Monday, August 15, 2005

"Plagiarism, Copyright Infringement & Copyright Theft"


I've been discussing the need to protect copyright, to honor copyright, and to prevent copyright theft quite a bit here.  I know, it's an old song.  But it's a song that needs to be sung because the problem is so wide spread.

I received an email requesting permission for someone to take one of my free patterns, translate it into another language and have them post it on their site. 

While I'm thinking about my decision,
I decided to do a little blog surfing today and stumbled upon one that has an artists emotions tied into discovering that their work had been stolen.  Although it's not a crochet related site, those of us who post our work on the Internet should seriously read this blog: www.plagiarismtoday.com

At the very least, it's an interesting look at how the victim feels, and ways to find the thief.

UPDATE:
I joined a "new to me" online group this afternoon and found it revolting to see the blatant disregard the group has for copyright laws!  I feel sick to my stomach to see people's hard work passed around freely.   I posted my disappointment to the group and immediately unsubscribed as I want no part of a group like that!  If we love crochet so much people, we should be supporting it -- NOT stealing from it!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just wanted drop a quick line and say thank you for taking the time to mention the site. I'm glad that you liked it and found it useful. I've tried hard to make the site useful to Webmasters like yourself who've witness or been through the plagiarism wringer. I'm very grateful for the support.

As far as the translation goes, that's really your call. I use Creative Commons License (http://www.creativecommons.org) to allow people to reuse my work with stipulations. It's a personal choice though. You could always let him do the translation with the understanding that you retain ownership of the translated piece. You get a free translation service and he gets free content.

Just a thought.

Feel free to ask any questions, not all of the articles and FAQs are up on the site yet, still fairly new yet, but I'll answer anything that I can.

Take care and good luck!

Raven - http://www.plagiarismtoday.com