365 Things To Do Instead of Plagiarizing Content
Plagiarism: “the use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.”
Watch this video, it’ll blow you away… Don’t mind my shaky recording style, I hear it’s all the rage in Europe right now.
I’ve said on Twitter several times that if you’re going to steal someone else’s ideas, at least try to improve on the ideas somehow and make them your own, so that we can all learn from it. I guess this takes that to a whole ‘nother level!
After poking around on this copycat blog a little more (which has since been taken down), I noticed that there were several posts labeled “Day 1 of 365…” in a couple different areas of Washington County. Apparently the agent is using this as a home for the content of several similar Facebook pages. That explains my confusion as to why the Beaverton/Aloha page linked to a blog with content for Banks.
Now, I know that @DaleChumbley wasn’t the one that originally came up with the idea for a “365 Things to do in…” page, but like I’ve mentioned before, I think he’s one of a few that is doing it correctly, for the right reasons, and has the commitment to keep doing it. Sure, Dale took someone else’s idea and incorporated some of his own into it, but he didn’t straight up plagiarize the original content on the other pages (and their related sites) before his like this agent did.
So, what are your thoughts on this? Does it piss you off that there are people out there that can’t even think for themselves and are willing to blatantly steal the content you’ve worked so hard on creating? Obviously it does me…
Would you ever work with someone that did something like this? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below…
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I’m still completely blown away at this! It is unbelievable that someone so deliberately does this. Actual word for word. People just don’t get it…
I love @DaleChumbley (@JBern too) so watched all 9+ shaky minutes. Thanks Jeff.
I stole his idea… I am a 365 clone in Columbus but I am writing my own content and doing it different… but doing it on Facebook and on my WP blog. I actually cloned a clone and then saw Dales and understood what he was doing with his WP.org blog. I hope Dale is flattered by us clones. I listened to him about it on Roost last week.
Plagiarism within our industry makes it tough on newbies to RE blogging to understand Fair Use, licensing and syndication, too IMHO. It hurts all of us… not as bad as Dale.
Hey Maureen,
That was a quick 9 minutes though, right!
Dale and I discussed it quite a bit… We love when people take our ideas, make them their own, and run with things, which is basically what you’re doing. No harm there… Dale’s actually spoken with dozens of people giving them advice on how to do it, why, etc etc. But, to find someone who decides it would be easier to just steal content, is not cool. It frustrates me, and I can only imagine how Dale must feel.
Ummm…. she certainly will not get any referrals from me…. and I do plan on saying something…. she has apparently made some changes – but wow….
Hey Jeff, great blog! This reminds me of an incident that occurred this last week on Facebook. My boss is on the cover a Real Estate Investors magazine (not mentioning names) and got a call from an attorney of another national magazine. The attorney says the magazine that he is on went and took the cover off this other magazine and created a Facebook group out of it and directed traffic to their magazine and invited guests to their events. Where this isn’t plagiarism it’s copyright infringement and still completely unacceptable. I’m on board with you on how lazy this society has become to stoop to these levels. This is a company that goes on Meetup dot com and spams all investment groups as well. I don’t think anything can ever build a successful business doing this kind of work. I do know extremely successful internet marketers in my network marketing company that right phenomenal articles and encourage others to re-post as long as they link back to his but straight out theft…..GRRRRRR!
Thank you all for sharing your thoughts.
Maureen, I’ll guarantee you’re not a “clone”. I know fully that you’ll take the concept and make it your own. I support you fully and am cheering you on!
Thesa, I’m not sure what changes you’re seeing. I just looked and it is all still there. I know you too will do your page in your own style and way.
Thanks again everyone.
I was mistaken – I had looked at the later post of hers – Jeff’s video was so choppy I did not see his examples as well as I do no – she actually sent me an email – and told me I loose cause now she will not use me to buy in EAGLE CREST – I do not work Eagle Crest
OMG – I just realized she is doing four pages – not just the 1 that is why the Banks FFA stuff did not make sense, she is doing Beaverton, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Banks
Jeff wrote: “That was a quick 9 minutes though, right!”
No, that was a long 9 minutes but I was going to watch it again to see WHO was plagiarizing Dale. Mercifully I saw your Tweet… of WHO, so I don’t have to watch the 9 minutes again. I don’t know why really but when I watched it “WHO” did not concern me… It was “WHY?????
Thanks Dale..
I fixed the video, sorry it was so choppy. We uploaded it at the hotel, and sometime in the 80 minutes it took to upload, the audio got screwed up…
Should be WAY better now!
-Jeff
You know last year I had a local agent from a big franchise take my neighborhood content and put it on her website. I spent so much time creating that content just like Dale does with his blogs. It was the third time I was plagiarized, but the first time by a local agent. I can’t even describe the mix of anger and hurt that I felt over that. I am sure Dale is just as angry as I was. There is no flattery in plagiarism.
I now have an attorney on retainer for copyright issues and just decided that I would let him handle future violations for me. I still run my regular screens for stolen content and just plan to pass them onto my attorney rather than deal with them myself.
This is a big enough deal that I would get an attorney involved.
Hey Jeff, great blog! This reminds me of an incident that occurred this last week on Facebook. My boss is on the cover a Real Estate Investors magazine (not mentioning names) and got a call from an attorney of another national magazine. The attorney says the magazine that he is on went and took the cover off this other magazine and created a Facebook group out of it and directed traffic to their magazine and invited guests to their events. Where this isn’t plagiarism it’s copyright infringement and still completely unacceptable. I’m on board with you on how lazy this society has become to stoop to these levels. This is a company that goes on Meetup dot com and spams all investment groups as well. I don’t think anything can ever build a successful business doing this kind of work. I do know extremely successful internet marketers in my network marketing company that right phenomenal articles and encourage others to re-post as long as they link back to his but straight out theft…..GRRRRRR!
+1