My Comrades March 22, 2006
Posted by charmingbutsingle in Uncategorized.trackback
You may or may not be aware of a certain Ukrainian Web site that was ripping off content from several bloggers (Velvet in Dupont , The Countdown of V, I Am Therefore I Date to name a few) in the form of our RSS feeds. I’m not linking to the site, but you can read about this little international blogging incident as it has been covered by ASAP, the Associated Press wire focused more on younger readers.
The Ukrainian site has changed its tactics, now only posting the beginning of our posts and linking back to our blogs. Originally it was reposting all of our entries, listing us as its contributors, posting a Creative Commons license on all pages and plastering the place with Google ads. We complained in comments which have since been deleted. (They say they were deleted for our “bad” language, but there’s a comment up there with cursing in it that did get through, so they basically are just being jerks.) Oh! And the person who runs the site? Definitely NOT a woman, despite what the site would have you believe. And he’s refused to e-mail me back, even though I’ve sent numerous comments, e-mails and complaints.
But what are you going to do? Short of suing this Ukrainian guy, I’ve kind of run out of options. Now everything is moderated (except the function that allows their readers to rate MY work) and I can’t even comment on my own work. I am not happy, but things are better than they were. Effectively, this site was making money off of my journal, my hopes and fears, my moments of glory and fleeting flashes of brilliance and the lower times, when people fall short of my expectations.
I don’t have ads here for a reason. I toyed with it a few months ago, but I see this as my little place where I quietly weave my life’s story (or a portion of it), with input from my readers. I’m just not ready to see a text ad for caller ID every time I write about a boy not calling. Not now. Not yet.
This isn’t my first bout with plagiarism and I’m sure it won’t be my last. They say this sort of thing is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery, but I feel less flattered and more frustrated each time it happens. After awhile you start to wonder if it is worth it.
For now, it is.
Solidarity sister! And yeah this was frustrating to deal with. But I’ll be damned if I’m going anywhere. Keep writing your fab tales.
I was once concerned about it, somebody grabbing that great story that you wrote and turning it for some insane profit that will never match the amount of reward that you actually got out of writing it, but then I just kept writing and realized that I’ll always be producing more great stories, and they will forever be left copying other peoples shit.
They’re lame. So now I copyright random chapters of the things I write
If they really want to reproduce without warrent, good luck explaining why Henry is with the one eyed transvestite… when you don’t have Chapter 4!
Unless they find a decent explanation off of another website that they can copy. You haven’t posted one lately have you?
…Either way, it’s a bit more sad than it is flattering.
-Chad.
I can see how you’d be extremely frustrated. I would be too!
that’s crazy!! and there is absolutely nothing to do. so friggin annoying. grrrr!
Grrr, that is annoying to say the least. No wonder people are upset. Oh…and I’m back to blogging. Sorta kinda.
i would be annoyed as well if that happened to me. but it’s sorta funny that a guy would plagarise from girls??
Horrible. And I let them know. I left a comment with no cursing. But I doubt it will go through.
fuckin’ weird.
i don’t get people. especially ukrainians.
Good lord, again? I’d say take it as a compliment, but at some point it’s crazy making.
This is terrible.
Ironically, this very post is up on that website. I didn’t stay there very long but I wonder, is it as it seems? Cause it appears as though every time you post, it gets immediately posted there. And the person running the website is obviously doing it with several blogs.
It makes me very angry on your behalf that this website is stealing so much from you. Is there anything that we, your readers can do to help?
Comment on that site? Send threatening emails? An arsenal?
wow that blows. glad you let us know. i’m with you on the ads…i dont have any on mine either
i was really sorry to hear this, Charming. i don’t understand why people take the time and effort to steal/plagiarize. why not use that energy to write your own stuff? if i ever meet the bastard, i’ll kick him in the nards for you because he sux Commie nuts.
what is the point of the CC license if people can do this?? it’s bulls–t, really.
It is really frustrating but well done on giving him plenty of sh*t. People do strange things with an internet connection and no scruples.
I’m thinking it’s about time Ukraine got a good ol’ Southern ass whoopin’.
Excuse me! Don’t you, guys, think it goes a little bit too far with “Ukraine” and “Ukrainian”? I’ve been to Kiev 2 years ago - a great city, by the way. There is nothing wrong with the country or with its people, trust my word. So if you have never been out of the States, haven’t seen the world, just leave your philistine comments to yourself and don’t make your narrow-mindness public. I travel a lot and I often hear jokes about modern American sosiety as the most stupid one for we know nothing about world history, geography, litterature, foreign languages - you name it. And unfortunately, at some moments like this the statement DOES seem to be very just.
Nicole,
I’d rather e-mail this to you, but you didn’t leave an address for me to do that.
I don’t think I was out of line to mention that the site is run by someone from the Ukraine, because that information is material to the situation. Because the site is run out of the Ukraine, the owner does not feel like he has to abide by U.S. copyright law and it is pretty much impossible for someone with my means to seek legal action against him. (This is detailed in the ASAP article I linked to.) If he lived, say, in Idaho or Nevada, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal because it is easier to take legal action against someone within the U.S. So, I don’t feel that I was out of time in mentioning where the Web site is based. If you read my blog, you’ll notice that things like race, ethnicity, creed and nationality aren’t really mentioned much at all. (Maybe I talk about the South some, but that’s about it.) I wouldn’t mention that someone was from another country unless I thought it provided some sort of context or added to a post. In this case, it does.
I can’t speak for the commenters. I don’t always agree with everything that people comment on the site. Because I don’t think anyone’s actually going to travel to the Ukraine and hurt anyone, I didn’t delete the comments. (I also didn’t delete the comments from the owner of the site where he called me a psycho and a loser.) I’ve only ever deleted one or two comments and they were direct links to another site that was stealing my work. I didn’t want to send it traffic.
I’m certainly sorry if you were offended by anything I wrote. Personally, I thought my post was pretty tame. Sure, the “My Comrades” title might kind of be a knock, but I was just trying to be witty.
Also, I think it is pretty ironic that you take offense to people jokingly mocking the Ukraine in one breath and then make this assumption that I’ve never been out of the States and haven’t seen the world. While I am certainly no globetrotter, I have been out of the States and seen a small piece of the world. This mild hypocrisy (”Don’t stereotype the Ukraine, but I can stereotype you!”) really undermines your point, in my opinion. And I think that is kind of sad, because I see where you are coming from and actually don’t totally disagree with you.