Declaring My Independence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
~ Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence (1776)
After you read this post, be sure to click the above photo for a photo credit and a patriotic story.
While I am not a published author, I am a writer. I take writing very seriously. You have no idea how much time and effort go into the majority of my posts and my private journal entries. I am working on a number of pieces that I hope to have published at some point in perpetuity. As a former English teacher, I take plagiarism very seriously. This week my words were hijacked for use on two separate occasions on other sites – once in part with no credit to me and another time in whole with a link to me. While some people believe that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” I, however, do not. Don’t get me wrong, I Read Banned Books readers already know that I am fucking fabulous and deeply superficial. I am an attention whore. I love comments, link love, awards (I need more by the way.), and presents. Despite the fact that I was credited by one of the “bloggers,” I was not asked to have part or whole entries posted on either of their sites. Like America’s Founding Fathers, I believe that bloggers have certain inalienable rights.
Life: I Read Banned Books is the story of my life – a living diary of a Southern born and Sin City raised girl. If it happens, I blog about it, and I try to make it as entertaining as possible. While I write this blog for me (Yes, I do, Boog.), my following has grown over the last three years. I ask that you still respect the level of anonymity I still enjoy. When I am ready to reveal my real identity, I will. In the meantime, you get to worship or vilify CajunVegan for her superior intellect and sarcastic attitude. While I have a soulful connection with many of my readers and fellow life bloggers, this blog is all about me. Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. While I attempt to “be the change” each and every day, I am “stuck in the middle.” I want you all here, on I Read Banned Books not another site, for the ride. Like Joseph Campbell before me and my real world friend, Popping Bubbles, I encourage all of my readers to “follow your bliss” and write your own story in your own words.
Liberty: I have the freedom to live and to act as I please. Like the Rolling Stones so eloquently versed it, “I’m free to do what I want any old time.” You may have noticed that I added a more restrictive Creative Commons License to this site this week. This is to protect my work in the event that I do realize the dream of becoming a published author some day. If you think I have a “very well written article,” use some common sense by gmailing me (cajunvegan AT gmail DOT com), asking if you can copy a portion of my entry and link to me for the rest of the entry. I will visit your site and determine if I want to have traffic drived to my site by your readership. My real world friend, digitalrob, went on a walk to think about my frustrations and came back with these thoughts for me:
“Newsvine always warns against copying full articles into a seeded article. A summary is okay, but not the whole article. In essence the seed is supposed to drive traffic to the creators’ sites, and therefore business (adsense for most bloggers). They frown on over copying and call it a copyright violation. If a seeder copies the entire article, the reader has no reason to visit the seeded site, which in turn takes hits away from said site. in conclusion, based on my Newsvine experience, he should have asked permission and still only copied a portion of your work … then linked a ‘for the rest of the article click here.’ where he cut it off.”
In short, I do “welcome the chance to have my materials posted,” but I retain authority on how I want them distributed. You will request my permission to use my words. If you are granted permission, you will use a portion of my words and link back to me to read the entire article. While I am not “a registered member of the Writer’s Guild,” I do NOT have to supply anyone with my legal name for this to happen. Reading my blog in your feed reader does NOT make it public domain. You will respect my authority unless you want me to get voodoo on your ass.
Pursuit of Happiness: Writing this blog is my pursuit of happiness. I am not going to stop writing banned posts anytime soon, but I have reevaluated the direction I want my blog to take. I will share my plans for the future as I continue to fulfill my obligations to the Cult of Insanity. ( <—– That’s mine, too, Mr. Stealer McStealerson.) No one is going to take the joy of hitting the publish button in the dashboard nor the giddiness I feel from looking at blog stats, comments, and link love away from me.
I am now stepping off my intellectual freedom soapbox and enjoying the rest of my Independence Day. Maybe I will even pursue a little happiness with Mr. Independence Day himself. It would be fiercely independent to have another John Hancock delivering some fireworks at the Fourth of July celebration.
Let Freedom Ring!
Amen sister! No one should steal your words, your glory or your link love! Please keep blogging. I love reading it almost as much as my own;-) See I’m an attention seeking blogger/writer too!
BRAVA! Our words are our most precious commodity, in my English/PR major opinion, and I applaud your thoughtful efforts not only to protect yours, but those of your blogsphere pals (like me!)
PS: I’m also an attention-seeking blogger/writer. Perhaps we need a support group… oh wait. We have one: that bloody Plurk
Isn’t it an awful feeling when you have found out that someone has stolen your words for their own. It dumbfounds me that people do this sort of thing.
Very well said! Kudos my dear.
Well said. We all have a right to own our own words and public domain or not, nobody has a right to copy and paste your material into their blog and claim it as their own.
I still think you should out him to the rest of the Plurkiverse.
Cause I’m mean like that!
I hate plagiarism and have no mercy in my classroom when a student steals someone else’s work. I say the same goes for the internet.
Here, here! A very well thought out argument against plagiarism, in any form. Pretty pathetic when you have to steal other people’s work.
Keep doing your thing and we’ll keep reading!
Well said! Brava!
Ditto.
It makes me wonder… do you think there are more people copying your work that you haven’t caught?
I’ve been trying to think of something clever to write all day, with little luck. I’m inspired, but not witty. But here goes – this is a kick-ass post. The topic is extremely timely and critical for all blogers and writers whose work is floating around out there. Some are making offenses out of ignorance, others from greed, but good for you for now making it very clear what is and is not acceptable when it comes to your work/your property. How you handled this will influence others to the better, also.
I’d like to submit this to digg, if you would also like. I think it could be a good forum to get others thinking about right and wrong way to do this stuff. Knowing that if we do, there may well be a lot of general idiots commenting, too. Let me know what you think.
@ Miss Attitude ~ It’s good to know I was not overreacting.
@ Citizen Jane ~ I’m so glad I found you through that fucking Plurk.
@ Lisa ~ Thanks, sweetie. That means a lot coming from a great blogger such as yourself. I sent you the ping code in one of your plurks.
@ poppingbubbles ~ I decided that I was not going to cross the same line he did.
@ Dingo ~ Precisely.
@ Cara ~ I shall not disappoint.
@ NotAMeanGirl ~ Thank you.
@ Yoonamaniac ~ Probably so. When I find them, I will rip cut their hands off.
@ Greytfriend ~ I hope it makes people stop and realize that “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” (Dead Poets Society). As far as the Digg submission, go ahead with a link. I am the editor of this blog. Weirdos will be smited.
So glad you aren’t quitting! I can’t believe someone snagged your content, in it’s entirety! I can understand being upset.
Did he link to your site?
I know that lower-traffic bloggers sometimes will use links of higher-traffic blogs to gain readers, and better indexing in the search engines…. did you talk to him about it?
T.
Solid post… I am not privy to the level of lifting that occured… therefore, I’m not sure I’m extremely well positioned to comment.
I do so enjoy sparking conversations, so here’s a question, mostly for arguments sake:
You see, I come from an art background and I greatly studied the transitions of great art movements. In so doing, I often witnessed creativity coming along when an artist fused varied styles, and works, together (and if not great then certainly challenging to the social norm).
I understand you have license to your work, but is the object of posting a blog not to share your work? I am just wondering in that I may find snipits of work from time to time that I pull in, but usually start the article with credit back to whence I came.
@ TLC ~ He removed it when I requested he do so.
@ Ken ~ He was sneaky about it. He did not ask. He linked to me as an afterthought. He published it exactly as I wrote it down to the title, image, and words. Yes, I want my work out there. I welcome the opportunity to have it showcased with on many of the worthy blogs with a portion only and a link back to me in order to drive traffic back to me because it is after all all about me. Does that make sense? This “blogger” has a plethora of both credited and uncredited work on his blog with full text articles. That just pisses me off to no end.
That does indeed make sense – crystal clear in fact.