Lucia, wouldn't it be easier (and perhaps smarter) and certainly less time-consuming to simply monetize in some way each blog post you make instead of getting into what could become a pissing contest with a fellow programmer, where you both end up spending all kinds of time trying to outwit the other?
1) I don't see this as a pissing contest with a fellow programmer. For one thing I am not a programmer. By training I am a mechanical engineer who mostly blogs about climate change as a hobby. (I previously blogged about knitting and I would be just as p*ssed off about what he's doing if this were my kntting blog.)
2) Just because blogging is a hobby for me, I don't see any reason why that means I lose copyright protection so that someone <i>else</i> can repackage and monetize my content without sharing any of the money with me.
3) tell me how to easily monetize blog posts on climate change without alienating the audience I cherish so the so the money ends up in my pocket.
4) Suppose I could monetize: If so, this copying would possibly reduce my earnings.
5) Suppose you can't think of any good way for me to monetize while retaining the audience I cherish. Does that give someone else the right to "sell" his wrapper when it is only valuable because it is wrapped around my (an other hobby bloggers ) contents?
In just about every blog post I put up, I have a link to something that helps me pay the bills around here as well as a link to an article or another blog post on one of my other sites. For me, much of my time is spent writing to generate traffic and name recognition.
That's what you do. So? What does that have to do with me? My site is mostly a hobby blog. My time is spent writing about thing that I am curious about. And it happens I attract quite a bit of traffic. (That is: when I write about climate change as opposed to other stuff. The posts with the equations generate tons of traffic. Can't use them to sell much of anything-- but so?)
As for name recognition, I don't want to get into a pissing contest. Maybe you have better name recognition than I do. Or not. Maybe you value name recognition. I don't see that as remotely relevant here.
You're a lot smarter than I am, so I only throw this out as a suggestion to maybe help you save some time and energy trying to defeat a trend of taking other peoples' work without permission, a trend that I don't see disappearing... and in a way, that's good, because that's kind of the idea the Internet was founded on anyway... free information for everyone.
First: Was the internet founded to create free information for everyone? Says who? I've got tons of "sockulators" and other free stuff out there. I'm happy to pay hosting costs to let knitters use those for free. I don't see how then fact that lots of people post lost of things for free obligates me to permit
others to make money by bundling up my stuff without sharing some of the money with me.
I happen to think that this notion that everything is free on the internet is a double edged sword. The fact that it is difficult for people who put out good valuable information have their stuff taken without any thought to remuneration is not "good". I don't know if my stuff is any "better" than yours-- but I get quite a bit of traffic. No matter what I've blogged about, I've gotten traffic. (Knitting got me the most-- but I became more interested in climate change.)
But it's traffic that is difficult to monetize because it has nothing to do with saleable products. That's ok with me. BUT that doesn't mean I want someone else to create a saleable product by finding all the interesting people who don't make money, putting a bow on it and selling it.
I think one of the key principles for earning a living on the internet is to never spend a minute worrying about copyright and stealing but instead to figure out how to embed my work with clever stuff so that innocent and well as intentional infringers and downright thieves end up helping me expand my brand, so to speak.
Oh? Is that some sort of key principle?
Anyway, I don't blog to "earn a living on the internet". I may blog for different reasons than you do. That's permitted.
Anyone can visit my site for free-- and if you visit the front page you'll see ZERO ads. You'll see ZERO links to marketable things. It's my right to do this. The fact that I chose to not have ads or sell much of anything on my blog doesn't give this guy a right to bundle my content up in his "product" and then sell his product to people who pay "premium" packages of "feed reading". The fact is: What he is selling is NOT a feed. It's not going to bring me any eyeballs. It's not going to bring me anything I value.
I have no objection to his product provided his product isn't basically a "subscription" to read his copy of my stuff. If he wants to sell other people's stuff- not my business. But I should think if his sois dissant 'feed reader' is all that great, he doesn't need to send a bot to copy my front page (not feed!) on a daily basis to sell the reader.
Look: I recognize fair use. I use it. I recognize the value of created by people giving things away for free. I recognize that some people blog about subjects that can be monetized to make money. But none of these things mean that if I chose to blog about a subject that attracts lots of eyeballs but is somewhat difficult to monetize, then someone else should just be able to grant themselves permission to copy because they think they know how to monetize (provided they pay me nothing.)
I'm watching to see if this guy maybe figured out he failed to stop copying. If he failed, I'm going to check a few details that mattered in a google case. Then, if he hasn't stopped, I'm going to send a DMCA. As for suing or asking for money: I would only do that as a last resort. But I might do it.
But really, this guys' business model is sufficiently tenuous that I think Oscar might be interested in aspects to discuss as hypotheticals in his copyright course! (Heck. I don't even thing some things are tenuous. The main questions: What can a copyright right owner do that is not basically putting themselves at risk of spending lots of their own money to pursue a "principle".)
Topic: Registering blog posts: Individual? Collective? What? (Read 16242 times)