[wp-forums] Content Theft on the Forums

[Rich Pedley]

On 24/10/2010 06:57, James Huff wrote:
> So, this has been bugging me for a while, but what do we do about
> content theft on the forums?  I mean, ripping the majority of an
> existing article that you don't own and then posting it as a
> response?
>
> User t-p seems to enjoy ripping most of my troubleshooting articles
> posted at weblogtoolscollection.com.  When I rip something, I
> always cite the source.  As you can see from the examples below, I
> have exercised my abilities to edit t-p's responses with
> blockquotes and the source.
>
> Please keep in mind that these are just a sample from this week and
> none of the following examples were cited.  They were just ripped
> and posted verbatim.  The blockquotes and source were added later
> by myself:
>
> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/blog-and-admin-totally-lost?replies=5#post-1754458
[snip]
> Now, I don't care when we rip each other's forum responses, but
> ripping from elsewhere without at least a citation is content
> theft.
>
> I suppose I should just email t-p instead of stalking and editing,
> but I wanted to run it by you guys/gals first.
>
> Pretend I'm not "one of you," just a member who sees his published
> copyrighted content being reproduced on the forums without his
> expressed permission.

I know this is directed at the moderators, but as I'm another user ...

Can I suggest you stop editing the posts, and reply in a couple of the 
threads citing the resource, and ask t-p publicly to cite the resource 
in future. That is what a.n.other user would do. (or me in this case)

However as they are quoting your material, then you could also contact 
them privately. But as a moderator I'm not so sure that editing was 
the best way to handle, sorry.

Rich