I was helping a client a week or so ago and they are using the WP RSS Aggregator Plugin for WordPress.
One of the features in their Pro version is “Feed to Post” – which they describe as “an advanced importer that lets you import RSS feeds into posts or custom post types. Populate a website in minutes (autoblog). This is the most popular extension.” Inside the plugin is a setting that gives the website owner a choice to use the original author of the blog entry or switch it to the author associated with the website.
The client has opted to replace the original author name with their own author name, import the full post and add a line at the bottom that reads “This article was first seen on _______.”
There are quite a number of RSS to Post plugins that work in a similar manner, not just the one the client is using. I went on a hunt to find a plugin that would stop that activity. I found Copyright Footer RSS plugin that states, “Add easily your own copyright at the footer of your RSS feed posts. It improves the SEO and avoids content scrapers to steal your posts.” I am not sure if this will work when the posts are being imported to another blog, but it certainly deserves looking at.
Last last year or this year, I remember seeing on Twitter where a blogger was using this plugin or one like it. She was pulling in posts from a number of well known individuals and it was spotted by another person that I follow. Their tweet went viral within our small hashtag community and before I could blink – the website had been taken down.
Plagiarism is the “wrongful appropriation” and “stealing and publication” of another author’s “language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions” and the representation of them as one’s own original work.
Question: Is this stealing? Is this Plagiarism? What do you think? I’d love to read your opinion!
Replacing an author’s name with her own in a way that implies to the casual or less than fully attentive reader and others the re-poster is the original author would I think strike most people, including this reader and writer, as dishonest. I would be unlikely to trust the re-posting blogger on much of anything and would likely cease visiting their blog.
Hi Richard, thank you for commenting. As a journalist yourself I am sure this wouldn’t make you very happy if your work were published in this manner. If you saw your posts on someone else’s website, would you pursue legal action or contact them directly about it?
Yes, of course this is a form of plagiarism, but more importantly, it’s copyright infringement. And there are severe financial penalties for copyright infringement.
The main problem for the person being infringed upon is that, even though their writing is covered by the copyright laws, unless they have a lot of money, it’s just not worth it to try to file a copyright suit – since copyright is federal law (not state law), and lawsuits of that kind become very expensive.
The best option for the person being infringed upon is to contact the infringer, let them know that they are aware of the infringement, and ask them (nicely at first) to delete the copyrighted material from their web site, and ask them to not do that anymore. This would be referred to as a “take-down” letter.
Another option is to contact the ISP or hosting service related to the infringer’s web site, by e-mail, give them the details, and request a “take-down” action. Many ISPs and hosting services will contact the infringer, get their side of the story, and will probably tell the infringer (in no uncertain terms) to take the copyrighted stuff of the web site, or they might just shut down their web site.
One more option is a copyright-infringement lawsuit, which will be very expensive, and probably pointless, because in order to receive a judgment (get some money) the court will not only decide that the infringement took place, but *also* determine that there was substantial financial damage done, which will probably not be the case.
The best hope to hurt infringers is when they infringe on copyright material owned by someone who has a lot of money, such as a big corporation that has lots of money and big-time lawyers. In that case, the infringer will soon find himself in deep trouble.
Soon those content caught by google panda and penguin algorithm soon.