More Theft of Intellectual Property

Here we go again. This isn't my favorite topic, but I'll post something like when someone steals another's intellectual property.

The creative agent in this case is a blogger who maintains these blogs:

• "Cookies to Caviar"
• "Cooking With Anne"
  - the blog which the author says has been ripped off
• "The Rest of Me"

Some of her content seems to have been copied and republished as "Cooking Tips" at http://cooking-tips.googlelinks.net/.

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UPDATE 1:30 am September 17, 2007.

It looks like http://cooking-tips.googlelinks.net/ is shut down. Here's what I found, when I checked the URL a few minutes ago:

"Cooking Tips

"Sorry, no posts matched your criteria."

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There's a discussion thread at BlogCatalog.com, following this situation: "Calling out a loser...."

I appreciate that there are people out there who believe that as long as they steal something, it's okay, since everything's free on the Web. Or, they believe,it ought to be.

I don't agree.

It should be simple commons sense. A writer works to produce a blog post, an article, or anything else that someone might want to read. Another person comes along, copies the post, displays it, either as his or her own work, or (occasionally) with some sort of attribution. Without the author's knowledge or permission.

At best,it's tacky behavior, something like copying test answers.

At worst, it's robbing the writer of income. Quit a few writers, myself included, write with hopes of making money. Often, the money comes through advertising on the writer's website or blog.

When someone else copies the writer's work and posts it elsewhere, that deflects traffic from the writer, to the thief.

Related posts, on Intellectual Property Rights