If you Google some of a Blog’s relative content the search will give you the original author. Think you read something somewhere else? A Google search can let you know.

The fact that your reading this probably means that you like reading or you like blogging or you like reading blogs. If your anything like me than you probably read a lot. I like reading and blogs are another type of magazine reading for me. Sometimes I’ll read something and think “gee, that sounds familiar”.  It happens, and I normally don’t think too much more about it. I like blogging almost as much as I like reading. So I’ll read my own Blogs a lot. I pretty much know them all better than anyone else and I’m sure I’m not the only person blogging who reads their own. 

Here’s my question, would you copy and paste someone else’s blog or a relative portion of it and put your name to it? Pirating a blog seems like the easiest thing after all. It is as simple as copy and paste.  I never thought much about this until I happened to click on a pirate job (copy and paste) of a good portion of one of my blogs.  Don’t misunderstand, I’ve taken content from other articles and rewritten it into my own words and I’ll even quote people, but I always give the author the rightful credit if I do.  I was absolutely astounded when I read my words copied and pasted into another persons blog as if it were their own.

I know there are rules and copyrights and laws and protections, but really. If your blogging and you enjoy it shouldn’t you write your own stuff ?  Shouldn’t you take pride in what you do.? Respect the information that’s being shared if not the person ? To me it’s just morally if not ethically wrong. Blogging is an evolution. There are Blog sites, online magazines, websites that teach blogging, contests and rules. Most unwritten but rules non the less. Most Bloggers don’t get paid for their Blogs. Some do. I do sometimes, but mainly I Blog to attract readers which may in turn attract business. There’s never just one way to do anything but whatever we do there’s always a right way or wrong way.  Blogging is no different in that respect. You know if your blog is original or if your pirating from other people. And so can everyone else.

I’m not even sure that I like calling this Pirating. After all, it isn’t even the conventional notion of a Pirate.  A Pirate was a thief for sure, but they were also bold and fearless. They didn’t hide who or what they were doing.  Blog pirating on the other hand, well that doesn’t even elevate to a Pirate level. Maybe there’s another term for it that I’m just not aware of or maybe someone should come up with something original like Copycat.