A Note on PLAGIARISM and Copyright Infringement... Most of you know me as a positive, encouraging person. I dont rant on things much. But this hit home with me - again. As a writer, I have, since my late teens, had a passion for creating what are hopefully empowering writings - including short orginal quotes based on concepts such as love, destiny, goals, etc. I have a high respect for anyone who writes, especially things that help others. But you dont have to be Paulo Coelho to have a quote, no matter how short, attributed to you. If you wrote it and it is original, you immediatly own the copyright to it. If someone uses it, that person or entity should give author credit to you, at least. It is your moral and ethical, if not also legal right. Several years ago, a long-time FB friend of mine posted one of my quotes on their page - with author credit (I always use ... (my quote)... ~ Thomas Martin Smith - on all my original quotes). A FB friend of that person then copied it and posted it on his wall - but removed my name and replaced it with his. That person got a lot of likes and comments on it. He did not come out and respond that he had written it, but he did go on about the validity of the content. My FB friend saw it and commented under his post on what a wonderful quote it was that Tom had created. But he neither commented on that nor contacted me. It came up in my feed. He was a published author, no less! It immediately made me suspicious of anything he had written. Was he a common literary thief? Especially as a writer himself, he should have known better, right? Well, I went after him, diplomatically. He apologized and said he did not mean to do it. (Seriously!) He took it down and that was the end of it. That has happened with my photos too - before I overlayed them with copyright text. And that is why I now put my orignal quotes on my own photos - together with copyright info for both quote and photo. I also keep track of when I wrote something and when I first published it. (Even FB posts are a form of publication.) This has happened a few times recently with my quotes ... people posting all or part of my quotes on their wall - verbatim - perhaps tweaked a bit with a few ... marks or whatever, but still the same words in the same order. Those people did not give credit, nor take it, but in posting it, one might easily assume that they authored the post. Thankfully most people credit their sources. ~~~ End of rant ~~~ Thank you for listening, my friend. I hope youre having an amazing, happy, and fulfilling day! :-) https://facebook/photo.php?fbid=10201592861130753&set=a.10200941886056783.1073741828.1454820834&type=3&theater
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 19:57:48 +0000
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