By Alan Caruba
Not that long ago, someone using the name "Eddie Sessions" lifted a commentary of mine, posted here on January 2nd, and apparently put it on some site identified or misidentified with the Wall Street Journal. He used his byline, not mine.
People familiar with my writings immediately spotted something was wrong. The result was a lot of emails asking me to explain and, ultimately, the issue became so intense that Snopes.com even put out a notice about it, correctly identifying me as the author.
I have been writing professionally for longer than many of my readers have been on Earth! It has always been standard operational procedure to put a Copyright (c) notice on anything I write, but the Internet is a different kind of creature and, after a while I stopped doing it, knowing anyone could simply copy and paste anything of mine on the Internet to anywhere else.
Well, I am back to attaching a Copyright notice, Copyright, Alan Caruba, 2010, to my daily posts because it is probably a good idea and it might discourage the "Eddie Sessions" of the world not to put their names on my writings.
Feel free to share what you find here on your own blog or website, or email to friends, but from now on it will bear a copyright notice.
Mr. Caruba, I guess the only people who have a problem with that, are those who want to "borrow" what you write and get the credit. It's good to keep your own protected. God Bless!
ReplyDeleteI can't understand why you have a problem with putting in hours of hard work, and then having someone else take credit for it ...
ReplyDeleteWhat are you, some kind of greedy Capitalist?
Guy, you have found me out! Yes, I am a greedy capitalist. There, I've said it.
ReplyDeleteMr. Alan. May I quote and link to your site??
ReplyDeleteEverybody knows I can't put it together as well as you and others.
If it's spelled rite and punchu...punkt....aw..if the commaz and sech are rite...then I owe it to SpellChek and somebody else.
Give credit where credit is due...'cept in DC.
I'd be very disappointed if you didn't, Ol James.
ReplyDelete