But yes it is wrong not to link back, that is the area the “heat” should be focused on – saying “hey dude, add this single parameter to your spidering: our linkback URL.

The thread should be called the-plague-of-not-linking-back, as that is what really bothered everyone to begin with. I’m sure you don’t mind your work being all over the internet, but as long as the credit was given in a bit more of an expressive and direct way.

look up any troubleshooting topic online. See how many sites are really just compilations of useful content spidered from many other sites. They don’t even put any linkbacks, they just archive and display the content. But it helps people find the content. It is a positive thing, right? If you think your content is so valuable and needs to be protected, print a book and sell it. Otherwise, be happy that your BLOGS are being read and used. If some jackme thinks it’s cool to jack your posts, well he’s the one losing out in the end…

IF that is what he’s doing. Which he’s not.

just sayin’

As for it being heated, the SQL community takes plagiarism very seriously as folks who write take a lot of time and effort to put together that content so its a little disconcerting when someone rips it off of you and tries to pass it off as their own (intentionally or not). Honestly, I’m not sure why you’re trying to justify plagiarism as a valid medium because it’s not, it’s theft.

Taking other’s work, and making it seem it is your own personal work, that is plagiarism.

Indexing the publicly available content from other websites is not exactly plagiarism. If it was, would google also be guilty of this?

Perhaps he could have engineered his site better to include the URL of the posts he was indexing, infact I would have most definitely done that if I was him.

But just seems a bit heated. As I read on one of the responses, the copying of your work verbatim often increases traffic to your site, so in many ways the fact that someone finds your BLOG contributions worth reading and even worth copying is a positive indicator of how well your blog is doing. And it most likely will do even better based on people doing things like this.

1) not post it publicly. If its valuable information that is best not shared or distributed, keep it to yourself.

2) post it in a signed or watermarked format, so it can still be accessed, still be shared, but will retain the markings of the original author. Plus in this way your work won’t be modified or distorted when others share it.

3) have proper copywriting or trademarking done. Not all content posted is protected from being reused, and a lot of people probably got all protective even though they didn’t even focus on their “I.P.” prior.