Netiquette- your opinion?
I ran across something that I didn’t like this week at someone’s site, and wondered how my readers might feel about it. I generally share a lot of love with people… but if I’m spreading the word about something someone else has written, I’ll usually post an excerpt from that article along with a paragraph or two of commentary, followed by a link to the actual article. This way, my reader gets to choose whether or not to visit the site and see the article in its entirety.
To describe what I saw without saying too much about the person who did it, an author posted an entire 700-800 word article that someone else had written. The original author was given appropriate credit and linkage, and he even commented on the reprint of his article, but it still seemed like bad form to me.
So here’s the question… do you think it’s alright to duplicate an entire article on your site so long as you give the original author credit, or is it better manners to show an excerpt and link over, allowing readers to choose to follow the link if they want the rest of the article or story? It would be great to hear what you think in the comments. Have a fantastic Friday!
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Chris Bloczynski dot Com is a blog about entrepreneurship and internet marketing. It's targeted towards ebusiness owners and bloggers, with an emphasis on principles such as attitude, mentorship, tools to streamline your business, and tactics for marketing and growth.
I think people should just make a link if you are going to copy the whole article. I think it is bad taste too.
Thanks for asking Chris. If the article is under creative commons - then why not?
If its not under creative commons, then I would either link to it. Or ask the author first and then republish it word-to-word.
For eg: if I like a particular audio or video - I can link to it. But I prefer showing the audio/video directly from my blog. And most of them - when asked if I can share the audio/video from my blog - say yes - because it also saves them in bandwith costs.
It’s horrible to reprint the entire article.
You get hit with duplicate content on Google and it looks bad for both bloggers. If an author has run out of things to talk about then why not close shop and move on? Give me the link then tell me what you (as the blogger) think about the original post. At least then I’m getting something original!
It really depends on the context, in my opinion. I do agree with Ankesh’s view of licensing too. I have several papers and license text’s on one of our sites that are full text but, for the context in which they are presented, it is appropriate. Verbatim copying for the sake of “content” is bogus though, even if it’s okay, according to license.
It should always be permission-based. If the author does not have a Creative Commons or other declaration of permission and terms of use and so forth, then you shouldn’t copy an entire article without their permission. Perhaps not everyone will object if you do, but all it takes is one upset person to file a DMCA against you, and your blog could be removed from the search engines or pulled offline by your webhost.
Copying a work in its entirety without permission is copyright infringement.
I think the there should be more than just the author’s name and a link. If you’re going to use the whole article why not dedicate a few sentences to the creator?
Excerpt. Otherwise it’s just being lazy, IMO.
Boy howdy, the comments really heated up on this topic! Thanks for your views, everyone… I appreciate what you’ve had to say. I was thinking of written material when I posed this question, but it makes sense to consider bandwidth if you’re talking about audio or video.
I feel that while it is probably legal, actually reprinting the entire article shows laziness and a lack of creativity.
Thanks for asking!
Wow, this post raises a good point. Before I got really into blogging, I would’ve said…as long as it was duly credited (and the original author doesn’t mind), it’d be okay.
However, NOW after circulating blogs and having seen people quote an entire article rather than taking an excerpt out (even a long excerpt is preferable to the whole thing), I think it’s bad form. For the sake of one’s own readers, it’s better to write a commentary, quoting a bit, and providing the link.
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