Hiya all, before I begin I just want to say I do not wish to drive people away from my Blog, nor do I wish to deter people from linking my content or indeed making use of it to further the knowledge of others - but events over the last few months mean that I am compelled to write this post.

Recently I have found a number of other sites (Seven to be exact – I will not name the sites nor people involved as they have apologised and removed / updated the content at my request) that have pretty much taken the content of some of my posts and placed them within their own web sites (on one occasion the post was actually edited to remove link backs to articles on this site) therefore on face value – passed my work as their own.

Now as a Blogger, I understand that when publishing content on the Internet you take a risk that your work in part or full might be “used” by someone else, but I do have a Copyright Policy which states very clearly that the content of this Blog is mine (and where I have used the work of others it is clearly marked) and I think that it is reasonable to expect people to observe that in return for the work that I put in.

As I have said above people are welcome to link to articles on the site, and indeed make use of the source code that I provide for free (both individually and commercially) and I do not intend to change that stance – but it is highly de-motivating as a writer to see your work appear elsewhere with no reference to you and the go through the process of trying to make contact with the owner of the site and get the work pulled or updated to reflect the original owner.

My personal feelings on the matter are, that the more that this happens the less people will write on Blogs, therefore there will be a reduction in the amount of good information circulating on the web – the knock on effect of which is people whom really need help will have less and less sources to find solutions to their problems – it damages us all in a way.

Being honest with you I did consider calling it a day on this Blog due to these incidents – but I have decided not to for the reasons that I have given above.

All that I ask is: if you wish to use something from this Blog (or indeed anyone else’s), please link the article – credit the original author and review Copyright Policies on Blogs where they are posted.

– Sorry rant over.