…or at least that is how the saying goes. I really try to be a pretty humble person, so this isn’t something I tend to write about. However, with a few recent events, I thought it was time to at least say something.
My alter ego is a professional web geek. I’ve been doing this since the birth of the web and have been around the block more than a few times. I know as well as anyone that copyright online is a sensitive issue. Snagging an image off a site here and a snippet of wording there is to be expected to a certain degree. In fact you know people are going to take and republish some content. The photos on this site are a prime example. I encourage people to take the photos and republish them. That’s why the watermark is there. It gives credit to the source and that is really what it’s all about. However, taking content in mass is where things get awkward.
Over the years, I’ve had people copy content off of our site. I’ve seen a few direct copies, some paraphrasing, and some borrowed words. Overall, nothing too major and nothing worth worrying about. Things like this may be annoying on one hand, but you can also look at it as a compliment. We must be doing something right if someone has attempted to copy something of ours. However, recently, we had an extensive amount of material from our web site magically appear in striking similarity on another site. While browsing the net, I ran across the web site of a swing dance organization from another area of the country who had large chunks of “borrowed” content on their site. Their sources included our class descriptions, private lesson descriptions, dance descriptions, beginner guide, blog/advice articles, promotions for public calendars, and even portions of our bio on the “about us” page! Much of this was word-for-word portions with only details and names changed. Some was our wording intermixed with their wording and vice-versa. I had to run this by a few friends to verify I was indeed seeing what I thought I was. How does one react to this? If it was only bits of our site combined with bits of other sites, I would have simply laughed and moved on. However, using one site as such a large portion of your “content template” goes well beyond what a webmaster would consider to be reasonable. In a sense, Dawn and I were honestly flattered by this. For someone to try to imitate us and/or our web site to this extent must mean they like what we do. In another sense, it is quite frustrating having someone “borrow” and pass-off as their own something that you spent much time and work on. Above all, to imitate solid portions of your biography just seemed plain weird.
So I emailed the owner of the site and got a call back. We had a pleasant conversation. While he agreed to the site being “similar”, he claimed that no material was copied. I tend to disagree seeing it was rather obvious that some of our content appeared on his site word-for-word. However, I digress seeing he apologized and agreed to make the site “less similar”.
At the time of publishing this, some of the site has changed to have a less copy-and-paste-ish feel and moved into more of what I would call “strikingly similar”. Other areas still have near word-for-word copies and bits of our wording is still scattered all throughout. This is still rather disappointing seeing that Plagiarism.org states that paraphrasing must do more than change a few words and keep the same sentence structure. You must phrase the ideas in your own words and even then, citing the original source is required. This is not a unique view, many educational organizations frown upon this activity; from grade schools like the elite Sayre in Lexington to higher education facilities like the University of Kentucky. I really hope and encourage the owners of the site to create some original content and wording. It seems like they have a good thing going on. I think their scene deserves something original.
While imitation may be a sincere form of flattery, it’s also so very awkward! So why bother? Why write about it? I guess it’s a combination of two factors. First, to ensure that in some way that our time, efforts, and work is credited. Second is to ensure that we continue to stand out and be recognized as individuals. I know all swing dance instructors do somewhat similar things. However, we all have unique backgrounds, strengths, and abilities. This is not only true for Dawn and I, but also for the identity of the Orlando swing dance scene in general. To copy or even paraphrase someone else’s information diminishes that individuality in the public’s eye.
http://www.flyinfootwork.com/dances/photo-highlights.xml
