Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Is There Something in the Water??

Or is it just that people are abandoning good manners?? Last week I had a grumble about a site that was taking people's stories without permission and this week I've another grumble about a site that's taking people's hard work and research without permission and without credit.

Let's make this clear shall we. Taking people's stories without permission is theft. Taking people's work without permission is theft. Hot-linking is taking people's bandwidth and - you guessed it - that's theft.

There is nothing wrong with starting up a recommendations/review site (There are a fair number of excellent ones around). There is nothing wrong with starting up an updates site (like this one, or like the UXFFD or similar ones in other fandoms). Because these sites refer you back to the original archives or authors sites. We don't pinch stuff - we just check stuff for you. Like our title says - we do the work so you don't have to. What is not all right is taking somebody else's research and passing it off as your own. It's not quite as bad as plagiarism but it's close.

What brought on this latest grumble?? There's a Xena board I sometimes visit, I'm not a member because it's far too chaotic for me, it's also full of lots of new fans who keep reinventing the wheel. I got tired of some of these arguments ten or more years ago - I really don't want to argue the case all over again. Don't get me wrong - I'm delighted that the show still attracts new fans and I'm more than happy to welcome them into the fandom. And I love their enthusiasm. It's just that it would be nice not to have to deal with the same stuff year-after-year.

Anyway - that's beside the point. What happened on the board was that somebody came up with a new (except it wasn't) idea to start a reference site listing all the fics from around the web that were Conqueror stories (a sub-division of the Xena universe based on a two-minute section of an in-programme AU). And a bunch of posters on the board treated this idea as if they'd found the philosopher's stone and were about to produce gold. Comments about what a brilliant idea it was and how great it would be.

Never mind that there was already an absolutely brilliant site in existence. A site which is still regularly updated. A site that had been around for about twelve bloody years. The Annals of the Conqueror.

Now - most of these newbies probably hadn't seen it (I expect some oldies haven't either) though it's mentioned frequently on Xena sites. But - and here's why I'm grumbling - the person who decided to make this brand-spanking-new site, and lap up all the plaudits as though it was their very own brainwave. And post updates to the board as though they were working hard finding links. And act as though it was all their own work. They certainly knew about it. Because they copied the links from it. And did some nifty hot-linking too. And - not so smart after all - they got caught by the AoC's owner. The person who did do all the hard work.

Did they apologise?? Not really. But at least now they have a (small and somewhat less than brilliant but adequate I guess) note on their front page giving credit where it's due.

Yet again the lesson is learnt - the internet is vast - but it's still a small village. Steal stories, steal actual fics, steal research - it doesn't matter - someone will catch you.

Ze

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