I have noticed that, especially over in the Blogs section that alot of "original" work is showing up.
The funny thing is, people are so stupid, that they don't even do a search, but will post the exact same narrative or poem, DOES NOT GIVE THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR CREDIT and therefore, is attempting to pass the work off as their own. One clue for some of you that are curious is this: do a member search and read some the "author's" posts with the bad spelling and grammar and then read one of "their" narratives or poems and all of a sudden, Billy Backroads has morphed into Bill Shakespeare! Too funny!
Now, I've been watching this for some time and that is why I applied for and was granted copyrights for my "intellectual properties".
See, I love to share my thoughts, experiences and sources with people here and have, on occasion, given some permission to use it, with the understanding that the source is acknowledged. I have no problem with that. However; I loathe and despise people who will cut and paste someone else's hard work and pass it as their own. There is not a lower form of slithering reptile than would do something like that.
A few years ago, someone was using my username in a firefighter chatroom and because of my notoriety, someone contacted me. I went to the chatroom and started up a chat with this individual. Did you know that you could actually stutter on-line? When I was through with him, he was never heard from again; at least not as my persona.
If you are impacted by someone else's work, let that person know. If you want to share it, ASK THE SOURCE FOR PERMISSION.
As for my stuff, forum discussions are free.
Articles that I post in Blogs ARE protected by copyright.
If that sounds presumptive and ubiquitous (that's for Allen), I apologize, but anyone foolish or stupid enough to plagiarize-i.e. steal-someone else's work does NOT deserve respect; only scorn.
There is alot of very good information being posted by some very good writers. They deserve to be recognized for that effort. If you can't give them that, then don't be surprised when you are hit with a legal notice.

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Replies to This Discussion

Angel:
It is easy to see who is making an effort to give credit where credit is due.
It is also just as obvious to see who is trying to steal the work and is passing it off as their own.
I think that I have finally become the grumpy old fart.
I would like to state now, for the record......... All that I may post or say, although never before said quite the way I will, will be a direct result of teaching given me by a wonderful man named Erasmus Piazza. He was my grandfather and even if my thought is original, he gave me the ability to form and express it. Especially during these holidays, I miss him. Thank those who gave you these intangible and wonderful things such as understanding and the love of learning. Great post! Thank you.
You made me do a doubletake on the ol' "Twas the night before" thing. I thought maybe I inadvertently stole that "Night Before The Night Before..." line (you know like when you think you have an original thought and find that it's the commercial that everyone has been talking about at the water cooler for the past month?). After my search, I find that it's my own original stupid idea. I'll go back to sleep now.

I appreciate the dialogue on the intellectual idea theft, although I'm afraid no one is stealing my ideas that I'm aware of, they're not worth stealing, I guess...
I'm with you Mick.

As I told Art, I'm not sure "intellectual" should be the word used to describe my writings...
If you guys have blogs that are educational, informative, etc. I'd definitely consider adding a spot on the site for those more 'regularly updated' blogs and link right to your blog specifically like Tiger's for instance at
http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blog/list?user=Tiger5

Open to ideas on this. We're going to be focusing on more content components in 2008 now that the userbase is really starting to grow strong.

Dave
Just curious Dave,
When you add a video on your site that you've embeded off from youtube, have you given credit to the original author or are posting them as your own? I see you have 96 videos posted on your site. Did you spend the time making those yourself? What about any photos?
This seems to a topic open to vague interpretation. Are those videos and photos open for public copy or embedding or should everyone who posts those on their sites cite the author's name? How would you even know who the ORIGINAL author is? Does the copywright infringement stop at just blogs or is everything which is posted on the internet under copywright?
I have made my own photo movie from photos posted on photo internet sites, added music from artists whom post the music on internet sites. Did you know that when music is posted publically is is legally copywrited? If someone plays a song over thier site or over their video, even if they've purchased a CD or purchased the song from a downloadable site, it's required to have a BSCM or ASCAP license in order to be republished like this? I'm willing to bet that no one knows this.
I understand your thought and frustration, just where is the line drawn? I wish you and others online the best of luck in policing this and following through with your legal battle. Not saying I'm right but it's one of those can of worms that people need to ask themselves, do I really want to open this? I was invloved in a business where these music licenses were required to be purchased every year in order to show movies or play tapes or CD's in the business. It seems trivial, but again it's the law.
Just asking you to choose your topics carefully and not shout from a soap box which may itself be dirty.
I'll take a shot at this one.

Linking to a video on another site, with the clear indication that the origin of the video is YouTube, (which is embedded in the video) is not the same as cutting and pasting someone else's content as your own.

The jist of the conversation is to give credit where credit is due. It's simply respectful practice, common courtesy if you will, regardless of what the Internet Copyright Lawyers have to say about it.
NWMI

I think for the most part you'll see many of the videos here posted by all users are using Embed code from Myspace, YouTube, etc. I think for the most part people are very clear when something is their creation versus something they want to share with the firefighting community. This certainly isn't the only place that happens...there are far more of these videos being posted on MySpace profiles, etc.

When I see something that is interested I usually put something like 'Found on YouTube' etc, when I post it. You'll see countless blogs and social networks posting YouTube Videos via Embed code. I'd say that using embed code that is intended to be placed on social network and other profiles is a lot different from some of the issues raised here about users cutting and pasting full length text where copyright is clear or inferred which could be more likely construed as their own editorial.

Generally speaking, the proper thing to do would post the first paragraph or so and then link to the full source. Cutting and pasting a full news story, someone else's blog, etc. is removed when reported. Believe me these issues are far beyond just here ... as new technologies like Embedding of videos and podcasts, etc. become more prevalent, the old standard of what is acceptable and not is continually blurred.

At the end of the day, the author of either plain or multimedia content has the tools to ensure their copyright is protected when needed.

If you believe your videos shouldn't be appearing here, if that is the case, then please let me know.

Thanks
Dave
Good points Tiger.

NWMI added a ton of other comments to his post while I was typing the response above, so I have to review it again,. :)

Dave
OK, so after reading the rest of NWMI's updated post:

I wasn't aware I personally was on a soap box since I wasn't posting on this topic specifically but was mentioning about agreeing to highly popular user blogs.

Policing user content is certainly not an easy task. I think everyone has good intents and even just today I had to ask someone to take down a full article they did not have the right to redistribute.

At the end of the day, as long as people report things that are suspect and clearly ill-intentioned, all is well. I don't see the music industry suing the XYZ Volunteer Fire Department for using a song in a slideshow that got viewed a few hundred times. And even in those cases, it is the primary responsibility of the content creator to deal with those issues.
And since you asked "What about any photos?"

The ones that appear with my personal profile were all taken by me.

Thanks
Dave
Just today:
IF DADDY SAYS GOOD BYE
All daddies are special in their own way.
Some daddies ride tractors and work on a farm.
Some daddies drive fire trucks and sound the alarm.
Some daddies are great chefs and can make dessert.
Some daddies play the bagpipes and wear a plaid skirt!


Daddies can do a lot of things.
What does your daddy do?
Some daddies drive noisy tanks that growl and grumble.
Some daddies fly jet planes that roar and rumble.
Some daddies hike in forests that ar…

Continue Reading…

Posted by FIREMEN BUTTS DRIVE ME NUTS on January 1st, 2008 at 12:30pm — 6 Comments
Unless this person is Kathleen Iverson, it is plagiarism and possible copyright infringement.
Amazing what you find when you GOOGLE.
Wise up, people.

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