The guiding rule I recommend for anyone who ever posts any content online from a discussion forum message to an article or even an entire book is this: Assume that the worst person who might find that content will find it. Can you handle the consequences for that? Are you getting enough value from posting that content to make it worth your while to do it anyway?
This applies doubly to misappropriating content that is, republishing it without permission. Posting copyrighted content online without permission is doubly stupid: It’s not merely illegal, it is also incredibly easy to get caught. Moreover, you’ll probably get caught quickly. Even worse, it’s likely that the person whose content you grabbed will be so annoyed that he or she may expose your misdeed in a very public and embarrassing way. That’s a sure way to sink your reputation.
Jill Porter, owner of Aquaduckie apparently thought it was a good idea to post my article, Page Titles that Attract Readers, on her business blog without asking my permission or offering compensation despite my clear and unambiguous copyright notice which appears on every page of this blog.
Well, Porter thought wrong. Very wrong. Or maybe she wasn’t even thinking at all but then that’s her problem, not mine.
Here’s a classic example of how NOT to grab other people’s content…
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