Sunday 15 October 2006

growing up, blogging style

There's a growing unease in the blogging community about mis-use of blog posts and unattributed use of content. One company, botacle.org, (replace the 'o' with an 'i' - I WILL NOT be found by their search engines that way) seems to be the worst - 'scraping' blog content off blogs and republishing it with ads and other $$ clickable items. All this and no credit to the original author (or monetary gain) is making many uneasy about what they put on the internet.

Is password protected the way to go? I have friends who have pass-protect blogs, and they like the privacy, love the absense of worrying about who is reading their stuff. I would miss the voices and comments that turn up as people follow me back through a comment or 'leap-frog' through blogs to say 'Hey! I like your writing!' and then dash away.

I did get a creative commons license, but I don't kid myself into thinking this will protect me. I've seen some nifty attribution statements on RSS feeds, but so far nothing I can use - maybe soon?

I love the freeing aspect of blogging, the way I have a 'community' of wonderful people who make me nod and smile and laugh and choke up, all with the way they write. I'm not thrilled with the idea that some company will use my words and pictures and stories to make money.

I guess we're all growing up.

Link:

stopbotacle.org

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