Blogging is hard work. Remember that “blog” rhymes with “flog” and “slog”. To build a blog entirely on the content of others is #1 illegal and #2 lame.

This week a number of bloggers who cover photography around the world discovered that their content had been posted in its entirely and without comment or analysis on PhotographerMentors.com. In addition to a post from PixSylated, I found posts by David Hobby (Strobist), Joe McNally (blog), Scott Kelby (Photoshop Insider), Rob Haggart (A Photo Editor), Chase Jarvis (blog) and many other great bloggers.

If you are a blogger (or a voyuer), you’ll find all the details about the fight along with a gallery of stolen web content below.

The Right Ways To Use Others’ Web Content

The blogosphere is woven together with links and references from one post to another. I love it when other bloggers provide links to PixSylated. [See links to PixSylated on: Joe McNally's blog, Strobist, Photoshop Insider, Wired, Gulf Photo Plus...]

There are sites like StumbleUpon, Technorati, Delicious where readers can post links to or bookmark favorite posts. Here’s a snapshot of a post back to PixSylated on StumbleUpon. I’m always grateful for Stumblers and others.

There are sites like Photo News Today that aggregate short snippets of content from blogs that cover photography. PNT always provides direct links back to the original sources.

The common factor among all of these sites is that #1 they did not extract my posts in their entirety and #2 they provided open and numerous links back to the original posts.

How I Discovered That PixSylated Had Been Ripped Off

I discovered that PixSylated had been ripped off three ways:

• Kerry Garrison at CameraDojo kindly sent emails to a number of bloggers after he discovered that his blog had been ripped off by PhotographerMentors.com.
• it popped up in my daily report from Google Alerts.
• the offending post showed up as a pingback to PixSylated.

How I Fought PhotographerMentors.com

Thanks to the encouragement of Kerry at CameraDojo, I pursued this theft with a vengeance. The more people who push back against stolen web content, the faster the issue will be resolved. The more people who know about it, the less likely it is to happen again (at least by the same guy).

1. I tried to contact the blogger directly through a link or information from his site. No surprise that there was nothing on the site that would help me here.

2. I did a WhoIs search at GoDaddy (search link here) to find out who owns the URL. (Answer here.)

3. I sent a takedown demand to the contacts listed in the WhoIs search. The guy who owns the site wrote back “My apologies. The material was removed. I thought only an excerpt was posted but was wrong.” Only an excerpt? Liar, liar, pants on fire.

4. I determined the IP address for PhotographerMentors.com by using the IP search tool at Network-Tools.com.

5. I determined the ISP from the IP address by using the same search tool at Network-Tools.com.

6. I pulled up the legal page at website of the ISP for the offending site (turns out it was ThePlanet.com – their legal page here).

7. I followed the detailed instructions for filing a DMCA complaint (“Digital Millennium Copyright Act”). Be exact. If you miss one step, the ISP can ignore you. Give them all the info in the form they require and they have to respond promptly.

8. I emailed the details of my complaint to many other impacted bloggers along with a link to the material stolen from their sites and a request that they also file a DMCA complaint with the ISP. Several did so immediately.

9. I blogged about my experience to let even more people know.

10. I posted about the experience on web forums hosted by ASMP, APA and others.

11. I emailed every blogger I know and asked them to spread the word. Photo Attorney was one of the first to join the cause.

12. I emailed the presidents of every ASMP and APA chapter across the country and asked them to let their local members know. APANY put it up on their Twitter.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act Resources

If you find that your site has been ripped off, check out the following:

• Google on the DMCA
• FAQ about the DMCA at ChillingEffects (a legal consortium)
• PDF on the DMCA at the US Copyright Office
• The dark side of the DMCA as seen by the Electronic Frontier Foundation

A Gallery Of Stolen Web Content

Click on any of the photos below and you will go to the original post at the site from which it was stolen.

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A Word of Warning About Stealing Web Content

PhotographerMentors.com has been taken down. By the owner? By the ISP? I think by the collective efforts of the bloggers who were ripped off.

Adding a copyright notice to your photos is critical before you send them out on the web or to clients. Fortunately, the task has just become a lot easier with Canon’s recently announced EOS 5D Mark II and 50D digital SLRs. Both cameras can be configured to automatically add your name and a copyright notice to each digital capture. [If you're not a Canon shooter, check out the links to important copyright sites at the end of this article.]

The process is simple. When you get your new camera, you attach it to your computer with a USB cable and use Canon EOS Utility to add your name and activate the copyright notice. Thereafter, every time you take a photo, a simple copyright notice with your name is added to the EXIF metadata embedded in the file.

Of course, in the era of Orphan Works legislation, it’s much better to append your complete contact info to the file. This is really easy when importing your captures into Lightroom [but that's the subject of a future post]. The fact that Canon now enables the coding of a basic copyright notice into their newest cameras, shows how important the copyright issue had become.

Click here to see the details in the Canon Digital Learning Center.

For more information on the importance of protecting your copyright, check out the great tutorial on copyrights offered by the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers).

Two other great sources for info on the subject of copyrights and metadata are UPDIG and the PLUS Coalition (Universal Photography Digital Information Guidelines and Picture Livensing Universal System).