A question about "borrowing" text

[Mikro Marc]

Hi.

I need an advice. I have a site with listings (kind of short reviews) of
some freeware games. A well respected freeware site have added some of
these games and have used my text (copy-and-paste). And link directly to
my screenshots.

I asked them in an email to stop this or at least list me as "author".
They have not responded.

What should I do?
I would really hate to accuse them in public (this newsgroup).

Perhaps they will read this and response to me... (I hope so).

The funny thing: If they had asked first, I would gladly have let them
use it all without hesitation....


TIA

MikroMarc

 

[Jim Daniel]

Hi.

I need an advice. I have a site with listings (kind of short reviews) of
some freeware games. A well respected freeware site have added some of
these games and have used my text (copy-and-paste). And link directly to
my screenshots.

I asked them in an email to stop this or at least list me as "author".
They have not responded.

What should I do?
I would really hate to accuse them in public (this newsgroup).

Perhaps they will read this and response to me... (I hope so).

The funny thing: If they had asked first, I would gladly have let them
use it all without hesitation....

TIA

MikroMarc

MikroMarc,
They're not borrowing your words....it's called plagiarism....if you
feel strongly about it, keep after them.....and you could change the
name of the screen shot images on your server (you'd also have to redo
the image tags on your pages) so the graphics wouldn't render correctly
on their pages (that's only a temporary fix, however)...after all they
are using some of your server space to display graphics on their
site.....they've taken your stuff without your permission....it's called
stealing....you can look it up.....as you say, it's not problem if they
ask and credit you....that's the least you should expect...
Jim Daniel

 

[Tiger]

Hi.

I need an advice. I have a site with listings (kind of short
reviews) of some freeware games. A well respected freeware site
have added some of these games and have used my text
(copy-and-paste). And link directly to my screenshots.

I asked them in an email to stop this or at least list me as
"author". They have not responded.

What should I do?
I would really hate to accuse them in public (this newsgroup).

What site? Yes, I'm saying accuse them in public. Why? Well, the
text descriptions, while highly unlikely, could be just a
coincidence...at least there's no way to prove they're not. But if you
found links on their site back to your site, then that's
unethical...and I'd *really* like to know who it is so as not to
support them in ignorance.

I've read about some type of freeware (I *think* I remember it was
freeware) that will prevent such things...but can't remember it at the
moment (I may have been hallucinating). You may ask about the
availability of such at one of the html ng's...or maybe someone else
here is aware of it.

--
Tiger

"Zero is where the fun starts
There is too much counting everywhere else."
- Hafiz

 

[garrapat]

A well respected freeware site have added some of
these games and have used my text (copy-and-paste). And link directly to
my screenshots

Change the screenshot to something that will annoy the thief.
Look in this is a regular subject there.

 

[Brian Pipa]

If you have total control of your web server, you can set it up so
nobody can remote link to your images. If you feel particularly evil,
you can replace the images with something really nasty like an image
that says "this image and accompanying text were stolen from my site".

I have had something similar happen to me. I used to write for some big
name gaming sites and I found some smaller sites had taken my reviews
and used them as their own.

brian

 

[Alan]

Hi.

I need an advice. I have a site with listings (kind of short reviews)
of some freeware games. A well respected freeware site have added
some of these games and have used my text (copy-and-paste). And link
directly to my screenshots.

I asked them in an email to stop this or at least list me as "author".
They have not responded.

What should I do?

As a starting measure, I'd rename/ redo the linked graphics on your
site, so that *their* links point to banners that state that the content
has been plagiarized from your site. Also include your URL to redirect
their traffic back to you, to view the original review.

 

[TW]

Hi.

I need an advice. I have a site with listings (kind of short reviews) of
some freeware games. A well respected freeware site have added some of
these games and have used my text (copy-and-paste). And link directly to
my screenshots.

I asked them in an email to stop this or at least list me as "author".
They have not responded.

What should I do?
I would really hate to accuse them in public (this newsgroup).

Perhaps they will read this and response to me... (I hope so).

The funny thing: If they had asked first, I would gladly have let them
use it all without hesitation....


TIA

MikroMarc

A couple of comments...US copyright laws have a "limited use"
provision. It sounds like the owner of the other site has exceeded
the criteria.

Secondly, I wonder if someone who links to your site without your
permission is in violation of the copyright laws? There must be a
ruling on this by now. A major difference is that a link is
self-attributing to the original author (you).
e-mail modified, take the ** out to reply!

Regards, TW

kilocycles***@***yahoo.com