I've managed to keep this blog running for nearly five years now without once putting up a passive-aggressive admin notice, which is a good tally and will hopefully get me off the hook and make me sound less like my mother in a grouchy mood. Also, it's a testament to the good nature of most of the people who stop by here, I think - you've generally been an enthusiastic, polite and supportive bunch, and you've even made me laugh when you've utterly despised what I've uploaded (actually, I think I've enjoyed those moments the most). Nonetheless...
It's come to my attention over the last few months that a couple of people have been copying and pasting text from this blog and passing it off as their own work. I freely confess that so far, it's nothing big - it's not another blogger or journalist in full-on plagiarism mode, for example, it's just one record retailer and another YouTube user pulling paragraphs of info from here when they feel it's appropriate to their needs. I was tempted to ignore both completely. However, I thought I'd try to nip it in the bud now with what I think is a fair point - I don't mind if you want to borrow my work to describe that piece of vinyl you're desperate to shift or that video you want people to watch, provided you link back here when you do so. Writers and journalists (and I have been published 'properly', believe it or not - though this shouldn't make a shred of difference to my point) have a tendency to get a bit sniffy when other people credit themselves with their work. Far apart from that, though, if you're indirectly profiting from my writing by way of a very successful record sale, it would be nice if you could send a few of your potential customers in this blog's direction.
I'm naming no names, but please do try to respect my wishes above. Otherwise that horrible gnarled tree in the shape of the Grim Reaper above will haunt your dreams every night from now on.
4 comments:
I think you might be on dodgy ground here. You do write original words, and they're often entertaining. However, you must bear in mind that what's sauce for the goose is surely also slightly saucy when the gander comes into the equation. By which I mean you republish entire works of music and then write about them, completely violating their copyright, then complain about not being attributed.
I like your blog and what you do, but to claim the moral high ground with big banners labelled 'attribution' seems somewhat facetious.
Hmmm - a fair point, but I'm still crediting the original authors and drawing attention to their (otherwise unavailable) work.
I'm not at all bothered about people copying whole chunks of the blog and putting it up on their own sites, provided they credit me, and preferably link back. For example, I'm not posting up mp3s on this site claiming that I recorded them myself in a studio only yesterday. I think there's a subtle difference here.
Anon, that's a load of rubbish.
Count me among the most grateful, Good Sir!
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