Domain Insurance
Got original content? If not, you could get sued. So goes the conventional wisdom now developing as the frontier of Internet media, law and standard operating practices grows another branch. Those RSS feeds may not be “free” after all. For rogue operators online, the “cut and paste” method of website development may be a thing of the past. The hounds of copyright legality are upon content thieves.
Taking a bead from a domain industry leader, I reference (and cite under pain of death) Elliott Silver’s comprehensive blog post today concerning content theft. The relevant article in Wired revealed the significance of getting published in conventional print run and digital media under a syndicated banner even in this day and age. The cost of these media operations assumes use of the material under its own auspices.
The company Righthaven actively pursues legal cases against websites that puncture the value of the native content by posting it on their websites and deriving SEO value and reader interest. The details of the copyright actions pursued by this company are something every website administrator needs to know about. This is in fact a sort of domain insurance, where activities like content writing and posting build value in a site.
It should go without saying that new website ventures should contain original content. but so many newb bloggers haven’t learned that concept. And many more domain speculators actively lift feeds and copy and paste entire sections of websites as a matter of course in the race to adsense and search engine revenue. The issuing of takedown notices is a time consuming and complex activity not all bloggers and webmasters understand how to do.
Who is doing the stealing? Bloggers and other webmasters, for the most part. Silver’s article sketches a swipe at the poor Web journalism practiced by many online text contributors, but the real picture is so much more broad than that. Many (but by no means all) domain speculators populate websites using models of virtual copy theft and content “relocation”.
For what can only be slivers of cents on the dollar, random webmasters draw from the RSS feeds of multiple sites and indiscriminately repost to fill up their site pages. This practice is uneasily as common as it is overlooked and underenforced for online copyright violation. More companies like Righthaven, online services that look to police online copyright violation are needed.
Infringement is an art form for many webmasters. They seek to diffuse and obfuscate the original post yet steal or repost most of it on their own sites, often without any link or pingback to the original site.But if internet practices lawsuits go forward, a new set of rules might soon be in place. A new rubric of online content policing might spring forth.
Many webmaster who conscientiously invest in original content would like to see this happen. Hosting companies may get involved at some point. There is a rule of common sense that should be part of every hosting company terms of service. Content theft should be an act that terminates hosting company liability. Sites composed of over 50% stolen content could be taken down by disconnect notices.
And just think what the Google rankings would scramble to show then.
