The Blog Issue – Content

Posted in Blogging, Writing.

No photos today folks – just plain old words. Quite apt when you consider the topic of our discussion – content. I hope you can live without my mug, just for today!

The Blog Issue series is proving quite popular. We started with jealousy and then moved on to promotion and now we’ve landed on content.

Now, if you know me but at all, you’ll know I’m really rather passionate about content. I love to write and put a lot of effort into creating strong, interesting and, most of all, original posts for A Little Bird. It takes time, yes. But it’s worth it. And when you read my blog, you’ll be able to tell the posts I’ve carefully crafted and the ones I rushed just a little because we were going to the supermarket and I didn’t want to miss my prime Sunday posting time. Ahem.

So, with all that time and effort spent in mind, it makes me exceptionally angry to see content being copied, recreated or downright ripped off with no reference to the original source. It doesn’t matter if the offender has taken an idea you developed and passed it off as their own, whipped photos from your blog and posted them on theirs or simply copied and pasted huge chunks of your writing – content stealing is rife on the web.

Lots of blogs have scary copyright infringement notices to try stop people nicking off with their creativity. I think it’s a damn shame it has to come to that, but having something that expressly states all content is your property and cannot be reproduced without permission will protect you legally. Adding watermarks to your images means they can’t be used elsewhere without a reference to you, although I have seen some nasty cases of cropping to get round this. And developing your own style, whether through words or images, will make your content instantly recognisable if it ever pops up away from home.

Unfortunately, we can’t be everywhere at once. Content theft often goes unnoticed because, well – the internet is bloody massive. It’s impossible to keep tracks on everywhere your blog has been featured or mentioned (I just Googled A Little Bird and found this lovely feature on the Clothing at Tesco blog, posted back in May and gone unnoticed by me until today!). Lovely Lily from LLYMLRS found out her content was being reproduced when a loyal reader let her know, while the adorable notebook doodles has had a fair few problems (like this and this). I’ve been alerted of a few instances of copycatting by fabulous friends and followers of A Little Bird, but even with an army of followers behind you the internet is still pretty bloody massive, and you can’t monitor it all. Sadly, this is one battle we’ll have to keep fighting.

As a blogger, have you ever experienced copyright issues? Have you recognised your style/tone/aesthetic elsewhere, but felt silly making a fuss? If you saw a favourite blogger’s content being used without their permission, would you speak up or is it all a little too Judge Judy for you? Let me know.

EDIT – There seems to be a little confusion with the reason I included the fab Clothing at Tesco feature. It was merely to point out how hard it is to keep track of all the places your blog could crop up. The folk at Tesco did actually tweet me to make me aware of the feature, so there are no problems there. Hope that makes it a bit clearer! 🙂

23 Comments

Grace

Great post as always Jen. To be honest, I’ve never even thought about copyright with my blog, I may be a little naive as I thought this community is always supportive – clearly not!

I think I’ll be putting up a notice ASAP to protect myself somewhat. I can’t believe Tesco wouldn’t inform you of doing a story – thats crazy! A belated well done though 🙂

Grace x

Reply
Vintage Vixen

Gosh Jen! Cheeky ol’ Tesco, you’d think they’d have at least emailed you and sent you a few vouchers as a thank you for wearing their products.
I can’t say I’d really be that bothered if someone nicked any of my blog content, they do say imitation is a form of flattery. xxx

Reply
LilyLipstick

It’s scary how easy it is to copy content on the internet…I still can’t believe that people would shamelessly do it though!
That Tesco feature is great though – shame they didn’t tell you about it at the time! x

Reply
E is for Eleanor

I haven’t had any issues with copying etc but it is something I am pretty wary of. I’m also quite paranoid about making my own content individual enough to make sure I myself am not accused of copying! Lily made a good point that if you’re writing about certain shops/items you’ve bought and it just so happens someone else has too, thats coincidence. But if you find whole sections and photos are being effectively stolen from you, that is another matter.

This is a massive problem at the minute so great post! x

Reply
Filipa

What a great post! This has been on my heart for quite some time, but I am not as good with articulating my thoughts 😛 I can’t seem to have had any problems so far, but I think that even if someone does steal, they will soon either be found out, or will just lose followers because one can’t steal forever! And if they must steal they are totally not worth blogging- that is really a thing that bothers me- why blog if you have nothing original to say or do!?

Reply
Lucy

Fabulous post – I just can’t comprehend why people feel the need to copy others, at all. Sure, sometimes you may take inspiration and sometimes it may be subconscious, but blatant stealing of photos/copy just makes me mad. xx

Reply
Michelle (LipstickRules.com)

I’ve had this happen to me. I came across a site while surfing around and noticed they had used photos from my blog without attributing it to my site. I emailed the site directly and tweeted about it and they immediately apologized and took it down.

What we do takes a lot of time and effort and to see people just take what you’ve put together is such a shame.

Reply
Hannah

Fab post, I’m really enjoying this blog issues series! As far as people using my content is concerned I don’t think it has happened to me but in all honesty if it did I’m not sure I’d be that bothered really since I started my blog up for fun but I totally understand why most people would be pissed off if they weren’t credited! Saying that, if I did find out someone had just copied my writing / photos without mentioning me then maybe I would be annoyed!!! I use other people pictures when I do my bowspiration posts but I ALWAYS link it back to them etc. I don’t really understand why someone would out right copy another persons post, don’t they realise their reader will probably work out it isn’t their own plus don’t people start blogs to write about stuff their interested in and not just steal other peoples ideas x

Reply
Lou

I only have a small blog, so I’ve never had this problem. However, if I saw a blog that I knew was copied, I would tell the original writer. Why should someone else take credit for something they created?

Lou x – craftyandquirky.blogspot.com

Reply
City Girls Fashion Box

I totally agree :/ it sounds really petty but when the topshop make up came out in Elle magazine feature, i spent ages scanning in the sections and re-adjusting it on photoshop so that it was clearer to see, (i.e made sure you couldnt see the text from the otherside of the page, make the colours stronger, englarging it) it took me forever, i was really please because a lot of people were waiting for their magazine to come in the post/be delivered to shops..

fast forward 2 weeks, a blogger simply just nicked them off my page and posted it without in a care in the world. very frustrating tbh. i think iwas more annoyed that we had been following each other from an early start and she diddnt reference my page in slightest.

If i now post photos i think important i watermark them. sigh. yet i feel to rude to tell her my annoyance. xxxx

Reply
Kel

I cannot get my head round people not being able to say thanks and give someone a mention if they have taken a picture, or copied some text.
We are all an inspiration to each other after all, because we write a blog doesn’t make us fair game for all the snatchers and mean copy grabbing thieves.

My blog is quite small fry, but I’ve already noticed certain things that I’m not happy about – sad thing is a quick tweet, or email, or even a mention would have stopped me feeling angry about it.

I don’t want to watermark my pics but feel it’s going to go that way.

Another great blogging issue covered.

xxx

Reply
Corinne

Hello! Fantastic post as always. I wrote a post about this too but with a slightly different view point! I totally disagree with copying and content theft but I also think it’s wrong to accuse people of copying you if they just happen to buy the same item on the high-street or happen to style it in a similar way.

I think it’s really important to reference people if you use their content and ask permission. What the stealers don’t realise is it’s in their interest to link to the original post, as it improves SEO so people find their blog. Nabbing content and passing it off as your own isn’t the way to grow readers.

Here’s the post I wrote: http://www.usedandabusedvintage.com/2010/08/copy-wars.html

Corinne x

Reply
Olivia

I’ve had this happen to me various times. I’ve only had my blog for around a month, but it’s proving to be pretty popular. I put so much time and effort into writing my posts and try and make sure they’re as original as possible so I’m not accused of “copying”.

I regularly do a Q&A session, in which people ask me to style them in an item they’ve bought/are thinking of buying. These questions are sent to me via Formspring and then I answer them on my blog. One girl linked me to her blog (daft idea), so I checked it out. It was called “My Fashion Diaries”, bearing in mind mine’s “The Fashion Diaries”, and she’d literally copied and pasted the questions people had asked me onto her blog and also pasted in my answers, as if to pretend that people were asking her these questions.

Of course, I immediately pulled her up on it, and she apologised and claimed it was “only to get her blog started”, which just infuriated me even more because I started my blog from scratch, with nobody’s help, as I’m sure everyone else does.

It really is a huge issue that needs sorting out. I’d hope that if any of my readers found someone copying my content that they’d let me know about it!

Olivia xo
http://www.the-fashion-diaries.tumblr.com

Reply
Adele

Great post Jen, Really interesting to read, I have only been blogging since around so I haven’t experienced anything yet. How crazy you were featured and you weren’t informed! Great post!

Adèle – http://moltocuriosa.com

Reply
Phoebe

I’ve told Leanne (@donotrefreeze) when I saw her images being used, the watermark had been cropped.
I’ve seen one of my eye on another website, which is kind of creepy! But I don’t watermark my pics, so I feel I only have myself to blame.

There has also been a couple of instances where i’ve come up with a little series from my blog, then the same idea with a few words changed has been on another blog, it annoys me but I never say anything in those cases.

Reply
Gizelle Faye | Vanilla Ice Cream

i do make sure to write original content in my blog..and make sure to tell a story or an adventure or my thoughts. but it is damn hard and difficult thinking of something different to write every time…running out of words does happen.

i’m glad you wrote this Jen..i’ve missed out a lot on a little bird told me..and i really love your article on jealousy. it does add stress and make blogging less fun when we compare ourselves to others..it’s the same actually in everything we do…just 2 months ago, i’ve added the counters of my blog at the bottom just so i won’t get annoyed and paranoid by them..haha!

♥ vanilla ice cream ♥ 

Reply
Alice

A fabulous instalment to the series.

I was quite oblivious to a lot of this, I do notice sometimes I see specific features on one persons blog crop up on another, which as a reader I find a little unoriginal, but I think as long as they link or reference the other blogger then it is fine.

It is sad to think some people actually copy whole parts of blogs and try to pass them off as there own. I think deep down those people must know they are infact stealing and don’t have enough creativity to come up with something of there own.

I did stumble across a photo on We heart it a couple of weeks ago that was mine, I was shocked that someone else had uploaded it (I certainly hadn’t), I tried tracing it back but it was an endless trail to be honest. The photo thing really does concern me quite a lot, purely because it is so easy to copy a photo. x

Reply
Ayden ♥

What a great post. This does seem to be a looming issue which I’ve noticed being spoke about alot more in recent months. And it makes me sad 🙁 I saw what happened with notebook doodles, and even the other night I was ebay searching (as ye do) and some random seller had a photo of llymrs along with the item they were selling – and it defo wasnt her ebay account!

I think that in some ways it is harmless – I mean hardly anything is original these days. Most of us all shop in the same shops, wear similar brands of makeup, and when it comes to offers like the models own 50%, we all dabble in it so therefore are likely to write about it. You do a sunday smile, and for quite a while I’ve been doing my sunday best post. Not very regularly, but I know when I do do it youre not gonna turn round and go NOOO AYDEN you CANT write about your favourite things on a sunday! haha 🙂 so there will be similarities between certain blogs, but its very clear to see where some people are just chancing bastards and clearly over step the line. they just shouldnt do it, end of! xx

Reply
Alex

I can’t say it’s something that’s concerned me too much, mainly cos my blog is small enough that it doesn’t really get enough traffic to attract that sort of attention. It’s lovely when certain things I have posted about (ie the second hand/thrifting discussion) are mentioned on other blogs and spread the debate around but I suppose I’m lucky that the bloggers who’ve mentioned it have been good enough to link back to me and write their own thoughts on the issue rather than just copying what I’d written.

I like to think that I’ll always link back to another blog/website/whatever that has sparked the inspiration for a post. If I forgot then I wouldn’t be offended by a reminder – I’d hate people to think I’d nicked their ideas.

Reply
Helen

I’m so lucky I’ve never been copied *touch wood* maybe because there isn’t much worth copying haha! But I really hate blogs that are just pretty pictures stolen from other blogs, this is why I hate tumblr. I don’t know how some of them get so popular just by posting pretty pictures other people have taken. I prefer original blogs with original content so you feel like you know the blogger.

Reply
LadyBugSays ...

Great post. I haven’t personally had to deal with that issue, and hopefully won’t. But it is sad when bloggers are having to go to extremes just to protect their own words and pictures! Blogging is about you personal thoughts and opinions, not ripping off someone elses!

Reply

Leave a comment