter (original and copy).

He's republished stories from Residential Systems (original and copy) and Stereophile (original and copy).

He's even republished feature stories from CE Pro as from a "US Wire Service" (original and copy).

I could keep on going on about stories he's copied, his continued acts of plagiarism and his general disregard for other's work, but I would be here all night.

Richards is a disgrace to journalism and should be shunned by the technology industry — journalists, manufacturers and marketing folks alike. I agree with Robert Scoble, who called for Richards to be fired after his Vista-rewrite story. Can him.

On SmartHouseNews's site right now, there are advertisements from Pioneer and Mitsubishi. You are decent companies, but you shouldn't support publications based in plagiarism. Please consider dropping your advertising.