Come Up With Your Own Damn Content!

I hadn’t realized it until today, but a rage has been building inside me. What is bothering me so very, very much you ask? I’ll tell you! It’s the complete disregard for creating new content by websites. Every funny, touching, or disturbing piece of content on the internet will end up on the thousands of websites run by unoriginal pricks.

Until now, I was content to simply ignore these indiscretions, or to comment about them on the particular website on which they are displayed – but no more. I can no longer contain the sheer hatred I have for these people. I can longer tolerate the blatant plagiarism that is engulfing the internet.

Why does it bother me so much? There are a number of reasons, the first being that these assholes are making money off of the hard work of others. Through no effort of their own, aside from using the copy/paste function, they are, in some cases, making their entire living through the use of stolen content.

Yes, I do consider it stealing. Unless the original author gives permission, displaying their work is stealing. A link back to the original author abates this somewhat, but not completely. Why? Because, if the visitor has just read/listened to/watched the entire thing on your website, why would they need to go to the original author’s website? Yes, I know, the visitor may want to see more of that authors work, but even that is irrelevant. If there is any link back, it is usually at the bottom after the content, in the form of a small, unobtrusive link; thus virtually assuring the visitor does not even notice it’s there.

The second reason this bothers me is the absolute laziness of it. While I, and many others like me, put forth a great deal of time and effort to create our content, these thieving bastards don’t have to. All they have to do is surf the internet until they find something interesting, and then paste it into their website. These people don’t know the first thing about actually creating content, all they know how to do is copy.

 

Who are they? They’re probably the same people who every morning at school would ask you if they could copy the homework from the previous night. They’re the boss at work who takes your hard work, and presents it as his own. They’re your teammate who, after the game, takes all the credit for the team’s victory. They’re the same people who have stolen the work of others their entire life; the only difference is that they now have a website own which to do it.

Where can you find them? Really everywhere on the internet, but I’ve noticed that, for the most part, they like to use blogs to do their dirty work. I’ve come across literally hundreds of blogs that served no other purpose than to display the work of others. This happens most often while surfing the internet on StumbleUpon; every-other website will be a blog displaying the same damn thing I saw on another blog ten minutes ago. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of blogs out there that only publish fresh, original content, and I applaud those – as long as they’re not “personal blogs.”

But, blogs are definitely not the only place you’ll find stolen content. Many “news” sites will do this. World news, tech news, automotive news, celebrity news, etc. all have examples of these thief sites. They’ll copy and paste an article written by someone else on a different website, and simply present it as if it’s their own.

What can we do about it? To be honest, I’d say nothing. But, that doesn’t stop me from giving every site I see doing this a “thumbs down.” It doesn’t stop me from leaving nasty comments on their own website. It doesn’t stop me from doing everything in my power to inform their readers that they’re nothing more than a website capable of using the copy/paste function.

I’m sure many of you disagree with me, and it’s probably for one of the following reasons: you are of the “open source” persuasion, you don’t believe it’s a problem, you are a content thief. To the open source folks, I say this: what if someone had a Linux distribution available for download on their website, and claimed they were the inventors of the original Linux kernel? Would you not be upset that Linus Torvalds was not getting the credit he deserved? To the people who don’t believe this is a problem, I say this: there are literally millions of websites on the internet, how is possible that I rarely see something I have not seen before? And finally, to the content thieves, I say this: go fuck yourselves.

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