Plagiarism Shmagiarism

Plagiarism is a huge problem on the web. People tend to treat anything they can access through a browser as “free”. Not free as in “I don’t have to pay to enjoy it”, but free as in “finders keepers”. The problem is kind of invisible until it happens to you.

One form of theft is particularly annoying to me. Designers like my bio so much they steal it. Same with my tag lines and business mission statements.

On January 9th 2010, CopyScape alerted me to the latest theft of my bio. It’s Mr. X’s LinkedIn profile. That’s not his real name. This post used to have the original screen shot with all his identifying information, but after I received a very long and sincere apology by phone on December 8th 2010, I’ve decided to anonymize the transgression with big black boxes. The stolen content is in pink.

What pisses me off about these rips is they take the time to change the date and maybe add an original word or two but keep the rest verbatim. This means they are fully aware of what they are doing. The most galling thing on Mr X’s “bio” is the reference to specific jobs, especially the line about “designing the pattern for an American Sign Language (ASL) themed wrapping paper”. Really, he’s done that too? Amazing! And I thought I was the only one who did that type of work.

I’m probably the only person in the world who’s designed ASL wrapping paper. I designed it for Beyond The Words. Yet, there it is, right on Mr X’s bio.

Now normally I handle these things privately, mano-a-mano, but Mr. X doesn’t provide any contact information so he’s getting a public flogging here.

Since I couldn’t reach Mr. X directly, I emailed LinkedIn to report him. Here’s their response:

Dear Clay,

Thank you for contacting LinkedIn Customer Support.

I apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused you. We have reached out to this member and asked that the profile be updated.

If you have further questions, please feel free to reply to this message.

Thank you for being a valued member of our LinkedIn community!

Regards,

Mindy

LinkedIn Privacy Team

Yet, there it stays. In fact he recently updated his photo but left the stolen content! Sorry Mr. X but this is your world wide web wake up call, your digital ass whooppin’.

The Plagiarism Gods Send Me An Angel

Not long after getting LinkedIn’s halfhearted response to my request I get an email from Matthew Carson at www.dmca.com. They handle plagiarism cases for a flat $99 fee with a full refund if they don’t succeed. He wants to know if they can advertise on this page.

Now I’ve never taken advertising on any of my blogs – it’s just not my thing. I think it looks cheap and messy and I don’t need the money. However, Mr X’s thievery must not go unchallenged.

I write back to Matthew and tell him I’m very selective of who I endorse. I ask him if he’ll handle the LinkedIn case for free, and if they succeed, I’ll gladly take their advertising and even write about in on my blog.

Well it took them about three weeks instead of the usual two to four days but my content is now removed from Mr X’s profile. Matthew said that LinkedIn was very difficult to work with and made them jump through a lot of hoops. It took about twenty days and thirty emails and faxes before they’d delete the stolen content.

So here’s the ad as promised and you just read the story. So for serious copyright violations by people who don’t respond to your takedown requests, I’d say DMCA’s $99 guarantee is the real deal and quite economical compared to hiring a lawyer.

But Wait, There’s More

Note: This persons transgression was anonymized on October 27th, 2011 after they gave me a real apology and changed their profile for real.

On March 12th, 2010 I get another notification of a LinkedIn thief. I check out the business profile for Company X, a design company owned by Miss X and I’m floored. She has stolen my entire branding statement from the home page of my website.

Here’s a screen shot of my home page.

Here’s a screen shot of Miss X’s rip. She changed a few words but it’s nearly verbatim.

So I fire off and email.

Subject:Remove stolen content on Linked In

You stole my business description from here:

http://39a48274f3.nxcli.io/

And used it on your LinkedIn profile here:

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/company-x

Write your own description. You are not me.

A couple of hours she gets back to me.

so noted and changed with my apologies.

Miss X

Company

So I go to check out the new content and it’s the biggest “FU” rewrite I’ve ever encountered. The structure is the same. The content and flow is the same. Even the sign-off “uniquely your own” is the same. Talk about ironic. Now normally I don’t publicly call out someone who rights a wrong, it’s water under the bridge, but this “rewrite” is a brazen middle finger to my request. Just more salt in the wound. It also serves as a lesson on what NOT to do when caught stealing another’s work.

When someone asked you to rewrite something that you stole they mean completely rewrite it from scratch. Purge the old version from your mind and start over. Write from the heart. Paraphrasing and swapping synonyms doesn’t count. Not only is it offensive to the original author, it turns the original prose into junk. Words mean something. Flow and rhythm matter.

Miss X’s rewrite is clunky and confusing because she took the easy way out. It’s not something I’d want to represent my business. The saddest part is she’d been around and should know better. She’s not a kid or some desperate wannabe trying to get attention. She’s got some nice solid work in her portfolio and she’s even picked up few ADDY’s. Still, she will not just write something fresh, original, and in her own voice. Instead she is content to use mine.

She may have changed it enough to evade copyright law but no enough to be ethically pure or escape my anger. Worst of all, it’s not even good. So I’m posting this as a lesson to her and to all the other thieves who want to ride on someone else’s coat tails. Don’t do it.

You Are Not Me. Leave My Bio Alone.

It’s one thing to crib a generic product description for your ecommerce store. You still shouldn’t do it, but everyone is more or less appropriating the same source material from the manufacturer.

This is also not a description for opening a can of cat food. How many different ways can you write about opening a can of cat food? A few, but eventually there would be a lot of overlap in structure and specifics. Unfortunately this is my bio and my mission statement. It’s about me. These designers are not me.

Excerpt from my bio at Clay Butler, Graphic Designer Bio, Illustrator Bio, Graphic Design Bio

I can take your project from a simple thumbnail sketch or idea to a fully integrated, fully formed product. This provides my clients the assurance and peace of mind that no matter what unexpected changes occur, or which direction or medium their project might take, I will have the experience and skills to see them through and deliver their project on time and on spec.

Claytowne… creativity, adaptability, punctuality and speed informed with a solid foundation in the classic arts.

Now Doug’s version of my bio. I’ve bolded the direct lifting. The rest are synonyms of what I said or reworded copy from the other parts of my bio page. Even the format, the rhythm and story arch is the same. His sign-off in almost verbatim.

He can take your project from a simple thumbnail sketch or verbal idea to a fully integrated, fully formed product that achieves exactly what you want – whether that is to convey an idea, sell a product, or catch your customer’s eye. With Doug at the wheel, you can be sure that no matter what unexpected changes occur, or which direction your project might take, he has the experience and expertise to see you through and deliver your project on time and on spec.

Definition for Doug Taylor:

Doug Taylor (n)…creative, adaptable, punctual and timely; informed with a solid foundation in graphic design.

Perhaps some would think this is OK but this is not writing your own copy. This is straight up theft of passages and the rest is just swapping synonyms. This is my bio and my mission statement. It’s about me. Doug is not me.

But then again, if being “creative” is stealing someone’s bio and being “adaptable” is changing it from first person to third, then perhaps Dough really IS a genius.

Over the years I collected my personal favorites. I keep them in a little file. I could show them here but since everyone except Mr. X and Doug took the offending rip down immediately, they’ll stay private.

Protect Yourself

If you write anything original that is important to you core business you need to protect it. Unchallenged plagiarism will spread indefinitely as one thief steals from the previous. Overtime it will be difficult for anyone to know who was the original source. Down the road if the appropriated version becomes the more dominant one, YOU may even be the one accused of stealing. Imagine that, the thief calling you out!

That’s why I use Copyscape’s CopySentry program. This is not a paid endorsement and I’m not an affiliate. I gladly pay my monthly fees and they’ve helped keep the web clean of my stolen bios and business descriptions. I don’t know what I would have done without this service. I simply don’t have the time and resources to monitor the internet for copyright violations.

So head over to Copyscape and sign up for the Copysentry Standard. It checks for copies of your pages every week. It costs $4.95 per month for up to 10 pages on your site, and $0.25/month for each additional page up to 100 pages. What a deal!

Further Reading

Plagiarism Today

Fun, informative and well balanced blog about fighting plagiarism.

Plagiarism Dot Org

A more academic approach to plagiarism.

File Under: Fighting Plagiarism – Protecting Your Website Content from Thieves – Copy Theft – Stopping People from Stealing Your Website Content -Website Rip-Offs – How to Catch Websites Plagiarism and Stop  Content Thieves

Ce Design & Illustration, LLC