Thieves or...

[Klartekst]

The problem is speed.

To illlustrate, let me tell you what happened to me:

I am a freelance technical writer. I have a website from which I offer my 
services and sell a book I have written – A Guide to Better Writing. At 
first, to attract visitors, I included a lot of free writing advice on my 
site. I added one new suggestion each week, hoping that people would return 
to the site.

Two years ago, I discovered that my free advice had turned up on another 
site owned by someone whom we can call Mr. Jones. Big surprise: Mr. Jones 
had also written a guide to better writing. I bought it and found that 60% 
of the contents was my own stuff. Even the title was similar.

By this time, my own book had sold quite well. I contacted Mr. Jones' 
publisher who told me that his book was hardly selling at all. The reason 
was probably that most people who were interested in the topic had already 
bought my book. Even in these days of instant publishing it takes time to 
produce books.

So, as it turned out in this case, Mr. Jones' blatant plagiarism didn't 
hurt me in terms of book sales. But the number of visistors to my website 
dropped, and that DID hurt because it is from these visitors that I get my 
new assignments. I searched the net using key words like "technical 
writing" and "writing better". In each case, Mr. Jones' page turned up on 
the list directly above or below my own. It was almost as if he had somehow 
managed to copy my meta tags.

Now, are you going to tell me that what Mr. Jones did to my book is not 
legal, whereas what he did to my website is?

And if you think that ripping off a website is legal, do you think it's FAIR?

Maybe you feel that there is a difference between a business website and a 
fan site about comic books. If so, please clarify the distinction. If Mr. 
Smith makes a really great website about comics, he will get a lot of 
visitors. This means that he can sell advertising space and make a little 
money. But if a "Mr. Jones" comes in, copies Mr. Smith's stuff and puts it 
on HIS site, fewer people will visit Mr. Smith, and he may lose his sponsors.

BTW: Mr. Jones' website has disappeared from the net. That's the thing 
about thieves – they're impatient. If they don't get results right away, 
they give up and move on to something else. And THAT'S why the good guys 
will win in the end.

Nils from Norway