John Halderman writes about personal growth and online marketing , helping people take command of their income, personal growth and wellness. He is also on Twitter

Any one who has been writing or blogging for any time here on the net(“The Wild Wild West”) knows that plagiarism is rampant. Now I am not such a purist to think that no one should ever read and regurgitate what they have read into their own words, that’s research, right! But the blatant ‘cut and past’ artists are the ones that  have become just a ‘little’ irritating.

I think most of these direct rip offenders are doing so to get some sort of content on their Adsense sites just to satisfy the search robots. These are the same people who a couple of years ago were able to do what is called “scraping” of articles and other website content, which is flat out copying the content of others and placing it on their pages. This way they get a content rich site the easy way!

Today this is harder to get away with as search engine bait, which is why the “duplicate content” rules has been established. Those of us that want to honestly put our articles in multiple places now must be very careful how we do this or we get punished just as if we had stolen the article. Lazy article writers and bloggers are still copying or close to copying to save time. I understand that this writing thing takes time, but there is such a thing as honesty that many choose to forgo.

I know I should not let it bother me, and actually I don’t stress about it. I know that those copycats will get their just rewards, there is a thing called Karma. Most likely their readers will see through their shallowness and they will not garner much credibility in the long run.

However, if you are wondering if and how much of your content is getting ripped, soon there will be a tool for checking up on your fellow bloggers. I know that first we should be trusting of others, but again, this is “The Wild Wild West” and almost anything goes. Content tracker Attributor which can check up on other locations using your text, pictures and videos has a new service geared to bloggers now in the beta phase called FairShare. It does appear from the website that they are accepting beta testers if you are interested. (2-24-09)

Well, whether you are blogging, writing and whatever online, and you feel the need to checkup on potential plagiarism of any of your content, the sources are available. I guess the determining factor in allowing others to get away with copying your content is in how you are monetizing it. So when someone copies it, viewers can see it somewhere other than your site, you loose any related income – and you did all the work.

You have the rights to the content you created, but online it is your responsibility to keep your plagiarism partners honest. Such a world!

John Halderman

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